Ghislaine Maxwell trial: Judge asks jurors to extend hours over COVID-19 concerns

Dec. 28 (UPI) -- The judge in the sex trafficking trial of Ghislaine Maxwell asked the jury on Tuesday to extend its daily deliberations sessions, citing concern over the rapid spread of COVID-19.

Judge Alison Nathan asked the jurors to plan to stay until at least 6 p.m. moving forward, saying she was concerned jurors and other trial participants may contract COVID-19 and be forced to quarantine.

"We are very simply at a different place regarding the pandemic than we were only one week ago and we now face a high and escalating risk that jurors and/or trial participants may need to quarantine, thus disrupting trial (and) putting at risk our ability to complete this trial," she said.

Jurors sent a note to Nathan around 5 p.m. Tuesday saying they were prepared to stop deliberations for the day.

"Our deliberations are moving along and we are making progress," the note said.

The jurors have deliberated for about 32 hours throughout five days and plan to resume Wednesday morning.

Nathan told attorneys outside of the jury's presence that she will tell jurors to prepare to deliberate over the New Year's holiday weekend if a verdict is not reached by Wednesday.

"Put simply, I conclude that proceeding this way is the best chance to both give the jury as much time as they need to avoid a mistrial as a result of the Omicron variant," the judge said.

Maxwell 60, has been jailed in a federal facility in New York City since she was arrested in July 2020. She has pleaded not guilty to six charges relating to the sex trafficking scheme in which she is accused of procuring young girls to be sexually abused by her boyfriend, the late financier Jeffrey Epstein.

During the trial, prosecutors called Maxwell a "sophisticated predator" who "manipulated her victims and groomed them for sexual abuse," while her defense sought to discredit the accusers' stories and said the trial was an attempt to pin the crimes of Epstein, who died by suicide while awaiting trial, on Maxwell.

On Monday, jurors requested different colored Post-Its, highlighters and a whiteboard, the definition of "enticement" and transcripts of testimony from the ex-boyfriend of one of Maxwell's accusers, identified as Jane.