Ghislaine Maxwell awaits Tuesday sentencing on suicide watch
Ghislaine Maxwell remained on suicide watch Monday — on the eve of her sentencing for enabling Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual exploitation of children — as a Manhattan judge ruled multiple victims will address the incarcerated ex-socialite in court.
Maxwell, who has been held at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center since the summer of 2020, was “abruptly removed from general population and returned to solitary confinement” Thursday, where she is under round-the-clock surveillance, lawyer Bobbi Sternheim wrote in court filings late Friday.
“[This] time without any clothing, toothpaste, soap, legal papers, etc. She was provided a ‘suicide smock’ and is given a few sheets of toilet paper on request. This morning, a psychologist evaluated Ms. Maxwell and determined she is not suicidal,” Sternheim wrote to Judge Alison Nathan.
“She is not suicidal,” Sternheim wrote in bold letters.
Throughout her detention, Maxwell has said that she is having to endure unusually harsh conditions, including unwarranted solitary confinement.
In response to her latest complaints about the Bureau of Prisons, federal prosecutors wrote the Epstein madam’s sentencing should proceed as scheduled.
Last week, the feds asked Nathan to punish her with 30 to 55 years imprisonment for her “disturbing role” enabling Epstein’s abuse of underage girls for a decade.
Maxwell has asked Nathan for mercy. She requested a term of four to five years in her sentencing submission, which claimed that she was psychologically abused as a youth by her father, the British publishing baron Robert Maxwell. The Probation Department, which advises judges, recommends she serve 20 years. The agency noted that anything more would be “tantamount to a lifetime term of imprisonment.”
Nathan will allow statements from at least seven of Epstein and Maxwell’s victims, who are now adults, to be introduced at sentencing. Annie Farmer and Kate, who testified at trial, may be present to address Maxwell in person, along with Virginia Giuffre, the most outspoken Epstein and Maxwell accuser, and three others. Giuffre settled a sexual assault lawsuit against Maxwell’s former friend Prince Andrew in January.
In new filings, Maxwell’s lawyers included a letter of endorsement from a fellow MDC inmate, Tatiana Venegas, who told Nathan “Maxwell” goes by her last name in jail and has volunteered to teach ESL, yoga, and help women get their GED.
“I believe that it’s important there are also positive opinions, some of which are among inmates in the unit,” Venegas wrote to the court. “I believe it is also good to point out the good in people.”
Maxwell’s lawyer did not respond to a request seeking comment.
