Maxwell Trial Transcript - Day 7: Father of the Child, Virginia Recruits, and Hundred Dollar Bills
by Anne P. Mitchell, Esq. - attorney and law professor emeritus giving you the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
(This is part of our ongoing series covering the trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, day by day, including the transcripts for each day. Notes from the Front members: today’s transcript is below so that you can follow along.)
Day 7 of the Maxwell trial starts out, as it always does, with the attorneys for both sides in conversation with the Judge, before the jury is brought in - so the jury isn't privy to any of these discussions, but we are, because we have the transcript!
There is a great deal of discussion about whether "Jane's" (one of the victims who has testified under a pseudonym - I have to imagine that by now more people are familiar with pseudonyms than ever before!) brother can be called as a witness. The defense *was* going to put him on the stand, but then they withdrew him, and now the government (who is prosecuting Maxwell) is considering subpoenaing him.
You'll also see that the Judge has made a ruling on whether something can be admitted as evidence by the government, and the Judge has ruled that the government can admit it. This is still during the conversations between just the Judge and the attorneys. And even though the Judge has already said that yes, that piece of evidence can be admitted, the defense's attorney requests the Judge's permission to object when it is admitted in front of the jury (to which the Judge agrees). In other words, Maxwell's lawyer wants to be sure that the *jury* sees that the defense has objected to the introduction of this bit of evidence.
Then the jury is brought in, and today's first witness, Janine Gill, is sworn in. Ms. Gill is a property manager in Florida and she manages... wait for it... bet you thought I was going to say Epstein's property, but nope... she manages HR for Mar-a-Lago!
She is brought in to authenticate the document that the defense objected to. First she confirms the Mar-a-Lago personnel file for Sky Roberts. He is Virginia Guffrey's (nee Roberts) father. Then she is shown what must be Virginia's birth certificate, and she confirms that it says “father of child”. That is her entire testimony at this point, but you will see how it all relates during the conversation between the Judge and the lawyers.
Gill is excused and the next witness called is Shawn (no last name for what will be obvious reasons).
Shawn is, at the time of the trial, 38-years old. He is there to testify about when he was in high school, when he was 17 and his girlfriend Carolyn was 14. Carolyn, he testifies, was recruited for Epstein by Virginia.
Then ensues a rather difficult section of testimony - here is just a bit of it:
Q. How did Jeffrey Epstein come up in that group of people?
A. Virginia said that she worked for a guy out on Palm Beach. And Carolyn could make money if she wanted to come do massages.
Q. Were you present when Virginia said that to Carolyn?
A. Yes.
Q. About how long after you met Virginia did she bring up this topic of massages in Palm Beach?
A. Two to three weeks. Very soon.
Q. What do you remember Virginia saying to Carolyn about that?
A. That she could come out and give a guy a massage, and she would leave with a couple hundred dollars.
Q. What was the name of the guy?
A. Jeffrey.
Q. How did Carolyn respond?
A. She was excited to make money.
...
Q. That first time you went to Jeffrey Epstein's house, who, if anyone, went inside the house?
A. Virginia and Carolyn.
Q. About how long were they inside?
A. An hour, hour and five minutes.
Q. After Carolyn and Virginia came back outside, what, if anything, did they have with them?
A. Money.
Q. In what denomination?
A. Hundred dollar bills.
---
I'm going to stop quoting that section of testimony here, other than this bit further down, which deserves the light of day:
Q. When Carolyn was 14 years old and going to Jeffrey Epstein's house, could you describe her level of intelligence and education?
A. She was a child. Yes, ma'am.
---
Shawn then is questioned about and reveals that he was dating two other girls at the same time he was dating Carolyn: Melissa and Amanda (it seems that Shawn was a bit of a dog in high school). And they both went to Epstein's as well.
Next comes witness Nicole Hesse. She worked at Epstein and Maxwell's house in Palm Beach, doing housekeeping and maintenance, when Epstein and Maxwell were away.
She is there to authenticate three message notebooks that contain phone messages that she personally took while Epstein and Maxwell were away. And the objections and discussions of these, starting at around page 70 of the transcript, are a *great* lesson in hearsay and the various exceptions!
I want to remind people that each of these transcripts is over 250 pages long, and so the above are just a few of the things that I pulled out which I thought would interest you. There are many, many more things in each of these transcripts.
Notes from the Front members: The trial transcript for day 7 is attached below.
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P.S. If you actually read all the way to the bottom please leave aa sentence in a comment that includes the word "pseudonym". It will show me that my efforts aren't in vain and that people actually *do* read these things, and it will drive those who just skim crazy wondering just why everyone is talking about pseudonyms! ;~)