New York Daily News

Maxwell awaits Tues. sentence on suicide alert

- Molly Crane-Newman

Ghislaine Maxwell remained on suicide watch Monday — on the eve of her sentencing for enabling Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual exploitati­on of children — as a Manhattan judge ruled multiple victims will address the incarcerat­ed ex-socialite in court.

Maxwell, who has been held at Brooklyn’s Metropolit­an Detention Center since the summer of 2020, was “abruptly removed from general population and returned to solitary confinemen­t” Thursday, where she is under round-the-clock surveillan­ce, lawyer Bobbi Sternheim wrote in court filings late Friday.

“[This] time without any clothing, toothpaste, soap, legal papers, etc. She was provided a ‘suicide smock’ and is given a few sheets of toilet paper on request. This morning, a psychologi­st evaluated Ms. Maxwell and determined she is not suicidal,” Sternheim wrote to Judge Alison Nathan.

“She is not suicidal,” Sternheim wrote in bold letters.

Throughout her detention, Maxwell has said she is having to endure unusually harsh conditions, including unwarrante­d solitary confinemen­t.

In response to her latest complaints about the Bureau of Prisons, federal prosecutor­s wrote the Epstein madam’s sentencing should proceed as scheduled. Last week, the feds asked Nathan to punish her with 30 to 55 years imprisonme­nt for her “disturbing role” enabling Epstein’s abuse of underage girls for a decade.

Maxwell has asked Nathan for mercy. She requested a term of four to five years in her sentencing submission, which claimed she was psychologi­cally abused as a youth by her father, the British publishing baron Robert Maxwell. The Probation Department, which advises judges, recommends she serve 20 years. The agency noted that anything more would be “tantamount to a lifetime term of imprisonme­nt.”

Nathan will allow statements from at least seven of Epstein and Maxwell’s victims, who are now adults, to be introduced at sentencing. Annie Farmer and Kate, who testified at trial, may be present to address Maxwell in person, along with Virginia Giuffre, the most outspoken Epstein and Maxwell accuser, and three others.

In new filings, Maxwell’s lawyers included a letter of endorsemen­t from a fellow MDC inmate, Tatiana Venegas, who told Nathan “Maxwell” goes by her last name in jail and has volunteere­d to teach ESL, yoga, and help women get their GED.

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