THE RISE AND FALL OF THE RICH AND POWERFUL: WHO IS JEFFREY EPSTEIN?

Pulling back the curtain of the case that never was.

BY ANNA WONDRASEK │ ILLUSTRATIONS BY ABBY LASHBROOK

Jeffrey Epstein’s case is not unique. Stories of wealthy, powerful men being granted leniency in the United States legal system can be found throughout history, particularly in recent history. R. Kelly, Robert H. Richards IV, and Michael Jackson were all acquitted of rape or child molestation. However, Epstein’s case stands out, not only because of the sheer number of victims and witnesses, but also because of the way his case was handled, beginning with the original accusations uncovered in 2005. Epstein’s death on Aug. 10, 2019 may have put an end to the abuse from him in particular, but the trauma endured by the victims, and the legacy of this case, will live on for years to come.

In March of 2005, a 14-year-old girl and her parents went to the Palm Beach Police Department. They told a story of a local mansion where its powerful whitehaired owner paid the girl to give him a massage. He had told her to strip down to her underwear and masturbated himself as she massaged his chest.

On its own, this story is disturbing enough. But within days of the first victim coming forward, another does, and her story was almost identical.

Detective Joseph Recarey, who worked the case in 2005, has described Epstein’s setup as a “sexual pyramid scheme.” Young girls were lured in with the promise of $200 or more for giving Epstein a massage and would be given another $200 bonus if they brought him another girl. Epstein’s girls were usually between the ages of 14 and 16, and once they got older, they were used primarily as recruiters, not masseuses.

The investigation began in April of 2005. On Oct. 20 of that year, the police had gathered enough corroborating statements to execute a search warrant at Epstein’s Palm Beach mansion. Inside the house, police found photographs of several girls on Epstein’s hard drive, appearing to have been taken from a security camera on his desk. They also found the pink-andgreen couch that had been described by many of the girls and the soap shaped like genitalia in the bathrooms.

However, the house had clearly been swept of everything that Epstein considered “incriminating.” The police had also subpoenaed telephone records and had conducted surveillance on Epstein and his associates.

Detective Recarey considered his case to be airtight. By February of 2006, police had identified 47 girls who had been molested at Epstein’s mansion, all of whom were telling very similar stories, even though most had never met. On May 1, 2006, the police signed a probable cause affidavit charging Epstein and two of his associates with one count of lewd and lascivious behavior and four counts of unlawful sex acts with a minor. But instead of granting his approval for the arrest, the state attorney, Barry Krischer, came back to police with a plea deal – Epstein was to be charged with a misdemeanor, five years of probation, and would have to undergo a psychological evaluation. When the police rejected this deal, Krischer referred the case on to a grand jury.

This was a highly unusual move in a case like this: in Florida, grand juries are only required for capital cases, and are otherwise usually only recommended in cases involving public officials. Epstein was wealthy and had extreme influence, but he was not a public official.

Despite Detective Recarey’s protests and outrage, the grand jury was convened for July 19, 2006, and came back with their verdict on July 28. They recommended that Epstein be charged with one felony count of solicitation of prostitution; there was no mention that the girls were underage. This led to the chief of the Palm Beach Police Department, Michael Reiter, calling the FBI and the federal prosecutor’s office because he believed the state attorney was not allowing this case to be prosecuted the way it should have been.

At the time, the federal prosecutor was Alexander Acosta, whose name might be familiar, as he would later become Trump’s secretary of labor.

Calling in Acosta backfired. In an extraordinary and unprecedented turn of events, Acosta and the prosecution team drafted a non-prosecution agreement with Epstein’s defense team without notifying or consulting with the victims. This agreement specified that Epstein would plead guilty to one count of solicitation of prostitution and one count of solicitation of prostitution with a minor. It provided him and his named accomplices with immunity from being prosecuted on a federal level and granted “any potential co-conspirators” immunity as well. Had Epstein not signed this agreement, the Department of Justice found that he would face a 53-page indictment and could be federally prosecuted.

