Epstein ‘madam’ put on suicide watch
Convicted sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell has been placed on suicide watch in the Brooklyn jail where she awaits sentencing on charges related to her activities with now-deceased pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein. Her lawyers complained in a letter on Friday that she had been removed from the general population “without justification” and warned her sentencing may have to be postponed.
“Yesterday, without having conducted a psychological evaluation and without justification, the [Manhattan Detention Center] placed Ms. Maxwell on suicide watch,” the disgraced socialite’s lawyer, Bobbi Sternheim, said in the letter addressed to Judge Alison Nathan, adding that “she is not suicidal.” A psychologist had evaluated Maxwell on Saturday and come to the same conclusions, Sternheim claimed.
“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,” the lawyer threatened, pointing out that she is “not permitted to possess and review legal documents and is not permitted paper or pen” while on watch.
According to her lawyers, Maxwell was carried off to solitary confinement with nothing but the “suicide smock” prisoners intending to harm themselves are provided and a “few sheets of toilet paper” – no “clothing, toothpaste, soap, legal papers, etc.”
Maxwell is due for her first sentencing hearing on Tuesday regarding her conviction on charges related to helping her former lover Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse young girls. Prosecutors are aiming for a sentence of 30 to 55 years, which could amount to life for the 60-year-old, who has been described in the media as the wealthy pedophile’s ‘madam’. She was found guilty on five of the six charges against her, all of which concerned the procurement, grooming, and trafficking of young girls for sex during the period she was involved with Epstein.
The infamous procurer may have her own unusual reasons for wanting off suicide watch, given how Epstein died under suspicious circumstances in another New York City detention facility while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges in August 2019. He had recently been under suicide watch after being found unconscious in his cell with marks on his neck, though prison authorities reportedly took him off the watch 12 days before he allegedly hanged himself.
