Ghislaine Maxwell Located On Suicide Watch But Not Suicidal: Lawyer

Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted former longtime partner of toddler intercourse predator Jeffrey Epstein, has been positioned on suicide watch ahead of her sentencing this week, however she isn't always suicidal, her lawyer said in court papers filed Saturday.

The 60-yr-vintage former British socialite turned into “suddenly” located on suicide watch Friday at a New York City jail with out a “mental evaluation and without justification,” her lawyer, Bobbi Sternheim, wrote to a federal court docket in New York on Saturday.

“She isn't always suicidal,” he stated, whilst declaring that he in my view met together with her at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn in advance that morning.Ghislaine Maxwell, visible out of doors her New York City townhouse in 2015, changed into located on suicide watch Friday despite not being suicidal, her legal professional stated.

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Maxwell changed into moved from fashionable population to solitary confinement, stopping her from being able to prepare for Tuesday’s sentencing hearing on the grounds that she isn't allowed to possess or view prison files or possess paper or pen, Sternheim stated.

“She become provided a ‘suicide smock’ and is given some sheets of bathroom paper on request. This morning, a psychologist evaluated Ms. Maxwell and determined she isn't always suicidal,” he brought.

Should her conditions now not trade, and need to she turn out to be sleep deprived and now not have enough time to satisfy together with her defense crew, Sternheim stated he would request that her hearing be postponed.

A consultant with the Federal Bureau of Prisons did now not right now respond to a request for comment Sunday on Sternheim’s suicide watch declare.Maxwell is visible in a court docket sketch at the start of her trial in 2021.

Maxwell changed into convicted overdue final 12 months of five counts associated with Epstein, who authorities say hanged himself in 2019 while looking forward to trial at a federal jail in New York on associated intercourse trafficking costs. Each rate Maxwell faces incorporates a most prison term from 5 to 40 years in jail.

Earlier this month, her legal professionals wrote to the sentencing decide in a bid for leniency. They depicted her as being a scapegoat for Epstein’s crimes following his demise and described her as struggling a tough formative years on the hands of a merciless and overbearing father and an absent mother. They covered letters from own family and pals that vouched for her individual.

“Ms. Maxwell has already skilled hard time in the course of detention beneath situations some distance extra exhausting and punitive than any skilled by using an average pretrial detainee, and she is preparing to spend extensively greater time at the back of bars,” her lawyers stated. “Her life has been ruined. Since Epstein’s demise, her lifestyles has been threatened and death threats hold even as she is incarcerated. It could be a travesty of justice for her to stand a sentence that could had been appropriate for Epstein,” her attorneys stated.