By Luc Cohen
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A U.S. judge on Tuesday granted immunity from prosecution to a juror in Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex abuse trial who failed to disclose that he had been sexually abused as a child, which Maxwell argues tainted her conviction.
Maxwell was convicted on Dec. 29 on five of the six counts she faced for helping the late financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse underage girls.
Her lawyers demanded a new trial after the juror told media including Reuters that he shared with other jurors his history of sexual abuse during deliberations.
Juror No. 50, who identified himself to media by his first and middle names Scotty David, said in a pre-trial screening questionnaire that he had not been sexually abused.
U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan said the juror’s statements provided evidence that he responded falsely on the questionnaire and is expected to question the juror at a court hearing on Tuesday.
Prosecutors asked Nathan to grant the juror immunity after his lawyer said the juror would invoke his constitutional right to avoid self-incrimination and decline to answer questions at the hearing. The juror signed the form under penalty of perjury, meaning he could have faced legal consequences if he lied.
The juror told Reuters he did not recall how he filled out the form, but would have answered honestly.
Maxwell, 60, faces up to 65 years in prison. Epstein died by suicide in 2019 at the age of 66 in a Manhattan jail cell while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges
(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Mark Porter)
