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NEW YORK (AP) — A green, folding massage desk applied by financier Jeffrey Epstein was brought into a Manhattan courtroom and set up in front of a jury on Friday to bolster allegations he teamed up with British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell to sexually exploit underage victims.
The theatrical flourish in federal court in Manhattan, courtesy of an investigator sporting rubber gloves, was intended to corroborate testimony from a critical accuser at Maxwell’s ongoing intercourse-abuse demo alleging massages ended up used as a pretense for the sexual encounters with Epstein that from time to time bundled Maxwell.
A witness who said the abuse started off when she was 14 described seeing a therapeutic massage table in a “massage room” that police say was in the exact same place in which they recovered a single at Epstein’s Palm Seaside, Florida, mansion in 2005.
A police officer testified that investigators also seized documents, computer systems and sex toys — a photo of which was revealed to the jury — from the residence.
Prosecutors confirmed jurors a law enforcement videotape of the home that captured illustrations or photos of nude pics on the walls – decor that federal prosecutors assert is proof of a sexualized ambiance encouraged by Maxwell to put stress on the victims.
The proof was presented in excess of defense objections calling it prejudicial. Defense lawyer Bobbi Sternheim accused prosecutors of hoping to unfairly depict Epstein’s dwelling as a “domicile of debauchery.”
Prosecutors have alleged the British socialite groomed teen women by getting them on buying journeys and film outings, conversing to them about their lives and encouraging them to acknowledge financial aid from Epstein. The governing administration also claims she assisted to make a sexually billed atmosphere by talking with the women about sexual intercourse and instructing them on the alleged sexualized massages of Epstein.
Maxwell, 59, denies the allegations against her, and her legal professionals say prosecutors are going just after her because they just can’t test Epstein, who dedicated suicide in jail right before he could go to demo. She was Epstein’s onetime girlfriend and, later, employee.
The accuser, utilizing the pseudonym “Jane” to shield her privacy, testified previously this 7 days that when she first frequented the Epstein household she was disturbed by “some paintings of, like, bare girls or 50 percent-naked girls.” In the massage space off of a master bed room Epstein and Maxwell shared, the pair have been “showing me, you know, what he likes, what — you know, what guys like, what girls like.”
Also on Friday, previous Epstein housekeeper Juan Patricio Alessi returned to the witness stand to experience cross-examination above his testimony that “Jane” and an additional female who has accused Epstein of sexually abusing her as a teenager were being repeated website visitors at the Palm Seaside mansion, the place Maxwell was “the woman of the residence.”
A law firm for Maxwell sought to discredit Alessi — who labored for Epstein from 1990 to 2002 — by confronting him with a deposition from a civil case that the protection says was inconsistent with his demo testimony.
Alessi claimed on Friday that none of the numerous young girls who frequented the Florida property alerted him to any misconduct.
“I want they would have because I would have performed anything,” he mentioned.
