Manhattan federal prosecutors responded after a lawyer for Ghislaine Maxwell complained about her “harmful” conditions last month, saying in a letter filed Tuesday that the real problem appears to be her failure to clean the cell. “very dirty” and washing the toilet.
The letter responded to a complaint sent to a federal judge in February by a British socialist lawyer.
Maxwell, who is facing trial for preparing and trafficking girls for a billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, said he was forced to drink dirty tap water and eat unheated food and that a guard he physically “abused” her during a search of the Metropolitan Detention Center.
“The general conditions of detention have had a detrimental impact on Ms Maxwell’s overall health and well-being, and she is withering away from a shell of her own: losing weight, losing hair and losing concentration. defense attorney Bobbi Sternheim wrote to U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan.
However, federal prosecutors in Manhattan paint a very different picture. In her Tuesday presentation, they say Maxwell has a healthy weight, has no noticeable hair loss, received the COVID vaccine and appears to be sleeping during night checks, but she herself has been warned of cleaning problems.
MDC determined that Maxwell’s allegation of abuse was “unfounded,” prosecutors wrote, before adding that detention staff had warned the 59-year-old about her alleged refusal to keep her prison cell or even wash the toilet.
“Following the defense attorney’s complaint in his letter of February 16, 2021 about an improperly tapped record, the MDC conducted an investigation and found that, contrary to the “Defendant, the search in question was actually recorded entirely by a handheld camera,” a footnote states in the letter submitted by U.S. Deputy Attorneys Maurene Comey, Alison Moe and Lara Pomerantz.
“After reviewing the camera footage, the MDC concluded that the investigation was conducted properly and that the defendant’s complaint about this incident was unfounded,” his letter states. “MDC’s legal counsel further confirmed that all of the defendant’s kicked searches are videotaped.”
The government letter added that after Maxwell’s abuse complaint, MDC staff ordered the heiress to “clean the cell because it had become very dirty.”
“Among other things, MDC staff noted that the defendant often did not wash her toilet after using it, which made the cell smell,” the presentation continues. “In addition, the defendant had not cleaned her cell for a long time, which made the cell more and more dirty. MDC staff directed the defendant to clean her cell in response to the smell and dirt, not in retaliation for complaining about a specific search.
Prosecutors also say Maxwell has plenty of time to call his lawyers and, with access to both a desktop and a laptop 13 hours a day, seven days a week, “he continues to receive more time to review. the discovery that any other intern “.
MDC also reviewed Maxwell’s email account after she claimed that prison staff deleted her messages prematurely. “That examination revealed that the defendant had deleted some of her emails and filed others,” the letter states. “That examination did not reveal evidence to suggest that MDC staff deleted any of the defendant’s emails.” (According to Prisons Office policy, inmates ’emails are purged every six months, according to archive notes).
Maxwell is allowed to leave his cell from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. each day, and while in the day room, prosecutors say, “he has exclusive access to the MDC desktop computer, in the laptop, to a television, to a telephone where to place social or lawyer calls and shower ”.
He is allowed “outdoor recreation every day, although he has the option to shorten that recreation time if he wishes,” the government adds. “The defendant also has as much, if not more, time than any other MDC inmate to communicate with her attorneys.”
Prosecutors say MDC’s attorney informed them that Maxwell’s meals are being heated in a thermal oven and that the facility’s water is tap water from New York City. They say that when the city performs maintenance, inmates receive bottled water. “The MDC legal adviser emphasized that MDC staff, including legal staff, drink the same tap water from the same water system as the accused while in the institution,” his letter states.
Last week, Maxwell’s legal team went to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals to try to get his MDC released. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York has three times denied bail because it is considered a theft risk.
In her request for pretrial release, Maxwell’s attorney, David Oscar Markus, compared her to other convicted sex offenders who received bail before the trial, including Bill Cosby and Harvey Weinstein. Markus made reference The silence of the lambs‘fictional serial killer, too.
“Since her arrest, Ms. Maxwell has faced nightmare conditions,” the motion says. Although she is a model prisoner who poses no danger to society and has literally done nothing to provoke “special” treatment, she remains isolated, suitable conditions for Hannibal Lecter, but not a 59-year-old woman. which poses no threat to anyone. “