NEW YORK — The juror in the Ghislaine Maxwell case who failed to disclose that he was sexually abused as a child during jury selection had a bizarre explanation Tuesday for withholding the crucial information: He was distracted by a breakup.
“We just sat there for three hours. I didn’t have a phone. I didn’t have a book. I was sitting twiddling my thumbs thinking about the breakup that happened a few weeks prior,” Scotty David testified in Manhattan Federal Court.
David’s failure to share his past experience has thrown the guilty verdict against Maxwell into doubt. The British socialite says she deserves a new trial because David was not truthful on the questionnaire. David gave interviews to media outlets after the verdict revealing that he had shared his sexual assault experience with fellow jurors during deliberations.
The juror was compelled to testify under an immunity order issued by Judge Alison Nathan, who directly questioned David on the stand.
“Have you or a friend or family member ever been the victim of sexual harassment, sexual abuse, or sexual assault?” read the 48th question on the questionnaire.
David checked “no.”
“Is ‘no’ an accurate answer to that question?” Nathan asked David.
“No, it is not,” David responded. He later added that he was 9 or 10 years old when the abuse occurred. His abuser, David said, “was a family member who was no longer a part of the family and their friend.”
“Did this happen on one occasion or on multiple occasions?” asked Nathan.
“Multiple occasions,” David said.
A false answer on a juror questionnaire can rise to the level of perjury. Nathan will rule whether Maxwell deserves a new trial after considering further arguments from prosecutors and the defense based on David’s new testimony.
David was among hundreds of New Yorkers surveyed to sit on the high-profile case charging Maxwell with grooming underage victims of Jeffrey Epstein over 10 years.
“I flew through this questionnaire. I honestly never thought I’d be chosen to sit on this jury,” he testified.
He later explained that his “no” answer was because he didn’t regard himself as the victim of a crime.
“It doesn’t define me,” David later said of the childhood abuse. “I have become the person I am today because of my goals and ambitions.”
Nathan asked if David had trouble answering questions accurately after he made to the next round of jury selection, which took place on Nov. 16.
“I answered every one of those questions accurately,” he said. “At that point, I wasn’t thinking about my ex.”
David and his fellow panelists deliberated for 40 hours over six days before finding Maxwell guilty of five of the six counts against her.
Nathan did not probe David on the exact nature of the abuse he suffered as a child, nor did she ask him any questions about what was discussed in the jury room.
“This is one of the biggest mistakes I’ve ever made in my life,” David said at one point, unprompted.
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