Jail psychologists are monitoring convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s cohort Ghislaine Maxwell without her knowledge for several hours a day, Maxwell’s lawyers say.
The British socialite’s attorneys said in a court filing Monday that Maxwell is under constant video surveillance and is monitored by several guards at the Metropolitan Detention Center in New York as she awaits trial next summer, CNN reports.
She is also limited to 30 minutes of personal phone calls a month (which compares to the 500 minutes of personal phone calls a month that her fellow prisoners are allowed), her lawyers say. (RELATED: ‘You Better Get Some Ice For That’: Here’s What To Know About Bill Clinton And #METOO Allegations)
In a letter filed late Monday, her lawyers said that “some of these prison guards were, in fact, BOP psychologists who were observing Ms. Maxwell and evaluating her for hours each day without her knowledge,” CNN reports.
A protester sits outside court before Maxwell makes her first court appearance on July 14, 2020 (TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images)
“We are aware of no other pretrial detainee receiving such treatment,” the letter says, according to CNN. (RELATED: Ghislaine Maxwell Lawyers Complain About Her Prison Conditions As Prison Officials Seek To Keep Her Alive)
Her lawyers had previously argued that Maxwell is being subjected to conditions unequal to her fellow prisoners, saying this treatment stems from fears over Epstein’s apparent suicide last summer in a New York City jail.
“As a result of what occurred with Mr. Epstein, Ms. Maxwell is being treated worse than other similarly situated pretrial detainees,” the lawyers said in an early August letter. The letter asked for her to be transferred into the general jail population while she awaits her trial.
In a court filing last week, prosecutors said that the Bureau of Prisons decided not to move Maxwell for “reasons including safety, security, and the orderly functioning of the facility” adding that she “will be placed into the general population if and when BOP is assured that such placement would not pose a threat to the orderly operation of the institution,” CNN reports.
Maxwell was arrested by the FBI at 8:30 a.m. July 2 in Bradford, New Hampshire. A grand jury for the U.S. District Court of Southern New York indicted Maxwell on charges of conspiracy to entice minors to engage in illegal sex acts, conspiracy to transport minors to these illegal sex acts, transportation of a minor to engage in illegal sex acts, and perjury.
U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan denied bail to Maxwell during a virtual hearing in July, saying “the risks are simply too great” to allow her to be released on bail.
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