A federal judge in New York on Wednesday denied a motion to dismiss a lawsuit against Prince Andrew brought by Virginia Giuffre, a woman who alleges she was sex-trafficked for royalty when she was a minor.
“Ms. Giuffre’s complaint is neither ‘unintelligible’, ‘vague,’ nor ‘ambiguous,'” Judge Lewis Kaplan wrote in the ruling. “It alleges discrete incidents of sexual abuse in particular circumstances in three identifiable locations. who attributes this sexual abuse.”
Giuffre alleged in the lawsuit that the late financier Jeffrey Epstein trafficked her and forced her to have sex with her friends, including the prince, and that Andrew was aware that she was a minor (17) at the time. She claims the prince sexually abused her on Epstein’s private island in the US Virgin Islands, at his Manhattan mansion and at his ex-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell’s London home.
Prince Andrew denied the allegations and decided to drop the case. THE CNN contacted their attorneys for further comments.
The decision sets out a series of legal procedures for Queen Elizabeth II’s third child that could have major ramifications for Buckingham Palace. Longstanding allegations against Andrew, 61, have already tarnished his public stance, and he stepped down from royal duties in late 2019.
Andrew has until July 14 to answer questions about the case under oath, following a decision made by Kaplan last year. If the case is not resolved, Prince Andrew could face a trial date between September and December 2022.
Buckingham Palace declined to comment, saying, “We would not comment on what is an ongoing legal issue.”
Giuffre’s attorney, Sigrid McCawley, said the judge’s ruling is “another important step in Virginia’s heroic and determined pursuit of justice as a sex trafficking survivor.”
The civil suit stems from the wide-ranging and disturbing allegations against Epstein, the wealthy sex offender who befriended a host of powerful men despite an incomplete story.
Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to state prostitution charges and in July 2019 was indicted on federal sex trafficking charges. Prosecutors accused him of carrying out a decades-long scheme of sexual abuse of underage girls, taking them on private planes to his properties in Florida, New York, New Mexico and the US Virgin Islands.
He committed suicide in prison before his trial.
Maxwell, his ex-girlfriend and close associate, was arrested in 2020 and charged with facilitating the abuse scheme. A federal jury convicted her in December on five federal counts, including child sex trafficking and conspiracy.
Giuffre was not one of four women who testified at Maxwell’s trial that they had been abused. Still, she was mentioned at trial when Carolyn, one of the victims, testified that Giuffre had recruited her to go to Epstein’s home in Palm Beach, Florida.
Kaplan’s decision on Wednesday allowed the process to continue, but he did not determine the facts or the validity of the case.
The prince’s lawyers argued that Giuffre’s lawsuit violated the terms of her 2009 settlement with Epstein in Florida, in which she agreed to a “general release” of the claims against Epstein and others.
That settlement, which was made public last week, shows that Epstein paid Giuffre $500,000 to drop the case without any admission of responsibility or blame. The prince’s name does not appear explicitly as a party.
However, Giuffre’s lawyer, David Boies, argued that the settlement is irrelevant to his claim against the prince, noting that Andrew did not know this at the time and that it did not apply to him.
In the ruling, Kaplan wrote that both sides had presented “reasonable interpretations” of the deal’s meaning.
“The agreement, therefore, is ambiguous. Thus, the determination of the meaning of release language in the 2009 Agreement must await further proceedings,” he wrote.
Giuffre presented his case under the Child Victims Act, a New York state law enacted in 2019 that temporarily expanded the statute of limitations in child sexual abuse cases to give survivors more opportunities to seek justice.
Prince Andrew’s lawyers argued that the law is unconstitutional, but the judge rejected the argument, citing another judge’s analysis that this line of argument was “creative” but “without merit”.
Furthermore, the judge denied the defense’s request for a clearer statement of the facts by Giuffre, writing in his opinion that Prince Andrew will naturally get more details about the allegations during the pre-trial discovery process. Kaplan also rejected the defense’s claim that Giuffre’s allegations in the complaint are vague or ambiguous.
Or that Giuffre alleges
In claims made before filing the suit, Giuffre alleged that in 2001 Epstein brought her to London, where she was introduced to Prince Andrew and went dancing in a nightclub with Epstein, Maxwell and the prince.
In a BBC interview broadcast in 2019, Giuffre said she was taken to the Tramp nightclub where, according to Giuffre, Andrew asked her to dance and was “sweating all over me”.
Andrew has denied the allegations, telling the BBC in 2019: “It didn’t happen. I can categorically say that it never happened. I don’t remember meeting this lady, absolutely none.”
He claimed in the same interview that he couldn’t break a sweat, due to a rare medical condition, and that the night he reportedly had sex with Giuffre, he was actually taking his daughter to a pizzeria party in Woking, southwest London.
Giuffre’s lawyers asked Andrew in court documents to provide documents that substantiate both claims. Andrew’s team responded that he couldn’t do it, because he doesn’t have documents proving a medical condition that prevents sweating and couldn’t identify anyone he found at the pizzeria.
This content was originally created in English.
original version
Reference: CNN Brasil
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