Maxwell moved to NY for Epstein-related sex abuse charges

New York, July 7

Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime confidante Ghislaine Maxwell was transferred Monday to New York to face fees that she recruited ladies and women, one as younger as 14, for him to sexually abuse, the Bureau of Prisons mentioned.

Prosecutors have requested a choose to schedule a Friday court docket look in Manhattan federal court docket for for Maxwell, 58, who was arrested final week at a $1 million property she had bought in New Hampshire.

Maxwell, the daughter of the late British publishing magnate Robert Maxwell, was the previous girlfriend and longtime shut affiliate of Epstein, who killed himself in a Manhattan jail final August whereas he awaited trial on federal intercourse trafficking fees.

Maxwell has been indicted on a number of fees, together with that she conspired to entice women as younger as 14 to interact in unlawful intercourse acts with Epstein from 1994 by way of 1997.

Several of Epstein’s victims have described Maxwell as his chief enabler, recruiting and grooming younger women for abuse.

She has denied wrongdoing and known as claims in opposition to her “absolute rubbish.”      

In a letter to a choose Sunday, prosecutors mentioned they’ve communicated with Maxwell’s protection lawyer, Christian Everdell, who would really like a Friday bail listening to the place she will probably be arraigned.

Prosecutors have mentioned Maxwell “poses an extreme risk of flight.” Maxwell has three passports, is rich with a number of worldwide connections, and has “absolutely no reason to stay in the United States and face the possibility of a lengthy prison sentence,” they wrote in a memo.

Maxwell is presently being held on the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. The jail has had its share of troubles lately, however not the specter of Epstein’s suicide.

“Somebody made the conscious decision, ‘let’s not house her where Epstein was housed,’” mentioned Jack Donson, a former jail official who labored for the Bureau of Prisons for greater than 20 years.

Maxwell is being prosecuted in Manhattan however jailed in Brooklyn, the other of what occurred with Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, who was held on the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan whereas on trial in Brooklyn final yr, prompting closures of the Brooklyn Bridge every day as he was taken to and from court docket.

Donson, who advises white-collar criminals on what to anticipate in jail, mentioned the lockup on the Brooklyn waterfront is akin to the federal jail system’s model of a high-rise residence constructing — extremely safe, with elevators to maneuver inmates from floor-to-floor, air-conditioned cells and restricted room for recreation or different actions.

The facility, opened as a federal jail within the early 1990s, homes about 1,600 inmates.

One of its two important buildings is a century-old former Navy warehouse.

Donson mentioned he’s made frequent visits to the jail and noticed workers performing “downright unprofessional” yelling and cursing at inmates.

The jail’s former warden, Cameron Lindsay, mentioned it’s “one of the most troubled” amenities within the federal jail system and had a “unique history of staff misconduct.”  A message searching for touch upon issues on the Brooklyn jail was left Thursday with the Bureau of Prisons.

Per week-long energy failure on the Brooklyn jail in January 2019 sparked unrest amongst shivering inmates and drew issues from a federal watchdog in regards to the authorities’s bungled response.

In March, the jail had the federal jail system’s first inmate to test positive for coronavirus, and the ability’s response to the illness led to an ongoing court docket battle over allegations that inmates had been being put at critical threat.

Last month, an inmate died after correctional officers sprayed him with pepper spray, which has led to an investigation by the Justice Department’s inspector basic. In May, one other inmate on the facility died.

The Bureau of Prisons has been the topic of intense scrutiny since Epstein took his personal life whereas in custody in August, which Attorney General William Barr mentioned was the results of the “perfect storm of screw ups.”         

The company has been plagued for years by critical misconduct, violence and staffing shortages so extreme that guards usually work extra time day after day or are compelled to work obligatory double shifts and has struggled not too long ago with an exploding variety of coronavirus instances in prisons throughout the U.S.

The Justice Department launched a particular activity power earlier this yr to deal with felony misconduct by Bureau of Prisons officers following a number of scandals, together with the invention of a smuggled gun discovered on the similar Manhattan jail the place Epstein took his personal life.—AP