Ghislaine Maxwell has allegedly proposed calling in a psychologist who testified at Harvey Weinstein’s trial as her defence witness. Professor Elizabeth Loftus, a renowned cognitive psychologist, was included in a list of potential witnesses submitted by Maxwell’s lawyers, reported Bloomberg.
Maxwell, the former girlfriend of convicted sex predator Jeffrey Epstein, has been behind bars in New York since her July 2020 arrest, awaiting her trial on charges that she procured underage girls for the late tycoon to sex-traffic and abuse.
Ahead of the trial, set to begin on 29 November, where she faces six counts, including sex-trafficking of a minor and sex-trafficking conspiracy, prospective jurors began filling out 24-page questionnaires in federal court in Manhattan on Thursday.
‘False Memory’ Expert
A psychology professor at University of California Irvine since 2002, Elizabeth Loftus touts herself as an expert at preventing wrongful convictions based on inaccurate eyewitness accounts. Loftus testified or consulted on fallibility of memory for the defence in over 300 trials, including those of serial killer Ted Bundy and acquitted murderer OJ Simpson.
At Harvey Weinstein’s trial, she failed to convincingly cast doubt on the memory of actor Annabella Sciorra, who claimed the movie producer raped her in the early 1990s. Weinstein was convicted in New York in February 2020 for sexual assault and rape and was sentenced to 23 years in prison.
Loftus, who claims she receives up to $500 an hour for her legal work, was cited by The Los Angeles Times earlier as saying:
“The world is full of people who support accusers. I think people who are accused deserve some modicum of support as well.”
Time's Up, a non-profit founded on 1 January 2018 by Hollywood celebrities in response to the “Weinstein effect” and the Me Too movement, which raises money to support victims of sexual harassment, slammed Loftus' “false memory” approach as a “tool that has been used to try to discredit survivors of sexual assault for decades.”
False memory syndrome -not ratified by the American Psychological Association – has been viewed as a “controversial” diagnostic term. Ghislaine Maxwell’s legal team has also allegedly called on forensic psychiatrist Park Dietz. Dietz, also a criminologist, consulted or testified in many high-profile US criminal cases, including that of Jeffrey Dahmer, known as the Milwaukee Cannibal.
Jeffrey Dahmer’s House Up for Rent at RNC
© Mugshot
The US serial killer and sex offender committed the murder and dismemberment of 17 men and boys between 1978 and 1991. Ghislaine Maxwell, former girlfriend of disgraced billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, is charged with grooming and sex trafficking girls for the financier from 1994 to 2004. She has pleaded not guilty.
Jeffrey Epstein Associate
© AP Photo / John Minchillo
Jeffrey Epstein died at a Manhattan jail in August 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, with his death ruled a suicide. Maxwell's lawyers have repeatedly complained about her conditions in jail and made several applications for bail, which were denied.
Prosecutors have cited the woman’s citizenship in three countries and significant wealth (she is the daughter of disgraced publishing billionaire Robert Maxwell, who officially died of drowning in 1991) as factors as why bail should be refused.
Maxwell's lawyers have contended that "intense negative media coverage" of their client, including podcasts and documentaries on Netflix and other platforms, have “tainted” the jury pool for her trial, which is set to hear opening statements on 29 November.