Ghislaine Maxwell placed on suicide watch in solitary confinement days before sentencing
Jeffery Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell has been placed on suicide watch days before she is scheduled to be sentenced for sex trafficking and conspiracy crimes. Bobbi Sternheim, who represents Maxwell, said in a letter to the US District Judge Alison Nathon that the Metropolitan Detention Center has placed her client on suicide watch.
Sternheim claimed that this was done "without having conducted a psychological evaluation and without justification", adding that she has been wearing a "suicided smock". This is a piece of fabric that cannot be used to make a noose. Maxwell has been placed in solitary confinement.
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Sternheim has called for Maxwell's sentencing to be postponed. The 60-year-old is due back in court on June 28. Prosecutors have requested a minimum sentence of 30 years in prison. Maxwell is being held in the general population area of a prison where an inmate threatened to kill her. "One woman was going around openly bragging that she was going to murder Ghislaine for $1 million," a source told the Daily Mail.
Sternheim has claimed that Maxwell is not allowed to even hold a pen or paper inside solitary confinement. "If Ms. Maxwell remains on suicide watch, is prohibited from reviewing legal materials prior to sentencing, becomes sleep deprived, and is denied sufficient time to meet with and confer with counsel, we will be formally moving on Monday for an adjournment," Sternheim said in the letter.
While Epstein allegedly died by suicide in jail, Maxwell was convicted on December 29, 2021, of recruiting and grooming underage girls for him for several years. Maxwell was convicted of almost all counts, with the top charge being sex trafficking of minors, which carries a maximum of 40 years in prison.
The other counts Maxwell was found guilty of are conspiracy to entice a minor to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, conspiracy to transport a minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, transporting a minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors. While both the first and second counts carry a maximum sentence of five years in prison, the third carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, and the fourth carries a statutory maximum of five years in prison. She was acquitted of count 2, which involved enticing a minor to travel to engage in illegal sex acts.
In December last year, US prosecutors ended the criminal case against two Manhattan prison guards who had been tasked with guarding convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein on the night he died by suicide. The guards even admitted to falsifying records. In 2019, Epstein died in an apparent suicide while he was in federal custody. The 66-year-old was facing up to 45 years in prison on charges of sex-trafficking several teenage girls. The guards, Noel and Thomas, reportedly sat just five yards from Epstein’s cell on the night of his apparent suicide. The two were working overtime shifts. However, instead of keeping an eye out, they shopped online and took breaks. The guards later admitted that they “willfully and knowingly” lied on forms, claiming that they did make the rounds checking on the inmates on the night of the suicide in 2019.