Ghislaine Maxwell Is Woken up in Jail Every 15 Minutes to See If She’s Still Breathing: Lawyer

Ghislaine Maxwell appears via video link during her arraignment hearing where she was denied bail for her role aiding Jeffrey Epstein to recruit and eventually abuse of minor girls, in Manhattan Federal Court, in the Manhattan borough of New York City, on July 14, 2020. Jane Rosenberg/Reuters

Longtime Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell is being checked on every 15 minutes to make sure she’s breathing, her lawyer claimed this week.

Maxwell, 58, is in prison in New York City on charges related to Epstein’s sexual abuse of underage girls. She was moved to quarantine last week because a prison employee tested positive for COVID-19.

Maxwell’s lawyer said in a new court filing that the government left out a variety of issues in describing how Maxwell is being held.

That included being ordered to remove her mask for an in-mouth inspection after being threatened with a 21-day quarantine period if she did not, further exposing her to the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, which causes COVID-19, attorney Bobbi Sternheim told the judge in a letter.

Maxwell tested negative twice before that, according to Sternheim.

“Ms. Maxwell was initially quarantined without soap or a toothbrush ... [and] medical and psychology staff, who checked on Ms. Maxwell daily pre-quarantine, have ceased doing so daily since quarantine and have neither informed her of results of the COVID tests nor provided information in response to her inquiry regarding what she should do if she becomes symptomatic,” the lawyer continued.

While staff members aren’t supposed to enter the isolation cell Maxwell is being held in during the quarantine, an unidentified man entered to take photographs and a guard entered to search the cell, according to the filing.

An exterior view of the Metropolitan Detention Center in New York City on July 14, 2020. Arturo Holmes/Getty Images

“The government highlights what Ms. Maxwell is permitted but not what she is denied: equal treatment accorded other inmates in general population. Ms. Maxwell has spent the entirely [sic] of her pretrial detention in de facto solitary confinement under the most restrictive conditions where she is excessively and invasively searched and is monitored 24 hours per day,” Sternheim wrote.

“In addition to camera surveillance in her cell, a supplemental camera follows her movement when she is permitted to leave her isolation cell and is focused on Ms. Maxwell and counsel during in-person legal visits. And despite non-stop in-cell camera surveillance, Ms. Maxwell’s sleep is disrupted every 15-minutes when she is awakened by a flashlight to ascertain whether she is breathing.”

The Bureau of Prisons did not respond to a request for comment.

U.S. District Court Judge Alison Nathan, an Obama appointee, ordered the parties to meet and confer regarding Maxwell’s request that the jail’s warden directly address her concerns about her detention conditions.

The parties were ordered to jointly submit a status update by Dec. 1.