After taking a long weekend for the Christmas holiday, jurors in Ghislaine Maxwell’s federal sex trafficking trial resumed deliberations Monday morning in New York.
Maxwell, the former girlfriend and longtime associate of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has pleaded not guilty to six federal counts: sex trafficking of a minor, enticing a minor to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, transporting a minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity and three related counts of conspiracy.
If convicted on all six counts, Maxwell faces up to 70 years in prison.
The 12-person panel sent a note to Judge Alison Nathan around 10:30 a.m., requesting different colored Post-it notes, whiteboard paper, and highlighters.
They also asked for a transcript of testimony given by “Matt” at the trial and a definition of the word “enticement.”
In a subsequent note, the jury requested a transcript for former Palm Beach police officer Gregory Parkinson, who spoke at the trial about a 2005 search of Jeffrey Epstein’s Florida mansion.
Matt, a prosecution witness who testified using a pseudonym, told jurors he dated Maxwell accuser “Jane” years after she was allegedly abused by the disgraced socialite and Epstein.
Jurors deliberated for about an hour last Monday and then all of Tuesday and Wednesday. In that time, they asked the court to provide the transcripts of testimony from “Jane,” “Kate,” Carolyn, and Annie Farmer — the four women whose claims form the core of the case against Maxwell.
The jury has also requested transcripts of testimony from Juan Alessi, Maxwell’s house manager; from “Matt,” Jane’s former boyfriend; and from Gregory Parkinson, the former Palm Beach Police crime scene manager who was present at the 2005 search of Epstein’s house in Palm Beach, Florida.
On Monday morning, the jury asked for a definition of “enticement,” which is part of two of the charges. The judge wrote that the word meant to “attract, induce or lure using hope or desire.”
The deliberations cap a three-week trial highlighted by testimony from the four women, who said Maxwell recruited and groomed them to be sexually abused by Epstein and sometimes participated in that abuse. The abuse allegedly began when they were younger than 18, and their accusations stretched from 1994 to 2004.
Epstein, an elusive financier who pleaded guilty in 2008 to state prostitution charges, was indicted on federal sex trafficking charges in July 2019; he died by suicide in prison a month later. Maxwell, now 60, was arrested in 2020 and has been held behind bars since then under close watch.
