In a civil action initiated by a woman who has accused Prince Andrew of sexual assault, Prince Andrew's lawyers have written to a US court requesting a jury trial.
At the residences of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, Virginia Giuffre, 38, claims that Prince Andrew sexually abused her when she was a teenager. All of the allegations leveled against the Duke of York have been repeatedly refuted.
Giuffre had already requested a jury trial, according to a US lawyer, who dismissed it as a "PR move." Prince Andrew's request was "meaningless," according to Lisa Bloom, who represents several of Maxwell's and Epstein's victims because Giuffre had a constitutional right to a jury trial if she requested for one.
Prince Andrew's legal team urges jury trial
His legal team provided various reasons why they feel the lawsuit should be dropped in court filings submitted on Wednesday. The issue of consent was one of the issues they requested the court to address. Prince Andrew "admits that he met Epstein in or around 1999," according to the 11-page letter, but he denies that he was involved in any kind of abuse with the late financier. It also refutes Guiffre's allegation that Maxwell was a close friend of Prince Andrew's, according to BBC News.
The prince has denied the allegations, which have ruined his image and prompted him to resign as king, yet he has not been charged legally. Andrew was stripped of his honorary military titles and philanthropic positions after Judge Lewis Kaplan dismissed his petition to dismiss Giuffre's complaint earlier this month, making a civil trial in New York more likely.
After a night out dancing in March 2001, Giuffre, now 38, claims Andrew sexually raped her at the London house of socialite and Epstein acquaintance Ghislaine Maxwell. Last year, she filed a lawsuit against the prince, claiming that Epstein and Maxwell had smuggled her to him for undisclosed reasons. Last month, Maxwell was found guilty of sex trafficking.
In mid-January, Andrew and Giuffre's lawyers announced the first witnesses they want to question in the litigation. In a brief, Prince Andrew's lawyers stated that they were seeking evidence from Judith Lightfoot, Giuffre's psychologist in Australia, where she was born and raised.
The prince's legal team intended to question Lightfoot about what was spoken during her counseling sessions with Giuffre, according to lawyer Melissa Lerner. Lerner said in an official "letter of request" sent to Kaplan that would force testimony in Australia that the prince's attorneys contend that Giuffre "may suffer from false memories" and want to ask Lightfoot about the assertion of false recollections. Judge Kaplan was told in a separate document that Giuffre's attorneys intended to examine two witnesses located in the United Kingdom, including Shukri Walker, who claimed to have seen Andrew with a young girl in a London nightclub around the time of the alleged assault, as per NDTV.
Duke of York denies having a relationship with Ghislaine Maxwell
Prince Andrew acknowledges being a close acquaintance of convicted sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell but denies being a close buddy of pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. During the period 1994 to 2004, British socialite Maxwell, 60, was convicted on five counts of sex trafficking as well as other crimes for recruiting and grooming underage females for the late billionaire and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to abuse.
When US District Judge Alison Nathan sentenced Maxwell in New York, she faced a maximum term of 65 years in prison. According to the court documents, the Duke requests a jury trial on all of the asserted causes of action in the lawsuit. The action will now continue into discovery mode, with both sides requiring expert witnesses to be listed by May 13th. Both parties have the option of objecting to whom the other wants to call the next day.
Before the 15th of July, all discoveries, including depositions taken under oath by witnesses, must be delivered to the court. A trial is expected to begin sometime in September, if not before the end of the year, according to Judge Lewis Kaplan, Mirror reported.
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