The Massage Table - Ghislaine Maxwell Trial Day 5

Read about it on the internet

“This would have been a great moment if it was televised — but it isn’t.”

At the beginning of the day, the defense and the prosecution, represented by Maurene Comey, went back and forth on whether or not certain photographs found in the home & bedroom Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell shared while they lived together in Epstein’s Palm Beach mansion were admissible.

Comey was precise and prepared, and seemed frustrated with the defence’s obstructions.  Under discussion were two photographs, one which the prosecution described as “a sexualized photograph of a clearly underaged girl.”  The defense claimed that it was an innocent photo of a playful moment between Jeffrey Epstein and his goddaughter.

That picture, along with other sexualized and nude images, appear in a 2005 walkthrough video taken by the Palm Beach Police Department during a search of Epstein’s house.  They were entered into the record during the testimony of Gregory Parkinson, the PBPD head of Crime Scene Investigations who filmed the walkthrough.

The second photo allegedly appeared on Epstein’s desk.  It showed Epstein pulling down a young girl’s pants and play-acting as if he was going to bite her rear end.  The first photo, displayed at the entrance to the master bedroom that Maxwell and Epstein shared, showed a young prepubescent girl in her underpants.  It was the one the prosecution described as being “of a clearly underaged girl.”

The prosecution found these photos relevant, they argued, because it showed that how Epstein decorated his house contradicted his public reputation as a respectable, powerful figure who hobnobbed with the rich and famous.  They made this argument anticipating an argument the defense is already laying the groundwork for and will likely develop further, that Ghislaine Maxwell fell under the influence of Epstein’s public persona.  That was his public image, the prosecution will argue, but his private image wasn’t the same, and Maxwell knew it.

By introducing the salacious decorating choices of Epstein, which included a desk covered with racy images of young girls in a room Epstein shared with Maxwell, the prosecution can demonstrate that Maxwell couldn’t possibly have been taken in by a “halo effect’’ (they referenced this concept explicitly), because she knew how he behaved in private.

The defense, for their part, argued that these pictures of Epstein with his goddaughter were innocent, the type of playful shots many parents have with their young children.  When the defense made this argument, the prosecutor, Maurene Comey, stood with her arms crossed, looking impatient.

This discussion in the morning was a prelude to the testimony of Parkinson, who began testifying in the afternoon.  Parkinson was unable to mention the liquid he said he found on the massage table, which resembled semen to him.  The judge barred this detail from being mentioned because the liquid was never preserved or tested.

Parkinson, who has a career in law enforcement stretching back to 1966, testified with clinical precision, describing dates, cardinal directions, and memories with rigorous recall.  The October 20th, 2005 search of Epstein’s home wasn’t Parkinson’s first time in the house.  Two years before, he’d been called to the Palm Beach property on a report of stolen money.  “Two years, 15 days,” Parkinson clarified dryly.

This was the money that Juan Alessi stole from Epstein, which he testified about over the past two days.

Ghislaine Maxwell wore white today, which made her look much more pale .  But she looked like she was in good spirits, wrapping her arm warmly around her lawyer Bobbi Sternheim while conferring with her.

Parkinson testified that his role during the search was to first do a protective sweep of the house for officer safety.  Then, he read the search warrant to the property manager Jan. Parkinson made a video of himself walking through the house, then the team took a series of still photos and collected evidence.  When the search ended, the Palm Beach Police Department took the seized evidence back to the police department.  After this, the FBI called and said they wanted the evidence.  The FBI came down, Parkinson recalled, and his men and theirs formed a human chain to load the evidence away.  The FBI “signed for it, and it was gone.”

Parkinson remembered searching the house with Detective Joseph Recarey (the lead detective on the Palm Beach Epstein investigation, who built the first criminal investigation against Jeffrey Epstein, Recarey died in 2018), Sergeant Michael Dawson, and Detective Sandman.  Parkinson described many of the rooms in the house, and some of the pictures he saw on the walls, including one showing Epstein with Pope John Paul II.

Many of the exhibits taken as evidence from the house were entered under seal to protect third party rights or the identity of witnesses testifying anonymously.  

One exhibit that was brought out openly into the courtroom was the seafoam green massage table seized as evidence from Epstein’s house.  Parkinson pulled on a pair of black rubber gloves and inspected the table, rubbed his hand along the top, and inspected the clasp. 

“This would have been a great moment if it was televised,” a reporter next to me commented.  “But it isn’t.”

The massage table was a little taller than a desk, with a light wooden bottom.  An exhibit of the manufacturer’s label showed it was manufactured in Vista, California, by a company called Earthlite.  

After Parkinson was done with the table, a court officer folded the table up, leaned it against the prosecution’s table for the duration of the day’s proceedings.