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