Ghislaine Maxwell kept awake at night so she doesn’t die like Epstein, lawyers say
Appeals judges hearing bail arguments seemed sympathetic on Monday to claims that the British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell is unjustly kept awake at night by guards ensuring she doesn’t die in jail in New York – in the way that Jeffrey Epstein did in 2019 while awaiting his sex trafficking trial.
Two of three judges on a second US circuit court of appeals panel in Manhattan expressed concern about light shone in her cell every 15 minutes at night as Federal Bureau of Prisons (BoP) guards make sure she is breathing.
They did not, however, seem necessarily inclined to free Maxwell, 59, on bail before a 12 July trial on charges that she procured teenage girls for Epstein to sexually abuse – and sometimes joined in the abuse.
She has pleaded not guilty. Bail has been rejected three times since her arrest last July.
“Is she a suicide risk or not?” the circuit judge Richard Sullivan asked the assistant US attorney Lara Pomerantz.
“Has the BoP concluded she’s a suicide risk or is it some other reason why they’re shining lights all night long?” he continued.
Pomerantz said it was a routine guards employed to ensure inmates are breathing. She said guards shine light at the ceiling above where Maxwell sleeps rather than at her eyes when they check her breathing.
Her comment was challenged by the circuit judge Pierre Leval, who repeatedly asked if Maxwell posed a suicide risk.
“Routine to shine a light into the eyes of every prisoner every 15 minutes during the night? Are you really telling us that?” he asked.
“Your honor, I can’t tell you what is done as to all inmates, but what I can say is that we have not been told that she is a suicide risk,” Pomerantz responded.
Attorney
David
Markus, representing Maxwell on appeal, said she was not suicidal.
“There’s no evidence she’s suicidal. Why is the Bureau of Prisons doing this? They’re doing it because Jeffrey Epstein died on their watch. And again, she’s not Jeffrey Epstein, this isn’t right,” Markus said.
Epstein killed himself in a Manhattan lockup in August 2019 as he awaited trial.
“One of the main complaints in the defendant’s briefing is that she is being improperly treated as a suicide risk in a manner that makes her life hell and doesn’t allow her to sleep and makes it very difficult for her to prepare” for trial, Leval said.
Defense lawyers have complained that Maxwell is deteriorating in jail, where she is repeatedly searched and is filmed outside her cell.
Prosecutors counter that she remains healthy and has been given accommodations other prisoners lack.
The judges also seemed concerned that Maxwell is not permitted to wear an eye mask that wraps securely around her head.
Markus said Maxwell puts a sock or towel over eyes so she can sleep at the Metropolitan detention center (MDC) in the New York City borough of Brooklyn.
“The government used the word routine to say how Ms Maxwell’s being treated in MDC. There is absolutely nothing routine about it. She’s being treated differently than any other inmate ever in that institution,” he said.
Maxwell was not in court on Monday. When she made her first inperson attendance at court last week since her arrest last summer, her appearance was a far cry from that of the jet-setter who had for years socialised with the rich and powerful.
Her trademark black pixie haircut was gone, replaced by greying hair past her shoulders.
Maxwell had complained of losing weight and hair while jailed, and did appear frailer. Wearing shapeless blue jail scrubs, she shuffled into court, her ankles chained.
In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or by emailing jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org.