But on Sept. 24, 2007, Epstein signed this agreement, once again without the federal prosecutors notifying or consulting any of his victims, and the original 53- page indictment was scrapped.

It was to this agreement that Epstein plead guilty on June 30, 2008, and was sentenced to 18 months in the county jail, although he was given work release of 6 days a week, 12 hours a day. He was also required to register as a convicted sex offender. This makes his work release permission unique, as Florida does not grant work release to convicted sex offenders. Epstein was released from jail in July of 2009, five months earlier than his original sentence had dictated.

If Epstein was convicted of soliciting prostitution with a minor in 2008, how was he arrested again more than a decade later on July 6, 2019? After all, the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution prohibits multiple prosecutions and punishments for the same offense. As similar as they might seem, however, the 2008 charges and the 2019 charges are different. In 2008, Epstein was convicted of one count of solicitation of prostitution and one count of solicitation of prostitution with a minor. In 2019, Epstein was charged with one count of sex trafficking of minors and one count of conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking of minors. In Florida, where Epstein was convicted, a first offense solicitation of prostitution is a second- degree misdemeanor and can be penalized with up to one year in jail, and solicitation of prostitution of a minor is a second-degree felony punishable by up to 10 years in jail. The latter is punishable regardless of whether you knew the prostitute was underage or not. On the federal level, however, sex trafficking of minors is punishable with a sentence that ranges from 10 years to life, depending on the nature of the crime. Had Epstein gone through a trial, he could have faced a maximum of 45 years in federal prison.

Epstein’s arrest was a victory for his victims who had been fighting various battles over the past decade to get the justice they deserved. Various civil cases had been filed, but most had been settled out of court, and the terms of those settlements were confidential. Possibly the most famous of these is a defamation lawsuit brought against Epstein’s accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, by Virginia Roberts Giuffre in 2015. Maxwell, the youngest daughter of a British publishing mogul, became a close associate of Epstein once moving to the United States. In her civil suit, Giuffre included descriptions of sexual abuse, not only from Epstein, but from several other powerful figures as well; these included Harvard lawyer Alan Dershowitz, Defendant Ghislaine Maxwell, and Prince Andrew, among others.

The case was settled in 2017, but the records were unsealed in August of 2019 by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on the grounds that the judge in charge of the case had improperly sealed hundreds of filings.

Despite Epstein’s death on Aug. 10, 2019, women have continued to come forward with the intent of holding Epstein’s enablers and accomplices accountable. Although Epstein’s death means that they will not be able to face him in court, these lawsuits may still provide opportunities for these women, as well as the American public, to get answers about how many people were actually involved in the abuse. In one lawsuit filed against Epsten’s estate on Aug. 20, 2019, three women identified only as Katlyn, Priscilla, and Lisa Doe allege that they were promised medical treatment and much-needed surgeries in exchange for sexual favors and domestic chores performed for Epstein and his circle of friends. Katlyn Doe adds that Epstein forced her to marry one of his female associates in order for the associate to stay in the country.

Investigations are not limited to the United States, either. According to the New York Times, as of Aug. 23, 2019, a French prosecutor is also looking into possible crimes committed in France, as well as any potential French accomplices. One target in particular is Jean-Luc Brunel, a French modeling agent. He has been accused of procuring girls for Epstein under the guise of helping them jumpstart their modeling careers, though he has not been specifically named or charged by French prosecutors. As of Sept. 11, 2019, three alleged victims had come forward, saying that they had been abused by Epstein and his associates.

Ultimately, this case is likely to drag on for months, maybe even years. Resolving it will not be straightforward – there are too many unknown variables that are still being investigated, such as the number of people involved and the number of victims. Every time new evidence comes to light, it seems as if there are at least three new unknown variables, and it will be time consuming for investigators to unravel all of the evidence and tie up the loose ends.

Although Epstein’s death complicates matters by eliminating a primary source of evidence for investigators, lawyers for the victims have taken a more optimistic view. His victims may struggle with the psychological and emotional trauma he inflicted on them for the rest of their lives, but at least with his death, he can no longer harm anyone else.