Ghislaine Maxwell denied bail in Epstein sex abuse case
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Version 4 of 6. NEW YORK — A federal judge in Manhattan denied bail Tuesday to Jeffrey Epstein's longtime companion Ghislaine Maxwell, who is charged with grooming his underage victims and recruiting them to be sexually abused over several years. U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan said it would be "practically impossible" to craft a set of conditions that would assure that someone with Maxwell's wealth and foreign ties would show up in court to face the charges against her. "The risks are simply too great" to release her on bail, the judge said, adding that Maxwell's ability to stay out of the spotlight in such a sensational high-profile case showed she has an "extraordinary capacity to evade detection." Maxwell, 58, was arrested July 2 on charges that she conspired with Epstein, 66, to sexually abuse teenage girls during the 1990s. She was also charged with perjury for allegedly lying during a sworn deposition conducted as part of a related lawsuit. Appearing via videoconference for the hearing, Maxwell pleaded not guilty to the charges. On a monitor, Maxwell was shown seated, wearing a brown T-shirt, with her hair pulled back tightly in a bun. Occasionally, she sipped from a white plastic foam cup. She was expressionless throughout the hearing, which lasted more than two hours. When it became clear Maxwell would not be released, she appeared to wipe a tear from the corner of her eye. Officials allege that Maxwell was intimately involved in Epstein’s crimes — that she “normalized” his sexual abuse by presenting herself to his victims as a trustworthy figure. Maxwell has denied the allegations, and her attorneys recently said she was estranged from Epstein for a decade before his suicide in jail last year. They had pushed for her release on a $5 million bond, secured by a property in the United Kingdom, and proposed that she stay at a luxury hotel in Manhattan pending trial. Prosecutors derided the suggestion as the “most transient type” of housing and further proof she should not be released from custody. Ghislaine Maxwell’s siblings willing to endorse $5 million bond, lawyer says The judge set a tentative trial date of July 21, 2021. Maxwell faces up to 35 years in prison if convicted of all the charges. Two women who have accused Epstein of abuse urged the court not to let Maxwell out of jail before her trial. One, Annie Farmer, said Maxwell “groomed and abused me and countless other children and young women.” “We may never know how many people were victimized by Ghislaine Maxwell but those of us who survived implore this court to detain her until she is forced to stand trial and answer for her crimes,” Farmer said. Another, who submitted a written statement as “Jane Doe,” called Maxwell “calculating and sadistic . . . a monster” and said she feared for her own safety if Maxwell was granted bail. Prosecutors did not argue Maxwell posed a threat to others, but they told the judge she is a flight risk who sought to elude law enforcement after Epstein’s arrest last year. She was eventually located at a picturesque New Hampshire estate where, officials say, she’d been hiding out for months. Her brother had retained former British military personnel to provide security, according prosecutors. Maxwell provided a fake name — Jen Marshall — to a real estate agent she dealt with during the purchase of her New England home and falsely claimed to work as a journalist, Assistant U.S. Attorney Alison Moe said at the hearing. Prosecutors said there was a risk of her going “off the grid indefinitely” were she to be released. “There really can be no question the defendant is willing to lie to hide who she is,” Moe said. Ghislaine Maxwell had ex-British military as security at New Hampshire estate, prosecutors say Maxwell has been held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn since her transfer from New Hampshire. Prosecutors also alleged that Maxwell has not been completely honest with officials about her finances, noting she has millions of dollars of assets but no income. They questioned whether that money may be the result of fraud, or enable her to flee to a country like France, where she has citizenship and could avoid extradition. Authorities argued in a court filing this week that Maxwell ran from FBI agents who descended on her secluded home and that she refused to open the door for them. She could be seen in a window trying “to flee to another room in the house, quickly shutting the door behind her,” the court filing notes. During a sweep of the property, agents found a cellphone wrapped in tin foil, which prosecutors said was a “seemingly misguided effort to evade detection.” One of her security guards told agents that Maxwell never left the home. Maxwell’s attorneys have said she was hiding from press, not law enforcement. “Our client is not Epstein, she’s not the monster that has been portrayed,” said Maxwell’s lawyer, Mark Cohen. Prosecutors, he said, are “trying to spin the facts to make my client look sinister.” He noted that Maxwell has been enmeshed since 2015 in civil lawsuits stemming from Epstein’s conduct, and her involvement in those cases showed she was not seeking to skirt or evade the court system. Maxwell’s phone was wrapped in tin foil, her lawyer said, because it had been hacked and she didn’t want to throw it away out of concern she might be accused of destroying evidence. If Maxwell wanted to run to evade prosecution, she could have done it a long time ago, he argued. If she has been furtive about her identity or her location, Cohen said, it is only because threats have been made against her since the sex abuse allegations surrounding the Epstein case gained greater notoriety. “They’ve been investigating this case for 10 years,” Cohen said. He added that prosecutors reached back decades to charge her with alleged crimes because a plea deal Epstein struck in 2008 prevented them from pursuing any allegations related to Epstein’s more recent conduct. Prosecutors, however, insisted that agreement, struck with authorities in Florida, does not tie their hands in any criminal investigation of Epstein or any alleged co-conspirators, and noted that they charged Epstein last year with sex trafficking. After his arrest, Epstein was ordered held without bond and he hung himself in jail. |