NEW YORK — Ghislaine Maxwell posed for sketch artists Wednesday as a Manhattan jury appeared no closer to reaching a verdict on charges she enticed underage victims for the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
As they entered the fifth full day of deliberations in an otherwise empty Manhattan federal court, jurors asked to review testimony from five witnesses. Maxwell, who wore a grape-colored turtleneck to court, appeared in good spirits. The 60-year-old chitchatted with members of her defense team and waved to her sister Isabel, who blew her youngest sister a kiss from the courtroom gallery.
After huddling with her lawyers to discuss the jury’s latest request, Maxwell spun her chair around to face the sketch artists seated in the courtroom gallery and posed in a relaxed stance.
During jury selection on Nov. 16, Maxwell made headlines when she appeared to sketch a courtroom artist drawing her.
Notes from the jurors seemed to indicate they were still very much in the thick of deliberations.
Jurors asked the court in a note if they should prepare to deliberate through New Year’s Eve on Friday and the weekend, signaling a long road ahead.
On Tuesday, Judge Alison Nathan warned the parties she fears it is inevitable that the COVID-19 omicron variant will come to the courtroom and infect a juror or “trial participant,” all but ensuring a mistrial.
“I am going to ask that deliberations continue going forward on the schedule every day this week until a verdict is reached, so please make yourselves available should it be necessary to sit for deliberations for the remainder of the week,” she told the jury.
In another note, the jurors asked to review testimony from Dr. Elizabeth Loftus, who took the stand for the defense on Dec. 16. The psychologist has testified at hundreds of trials about false memories on behalf of high-profile defendants like O.J. Simpson and Harvey Weinstein.
“(False) memories — once they’re constructed in somebody’s mind, either by external suggestion or by autosuggestion — could be very vivid, detailed. People can be confident about them, people can be emotional about them, even though they’re false,” Loftus said.
Jurors also wanted a refresher on testimony from two FBI agents and Shawn, the ex-boyfriend of an alleged victim, Carolyn. He told the jury he used to drop his teenage girlfriend off at Epstein’s Palm Beach mansion to perform massages in the 1990s. Carolyn testified Maxwell and Epstein sexually abused her during those encounters.
The jury also asked to review the testimony of Cimberly Espinosa, Maxwell’s former assistant, who spoke glowingly of her old boss.
“I highly respected Ghislaine,” Espinosa told the jury on Dec. 16. “I attribute my career right now as an executive assistant to what I learned at supporting Ghislaine.”
Maxwell has pleaded not guilty to six counts alleging she enticed and transported teenage girls to Epstein’s properties in Florida, New York, and New Mexico for sexual abuse between 1994 and 2004.
The British-French national, who also holds U.S. citizenship, faces the prospect of spending the rest of her life in prison if convicted of sex trafficking an individual under the age of 18, which carries a 40-year prison sentence.
Prosecutors have also charged her with transporting an individual under 17 across state lines for illegal sexual activity, which carries 10 years in prison. The remaining four conspiracy counts each carry a maximum of five years.
Maxwell has argued that she’s being unfairly substituted for her ex-boyfriend Epstein, who killed himself in jail while facing sex trafficking charges, and punished for dating a problematic man.
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