 |
| Jennifer Araoz sued Ghislaine Maxwell in September but dropped the lawsuit against the British socialite on Monday |
Two Jeffrey Epstein accusers drop their cases against his estate and Ghislaine Maxwell indicating they have been awarded money under victim's compensation fund
Two women who were victims of Jeffrey Epstein have both independently dropped their cases against the pedophile's estate and Ghislaine Maxwell, according to new court documents.
Jennifer Araoz sued Maxwell, said to be Epstein's madam, in September for allegedly assisting in her recruitment as a sex slave when she was 14.
Araoz dropped her lawsuit against the British socialite on Monday, according to a Manhattan Supreme Court brief filing, the New York Post reports.
An unidentified woman who sued Epstein's estate in December has also dropped her claims, according to court records from Friday.
That woman, who anonymously sued under the name Jane Doe VII, was part of a group of nine accusers in the suit.
She claimed in the lawsuit that she was sexually abused by Epstein in 2007 when she was 22 years old.
The two dropping their cases could reflect that they were awarded money from the victims compensation fund set up for Epstein's accuser.
In a separate suit against Epstein's estate, Araoz claimed that the pedophile raped her when she was just 15. The case is still pending.
Last week, Araoz launched a foundation to help other victims of sexual abuse.
The trial of Ghislaine Maxwell is not scheduled to start until July, but prosecutors must turn over evidence to her lawyers by Monday.
Maxwell has pleaded not guilty to charges alleging that she recruited three girls in the mid-1990s for Epstein to abuse. Epstein killed himself in a Manhattan federal lockup in August 2019 as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges.
On Oct. 30, prosecutors said in a letter to a Manhattan federal court judge that they will in the next week give Maxwell's lawyers over 1.2 million documents from devices seized from Epstein's residences.
They say they've already turned over more than 350,000 pages of documents, including search warrants, subpoena returns and some records related to law enforcement investigations of Epstein.
Defense lawyers have complained since Maxwell's July arrest that prosecutors are slow walking the turnover of evidence the defense needs to prepare its arguments to challenge charges against the 58-year-old British socialite. The arguments are due Dec. 21.
Epstein died in jail while awaiting his sex trafficking trial in August 2019.
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!