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A lawyer for Ghislaine Maxwell, a British socialite tasked with finding girls in the 1990s for sexual abuse by financier Jeffrey Epstein, said on Wednesday (New Zealand time) that her client wakes up every 15 minutes in jail while sleeping. to make sure it breathes.
Attorney Bobbi Sternheim told a Manhattan judge that Maxwell faces more restrictive conditions than inmates convicted of terrorism or murder. Maxwell has no history of mental health problems or suicidal ideation or a criminal record, he said.
Chris Ison / PA / AP
Ghislaine Maxwell in 1991.
He asked a judge to intervene on his client’s behalf to improve his conditions at the Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center.
In his request, Sternheim made no direct reference to Epstein taking his own life in August 2019 in his cell in another federal jail in Manhattan.
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US District Judge Alison J. Nathan ordered defense attorneys and prosecutors to meet over the next week on Sternheim’s request that the director of the Brooklyn facility address the concerns directly.
A spokesman for prosecutors declined to comment. A comment message was sent to spokespersons for the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Maxwell, 58, has pleaded not guilty to the charges of having hired three girls for Epstein to abuse them in the mid-1990s. She has been held without bail while preparing for a trial in July.
On Monday, prosecutors notified the judge that Maxwell was quarantined last week for 14 days after someone working in his jail area tested positive for the coronavirus. You cannot meet with your defense team during that period.
In their letter, prosecutors said the 13 hours a day Maxwell has to review trial materials on a laptop is more time than any other prisoner is allocated.
The reference upset Sternheim, who said Maxwell faces unmatched burdens for other inmates and has been mistreated. He noted that the last production of evidence by prosecutors was more than a million documents and Maxwell did not have enough time to study the material.
He said Maxwell was initially quarantined without soap or toothbrush and that medical and psychological staff stopped monitoring her, without informing her of her Covid-19 test results or what to do if she exhibits symptoms. Prosecutors said on Tuesday (New Zealand time) that her test result for the coronavirus was negative and that she will be re-examined at the end of her quarantine.
John Minchillo / AP
In this July 2 photo, Audrey Strauss, acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, points to a photo of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell during a press conference in New York.
The attorney said Maxwell is being held in what is, in effect, solitary confinement and is excessively and invasively searched and monitored 24 hours a day, including surveillance with cameras in his cell and a camera that tracks his movement every day. time he is allowed to leave his cell.
“And despite uninterrupted camera surveillance in the cell, Ms. Maxwell’s sleep is interrupted every 15 minutes when she is awakened by a flashlight to determine if she is breathing,” she wrote.
