Jeffrey Epstein - Criminal Indictments
Epstein was investigated by the Palm Beach Police Department for allegedly sexually abusing five young girls, all under the age of 16 years, at his mansion. In addition, several other young girls who were not yet 18 years old also alleged that they were sexually abused by Jeffrey Epstein at his mansion. The Palm Beach Police Department contacted State Attorney Barry Krischer and asked that he charge Epstein with four counts of unlawful sexual activity with a minor and one count of lewd and lascivious molestation. If convicted of those charges, Epstein would have been sent to prison for decades.
Epstein was charged with one count of sex trafficking of minors, which carries a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison, and one count of conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking of minors, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. The indictment alleged that, between 2002 through 2005, EPSTEIN sexually exploited and abused dozens of underage girls by enticing them to engage in sex acts with him in exchange for money. Epstein allegedly worked with several employees and associates to ensure that he had a steady supply of minor victims to abuse, and paid several of those victims themselves to recruit other underage girls to engage in similar sex acts for money. He committed these offenses in locations including New York, New York, and Palm Beach, Florida.
Instead, in July 2006, a Florida state grand jury indicted Epstein in a state court on a single count of felony solicitation of prostitution. The Government’s prosecutors then secretly discussed the case for months with Epstein’s enormous legal defense team, which sought to deflect the prosecutors from filing the well-supported, 53-page indictment they had already drafted. Epstein was able to negotiate a secret, pre-indictment non-prosecution agreement (NPA) with federal prosecutors. Even after the agreement was consummated, Government lawyers did not confer with Epstein’s child sex abuse victims about it and misled them about the agreement’s existence.
Epstein struck a “sweetheart” plea deal in 2008 with former Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta, who was then the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida. The 2008 plea deal with federal prosecutors in Florida waived wrongdoing by any potential coconspirators in the case, according to The Miami Herald. The plea agreement sentenced Epstein to 13 months in a private cell with an unlocked door and television, and six or seven days with 12-hour periods out of his cell per week. In February 2019, after more than a decade of litigation, the district court ruled that in orchestrating the secret deal, the Government had “misled” Epstein victims and thus violated their Crime Victims’ Rights Act (CVRA) right to confer. Acosta resigned as U.S. labor secretary in July as the deal came under fresh scrutiny after Epstein's 2019 arrest in New York.
Jeffrey Epstein was arrested 06 July 2019 and charged with sex trafficking of minors and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors. Federal prosecutors charged Epstein with crimes related to sex trafficking of underage girls, more than a decade after he dodged similar charges with a plea deal. Epstein was arrested in New Jersey night and pleaded not guilty to one count of sex trafficking and one count of sex trafficking conspiracy on Monday. He will remain in jail until his bail hearing on July 15.
A search of Epstein’s New York property turned up “nude photographs of what appeared to be underage girls,” prosecutor Geoffrey Berman told a press conference. According to the indictment, Epstein was accused of having “worked and conspired with others, including employees and associates” to groom and sexually exploit minors. Epstein supposedly lured “dozens” of minors as young as 14 to his properties in Florida and New York, where he coerced them to perform “massages” on him, before sexually abusing them. The disgraced billionaire paid the girls hundreds of dollars in cash for the encounters.
Federal prosecutors believe that Epstein used his massive fortune to “create a vast network of underage victims for him to sexually exploit.” He allegedly paid certain victims to work as “recruiters,” enticing more children to be abused. Epstein’s behavior, Berman said, “shocks the conscience.”
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