Produce promised witnesses or rest your case, Maxwell defence told

NEW YORK – Ghislaine Maxwell’s lawyers pleaded for more time Friday to build up their defence in the British socialite’s sex crimes trial, but the New York judge pressured them to produce their promised witnesses or rest their case.

The defence had indicated it planned to call 35 witnesses as it seeks to persuade a New York jury that Maxwell did not recruit and sexually abuse girls with the late financier Jeffrey Epstein.

But after a day and a half of testimony, they had called just nine to the stand – with others dropped, delayed or otherwise unavailable – leaving federal judge Alison Nathan increasingly exasperated.

“I have a rule. You have your next witness or you rest your case. We’re not delaying the trial,” warned Nathan at one point.

The 59-year-old Maxwell is accused of grooming underage girls to be sexually exploited by her long-time partner Epstein, who killed himself in jail two years ago while awaiting trial.

She faces an effective life sentence if convicted of six counts of enticing and transporting minors for sex.

“Our client’s life is on the line,” defence attorney Laura Menninger pleaded as she appealed for more time.

One witness produced on Friday was a former Miss Sweden who dated Epstein between 1983 and early 1991, and remained friends with him for years afterwards.

Eva Andersson-Dubin, a former model and wife of high-profile financier Glenn Dubin, read out flight logs that showed she, her husband and three children flew regularly on Epstein’s private planes and regularly holidayed at his Palm Beach home between 1994 and 2004.

She said she never saw any inappropriate conduct between Epstein and teenage women.

But she also admitted under cross-examination that she has memory problems because of what she believed was a “medical issue”.

“It’s very hard for me to remember anything far back and sometimes I can’t even remember things from last month. My family notices it. I notice it. It’s been an issue,” the 60-year-old told prosecutor Allison Moe.

The defence also briefly questioned two FBI agents on Friday before calling Michelle Healy, a former receptionist of Epstein’s.

‘Time to prepare’

But the defence said Friday it was dropping a London-based witness.

And it said it was also struggling to locate a witness identified as “Kelly”, who it said it subpoenaed on December 1.

“Why am I just hearing about this now?” said a frustrated Nathan. “A non-responsive witness is not a little thing,” she added – saying the defence had ample time to prepare since the resting of the prosecution’s case a week ago.

Nathan was due to rule later Friday on a request to put an 81-year-old London pub owner on the stand on Monday.

The defence said he would testify that Maxwell did not reside at a house opposite the pub during the time that the prosecution alleges some of the sexual abuse occurred.

A day earlier, Nathan had rejected a request that three witnesses be allowed to testify anonymously. She also rejected the defence’s attempts to call two lawyers for accusers of Epstein to the stand.

Prosecutor Maurene Comey accused the defence of delaying tactics.

“The defence has had an extraordinary amount of time to prepare their case,” she said.

And it appeared increasingly likely the defence would have to rest its case later Friday if Nathan declines their request for more time. – AFP, December 18, 2021