Ghislaine Maxwell Expert Has Testified in OJ, Ted Bundy Trials

Elizabeth Loftus is a psychologist specializing in false memories
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 9, 2021 3:15 AM CST
Ghislaine Maxwell Expert Has Testified in OJ, Ted Bundy Trials
In this courtroom sketch, Ghislaine Maxwell stands facing her attorney Bobbi Sternheim while a U.S. marshal removes her shackles in the courtroom prior to a hearing Monday, Nov. 1, 2021, in New York.   (AP Photo/Elizabeth Williams)

The defense wants a psychologist who specializes in false memories to testify at Ghislaine Maxwell's trial, and the team says she will testify that Maxwell's accusers could have false memories, the BBC reports. Elizabeth Loftus, whose research has showed that information we hear after an event can impact our memories, has testified at more than 300 trials, including Harvey Weinstein's, Ted Bundy's, Robert Durst's, Bill Cosby's, Jerry Sandusky's, and OJ Simpson's. She also testified for the defense of Paul Shanley, a priest convicted of raping a child, Law and Crime reports.

"She will describe scientific research showing that false memories can be described with confidence, detail, and emotion, just like true memories," the defense team says in a legal letter. It also says she will testify that "suggestive activities," including media coverage, can trigger false memories. Maxwell has pleaded not guilty to charges that she groomed underage girls for pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, and another expert the defense wants to bring in, forensic psychiatrist Park Dietz, will argue that there is "no authority—no journal articles, no studies, no tests, nothing—to support a theory of grooming-by-proxy," and thus there is no evidence Maxwell did any such thing, the letter states. The judge will decide Wednesday which experts will be allowed to testify. (More Ghislaine Maxwell stories.)

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