Ghislaine Maxwell Has Been Placed on Suicide Watch Prior to Her Sentencing!

By jaslin Last updated Jun 28, 2022

Socialite is due to be sentenced for sex crimes on June 28
Maxwell is unable to prepare for her sentencing, her lawyer says

Ghislaine Maxwell, a British socialite who was found guilty of sex trafficking with her ex-boyfriend Jeffrey Epstein, has been put on suicide watch at the Brooklyn jail where she has been since her arrest in July 2020, her lawyer said on Saturday.

Bobbi Sternheim, a lawyer for Maxwell, said in a letter to the judge slated to sentence the socialite on June 28 that she was removed on Friday from the general population of inmates at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center and placed in solitary confinement. Sternheim said that Maxwell isn’t allowed any pen or paper and was placed on the watch “without justification,” and warned that she may seek a postponement of her sentencing date.

“If Ms. Maxwell stays on suicide watch, isn’t allowed to read legal materials before being sentenced, doesn’t get enough sleep, and isn’t given enough time to meet with and talk with her lawyer, we will formally move for an adjournment on Monday,” Sternheim wrote in a letter to US Circuit Judge Alison Nathan, who is in charge of the case, late Saturday.

Maxwell, who is 60, was given a “suicide smock,” but Sternheim said that a psychologist met with the socialite on Saturday and decided that she “is not suicidal.”

In December, a federal jury in Manhattan found Maxwell guilty on five counts, one of which was sex trafficking of a minor. It was seen as long overdue justice for Epstein’s victims since he was found dead in his jail cell a month after he was arrested. Authorities said it was a suicide.

Prosecutors said in a letter sent Sunday that Maxwell was separated from other prisoners after she sent an email to the Bureau of Prisons Inspector General’s office “claiming to be afraid for her safety.” They said that she was taken out of the general population so that her claim could be looked into and that her sentencing shouldn’t be delayed because she still has access to her lawyers and legal papers and can prepare.

Ordinarily, an inmate making such claims would be put in a solitary cell within the Special Housing Unit, or SHU, but jail officials placed Maxwell on suicide watch due to concern that she was at “heightened risk of self-harm” given her upcoming sentencing and sex offender status, prosecutors wrote.

“Because of this, they don’t feel comfortable putting the defendant in the SHU, but they also need to take the defendant out of the general population so they can look into the threat she told them about.”

Prosecutors say Maxwell should spend up to 55 years in prison for a sex trafficking scheme that involved seven people. She asked for a prison sentence of fewer than six years, saying that the conditions in jail have been too hard on her.

The case is US v Maxwell, 20-CR-330, US District Court for the Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

Till Then, Keep Yourself Updated With All the Latest News From Our Website Journalworldwide and Get All the Recent Updates.