Following a recent hearing which involves a very contentious jury, a federal court has rendered its judgment in a particular case concerning a request by a convicted sex trafficker namely Ghislaine Maxwell.
Even though juror Scotty David has been revealed found to be significantly misrepresenting himself during pre-trial jury selection, U.S. District Judge Alison J. Nathan managed to maintain Maxwell’s well-deserved conviction.
The honorable judge Nathan concluded that David’s misrepresentation to tell the court about his sexual assault as a young child was “very unfortunate,” but not “deliberate,” according to the BBC. “It was exceedingly unfortunate, but not purposeful, that he failed to reveal his earlier sexual abuse during the jury selection process.
As according to the detailed report, “the federal court also decides that juror 50 had no bias toward the defendant and could serve as a fair and impartial juror.” In recent weeks, David was widely recognized under testimony claiming that he “flew through” his juror screening form due to the fact that he was “super-distracted” by the ongoing events that were on around him.
“I didn’t lie to get on this jury,” it has been said he stated, according to The Associated Press. David’s survey question’s immediate reaction became a point of contention as Maxwell’s lawyers observed that it contradicted his public speech.
And according to Associated Press, David “detailed a point during the deliberations when he informed other jurors in Maxwell’s trial that, like some of the victims of the late financier Epstein, he had been sexually molested as a child,” in an early January interview involving numerous different British news outlets.
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“I remember what it felt like to be sexually molested. I recall the carpet color and the color of the walls. Some of it may be seen again as if it were a video. But I can’t recall all of the specifics, and some of them blend together,” he added throughout the question and answer session, attempting to portray what he testified in court in front of the jury.
He allegedly attempted to claim to already have “convinced other jurors that a victim’s poor recall of sex abuse does not indicate it did not occur.” When Maxwell’s lawyers learned about the question and answer session, they wrote to Judge Nathan, claiming that “based on indisputable, public material, the Court can and should order a new trial without any evidentiary hearing.”
Christian Everdell, one of Maxwell’s attorneys, attempted to claim there were “incontrovertible grounds” for a retrial. Everdell started calling the case “urgent,” stating that the juror’s revelations “affected the deliberations and caused other members of the jury to condemn Ms. Maxwell.”
“Excusing Jury 50’s misleading answers because he feels his hidden history of domestic violence has had no impact on his capacity to serve as a fair and unbiased juror does not meet the appearance of justice.” The attorneys contended that only a fresh trial would do so.
“How the juror answered to inquiries about his experiences with sexual assault during jury selection, which legal experts said was a significant topic that defense lawyers were looking at to screen out possibly prejudiced jurors,” Reuters originally reported in early January.
“During deliberations, after some jurors expressed skepticism about the accounts of two of Maxwell’s accusers, the juror, who asked to be identified only by his first and middle names, Scotty David, told Reuters on Tuesday evening that he shared his experience of being sexually abused as a child,” Reuters continued in their report.
“They were able to sort of come around on, they were able to come around on the memory portion of the sexual assault when I disclosed that,” David said. “Later… During deliberations, a second juror told the New York Times that he had been sexually molested as a youngster. This discovery appeared to assist influence the jury’s debate, according to one juror, who spoke to the Times on the condition of anonymity.”
The honorable Judge Nathan said that previously she once had presided during a trial that involved a murder case and that in that same case a jury with a murdered family member was still allowed to participate on the same panel. Despite the fact that the judge was just promoted to the federal appeals court in Manhattan, the same judge still has jurisdiction over the Ghislaine Maxwell case.
Four women testified during Robert Maxwell’s trial in November and December that the daughter of the British media baron recruited and groomed them as teens to be assaulted by Epstein between 1994 and 2004. Maxwell’s lawyers attempted to discredit her accusers by arguing that they were motivated by money to incriminate her and that their recollections were faulty.
