Ghislaine Maxwell complains that NYC jail staff shine flashlight in her cell every 15 minutes

"Ghislaine Maxwell, in quarantine in a Brooklyn federal jail due to coronavirus exposure, has endured a flashlight shined in her cell every 15 minutes while she sleeps, according to her defense attorney.

The new details from Maxwell's lawyer Bobbi Sternheim came in response to the government's claim the British socialite who was captured in New Hampshire last July was still able to prepare a defense while in quarantine for at least 14 days at the Metropolitan Detention Center. Maxwell has pleaded not guilty to charges of grooming victims of Jeffrey Epstein in the mid-1990s.

"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 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. In addition to camera surveillance in her cell, a supplemental camera follows her movement when she is permitted to leave her isolation cell," Sternheim wrote.

"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."

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