June 17, 2021- 10:05 a.m.
Jeffrey Edward Epstein alleged madam was moved from the filthy cell, but remains under hyper-surveillance and is being deprived of basic human necessities, her legal team wrote in a court filing on Tuesday.
Maxwell is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn after the discovery of raw sewage, her attorney Bobbi Sternheim filed in a Tuesday night filing.
Sternheim described the corrections officers as having uninhibited access to pry into Maxwell’s confidential legal papers and keep tabs of her privileged meetings with lawyers.
The attorney also took issue with the fact the neither Maxwell or her lawyers were granted a request to have a drink of water during their four-hour meeting on Sunday.
The lawyer claims that there have been plenty of complaints about the treatment of the 59-year-old inmate but “little if anything has been done.”
A lawyer for Ghislaine Maxwell wrote that she is subjected to hellish conditions like raw sewage in her cell to being forbidden drinks of water.
Maxwell 59, is accused of grooming young girls for former lover Epstein, 66, who was found dead in his Manhattan jail cell in 2019 after being held on sex trafficking charges.
“The ever-changing rules are negatively impacting Ms. Maxwell’s ability to prepare for trial,” the letter reads.
“The hyper-surveillance of Ms. Maxwell and counsel during legal visits is highly inappropriate and invasive.”
The letter was filed to counter prosecutors who in a June 7 letter stated that the jail guards can indeed watch Maxwell’s discussions with the lawyers, but they cannot hear them.
Prosecutors submitted that unlike any other inmate at the Brooklyn lockup, Maxwell is allotted more time to use a computer and review evidence, and an adequate amount of time to confer with her lawyers.
They also maintained Maxwell was “physically healthy,” Reuters reported.
The office of U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss in Manhattan declined to comment on the attorney’s letter.
The frustration expressed over the treatment of the jailed socialite comes while she is being probed in the UK.
“Though she is a model prisoner who poses no danger to society and has done literally nothing to prompt ‘special’ treatment, she is kept in isolation — conditions fitting for Hannibal Lecter but not a 59-year-old woman who poses no threat to anyone,” Markus said in the motion.
At the time there were accusations that Maxwell was being served “inedible food” that was microwaved without the plastic covering removed, sleep-deprived after having to submit to “multiple invasive searches” and lacked privacy with her movements being recorded by “multiple video cameras.”
The water that she was allegedly offered to drink was described at the time as “cloudy and undrinkable.”
Maxwell has attempted to file multiple motions to be released on bail from the Brooklyn prison where she is being held.
Her trial is set to begin in July, and Maxwell is facing charges for alleged offenses dating between 1994 and 2004.
Markus also pointed out that high-profile, wealthy men charged with “similar or more serious offenses” are often granted bail “so that they can effectively prepare for trial.”
He named Bernie Madoff, Harvey Weinstein, John Gotti and others to illustrate his point.
But Maxwell’s three bail requests were denied over concerns that she’s a “flight risk” – but her attorneys argued those high-profile defendants had foreign ties as well.
