Ghislaine Maxwell could file for a mistrial after a juror revealed he used his own experience of childhood sexual abuse to sway deliberations — and cannot remember if he revealed his past during jury selection, according to reports.
Juror Scotty David, using only his first and middle names, admitted to Reuters that he only opened up about his own abuse during deliberations when others questioned the credibility of two of the women testifying against Jeffrey Epstein’s madam.
He earlier told The Independent that the room went silent when he detailed his past, telling them that — like the witnesses — he could only remember some of the details.
He also told jurors how he’d waited until high school before telling anyone about his abuse in a way to justify why the witnesses, Jane and Carolyn, may not have come forward earlier.
David, a 35-year-old Manhattan resident, admitted in both interviews that his confession influenced the deliberations that saw Maxwell, 60, convicted and facing up to 65 years in prison.
“When I shared that, they were able to sort of come around on, they were able to come around on the memory aspect of the sexual abuse,” he told Reuters in a phone interview.
During jury selection, some 230 prospective jurors were given questionnaires asking, among other things, if they or anyone in their families had experienced sexual abuse, court records show.
If they marked yes, they then had to say if that would affect their “ability to serve fairly and impartially.”
David told Reuters told that he “flew through” the questionnaire and cannot remember being asked about personal experiences with sexual abuse. He could only say he would have answered honestly.
If he failed to reveal it, it could be used as grounds to call for a mistrial for Maxwell, whose legal team has already stated plans to appeal the conviction.
It “could definitely be an issue,” former New York federal prosecutor Moira Penza told The Telegraph.
“I certainly hope the juror disclosed this fully on his questionnaire. A little strange the defense didn’t strike him.
“In the first instance, it would likely form the basis for a motion to Judge [Alison] Nathan for a new trial,” she said.
Neither Maxwell’s defense attorneys nor the US Attorney’s Office in Manhattan immediately responded to requests for comment, Reuters said.
David said that even after his confession, reaching the unanimous verdict “wasn’t easy, to be honest.”
“There’s a room of 12 people and we all have to be on the same page and we all have to understand what’s going on,” he said. “And then we have to agree. So that’s partly why it took so long.”
Personally, he was skeptical of the defense’s argument that Maxwell was being made a scapegoat for pedophile Epstein, who died by suicide at age 66 in a Manhattan jail cell while awaiting trial on sex-abuse charges.
“She participated, she was complicit, she did nothing to stop it,” he told Reuters.
He later told MailOnline that the disgraced media heiress was “just as guilty as Epstein.”
“I don’t want to call her a monster, but a predator is the right word,” he told the outlet. “She knew what was happening. She knew what Epstein was doing and she allowed it to happen.”
With Post wires