A juror who helped convict British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell of sex trafficking said on Tuesday that his failure to disclose before trial that he was abused as a child was “one of the biggest mistakes I’ve ever made”.
“I didn’t lie to join this jury,” replied the juror, identified during the hearing as number 50 only, as U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan in the Southern District of New York asked questions about why he hadn’t. Disclosure of abuse in a questionnaire during the jury selection process.
“If I could go back and slow down,” he said, “I would have a pounding heartbeat, it wasn’t on purpose or on purpose.”
Maxwell’s lawyers, who was in the Manhattan courtroom and was behind bars while awaiting sentencing, said they would have objected to his appointment to the jury and that the ruling should be overturned.
Nathan gave the two sides until March 15 to submit legal briefs on whether the ruling should be overturned.
Questions about juror impartiality have been raised after longtime confidant Jeffrey Epstein was convicted in December and after a juror revealed in media interviews He was sexually abused as a child.
The juror, identified in interviews with British media by his first and middle names, Scottie David, said he told other members of the panel of his experience after some expressed doubts about the credibility of witnesses Jane and Caroline.
These are aliases for two of the four women who testified that Maxwell prepared them for sex with Epstein when they were teenagers.
He said in interviews with Reuters And the independent.
The juror, who agreed to appear before Nathan only after making sure he would not be prosecuted, is under fire for failing to answer yes to question 48 on the jury form, which asks potential committee members whether they, a friend or family member had previously They have been sexually harassed or abused.
The juror said he should have disclosed that he was abused as a child by a half-brother when he was nine years old. He said he didn’t tell anyone until he was in high school when he told his mother who called the police, but that no charges were ever filed.
