Judge Alison Nathan said she was worried that the pandemic could cause a mistrial in the Ghislaine Maxwell case if jurors or participants had to quarantine.
The rapid spread of the Omicron variant could put the sex-trafficking trial of Ghislaine Maxwell in jeopardy, the judge overseeing the case said on Tuesday, as the city’s growing Covid case count put pressure on the jury’s deliberations. As the jury completed its fourth full day of deliberations in Federal District Court in Manhattan, the judge, Alison J. Nathan, said she feared jurors and trial participants might become infected and forced to quarantine, and raised the specter of a mistrial. “We are, very simply, at a different place regarding the pandemic than we were only one week ago,” Judge Nathan said, speaking outside the jury’s presence as she cited what she called “an astronomical spike” in cases. She said later that she had extended the jury’s hours to 6 p.m. and would also have jurors continue deliberations through the holiday weekend until they reach a verdict. “Put simply,” she said, “I conclude that proceeding this way is the best chance to both give the jury as much time as they need and to avoid a mistrial as a result of the Omicron variant.” Close to 5 p.m., the jury sent the judge a note, saying, “Our deliberations are moving along and we are making progress.” Addressing the jurors at the end of the day, Judge Nathan said she would ask them to work through the rest of the week — including Thursday and Friday, which had been scheduled as days off. She did not tell the jurors of her plan to have them work through the weekend. The note was one of about a dozen the jurors have sent throughout their deliberations seeking legal guidance, testimony and office supplies. Until Tuesday afternoon, they had given no clear indication of how their discussions were progressing. The trial of Ms. Maxwell, who has been charged with recruiting and grooming underage girls for sexual abuse by Jeffrey Epstein, included three weeks of testimony by two dozen government witnesses and nine defense witnesses.
