NEW YORK — A juror who potentially jeopardized Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex trafficking conviction while on a media tour after the trial asked a judge Wednesday to see a questionnaire allegedly revealing he wasn’t forthcoming about his own experience with sexual assault.
The juror, Scotty David, told reporters he played a crucial role in convincing his fellow jurors to find Maxwell guilty by revealing during deliberations he’d been sexually abused as a child. But the 35-year-old admitted he could not recall if he’d disclosed the same information when asked about it during jury selection, before the trial began.
The revelation resulted in an ongoing effort by Maxwell’s defense team to have the verdict tossed.
David has retained a lawyer. An intentionally false statement on a juror questionnaire could rise to the level of perjury.
In a request to the court, the David’s attorney Todd Spodek asked the court provide the questionnaire. The survey asked prospective jurors if they had ever been a victim of sexual assault.
“Have you or a friend or family member ever been the victim of sexual harassment, sexual abuse, or sexual assault?” asked the 48th question on the survey.
“This includes actual or attempted sexual assault or other unwanted sexual advance, including by a stranger, acquaintance, supervisor, teacher, or family member.”
David told Reuters he “flew through” the survey and did not recall questions about personal experience with sexual assault.
The juror said that his fellow panelists were skeptical of the memories of some of Maxwell’s victims who testified — until he shared his own experience.
“When I shared that, they were able to sort of come around on, they were able to come around on the memory aspect of the sexual abuse,” he said.
Judge Alison Nathan has yet to rule on whether David’s responses to the questionnaire warrant a court inquiry.
Legal experts previously told the New York Daily News that the question is likely to boil down to whether or not David intentionally omitted that he’d been sexually assaulted.
The 60-year-old Maxwell was convicted Dec. 29 of facilitating Jeffrey Epstein’s systemic sexual abuse and trafficking of minors from 1994 to 2004. She faces up to 65 years when sentenced.
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