Jeffrey Epstein’s victims sue and claim he was given a ‘sweetheart deal’ giving him immunity after he pleaded guilty to hiring teen for sex

 

Jefrey Epstein with an unknown companion

 

Jeffrey Epstein’s victims sue and claim he was given a ‘sweetheart deal’ giving him immunity after he pleaded guilty to hiring teen for sex

  • Two of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims have filed a lawsuit against the government saying they were misled about his ‘sweetheart deal’
  • The women, who were 13 and 14 at the time they were abused, said they were never told Epstein would not face federal charges for his offenses 
  • Lawyers for the girls also say in the filing that the U.S. Attorney made it seem that charges were coming even after the plea agreement was signed
  • The girls provided emails between the defense, U.S. Attorney and State Attorney discussing how to keep victims unaware of the plea deal
  • Epstein pleaded guilty to a single state charge of soliciting an underage girl for prostitution despite more than 30 victims being identified in 2008
  • He served just 13 months of his 18-month sentence, going to a local jail and not a prison where he was allowed to leave six days a week for work

A decade after police began an investigation into claims that financier Jeffrey Epstein had solicited teenage girls for sex, two women who the government designated as underage victims at the time have filed a lawsuit over his ‘sweetheart deal.’

The women, identified as Jane Doe 1 and Jane Doe 2, claim in court papers filed Wednesday that they were unaware of the secret deal being made between the defense team and prosecutors back in 2007 that guaranteed federal charges would not be brought against Epstein, 63, which could have resulted in a lengthy prison sentence for the billionaire.

They filed their lawsuit a few months after Epstein received his lenient sentence in 2008, with their lawyers saying the U.S. Attorney’s Office violated the federal Crime Victims’ Rights Act by not speaking with Epstein’s victims about the details of his plea agreement.

The two victims who filed the suit were 13 and 14 at the time of the abuse.

More trouble: Two of Jeffrey Epstein's victims have filed a lawsuit against the government saying they were misled about his 'sweetheart deal' (Epstein outside his Manhattan townhouse in December)

More trouble: Two of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims have filed a lawsuit against the government saying they were misled about his ‘sweetheart deal’ (Epstein outside his Manhattan townhouse in December)

Suit: The women, who were 13 and 14 at the time they were abused, said they were never told Epstein would not face federal charges for the offenses that happened at his Palm Beach mansion (above)

Suit: The women, who were 13 and 14 at the time they were abused, said they were never told Epstein would not face federal charges for the offenses that happened at his Palm Beach mansion (above)

In the end: Epstein (above in 2005) pleaded guilty to a single state charge of soliciting an underage girl for prostitution despite more than 30 victims being identified

In the end: Epstein (above in 2005) pleaded guilty to a single state charge of soliciting an underage girl for prostitution despite more than 30 victims being identified

This new 56-page filing, which was obtained by the Palm Beach Daily News, has more than 140 exhibits including emails between Epstein’s defense team, the U.S. Attorney’s office and former State Attorney Barry Krischer, which lawyers believe clearly show that victims were being left in the dark.

Brad Edwards and Paul Cassell, who filed on behalf of the women, are now hoping that U.S. District Judge Kenneth Marra will not force the case to go to trial but rather given what they believe is overwhelming evidence rule in the favor of the two victims.

‘There is good reason to believe that if the prosecutors had exposed their dealings to scrutiny by Jane Doe 1, Jane Doe 2 and other victims, they would not have reached such a sweetheart plea deal,’ the motion reads.

‘Despite the fact that this case has been in litigation for more than seven years, spanning several hundred pleadings, the government does not write even a single sentence explaining why it entered into an NPA (non-prosecution agreement) with a sex offender who had committed hundreds of federal sex offenses against young girls.’

The motion also says that the deal Epstein received is ‘one of the most extraordinarily lenient plea arrangements in American history.’

Police in Palm Beach turned over the information they had gathered on Epstein’s victims to federal authorities in November 2006 after investigating the case for roughly a year following an initial call in March 2005 from a woman who claimed her daughter, 14, had been paid $300 to give Epstein a massage in just her underwear.

Local authorities also filed a probable cause affidavit in May 2006 saying they believed there was enough evidence to charge Epstein with four counts of unlawful sex with minors and one count of molestation.

In the end, these charges were taken to a grand jury despite the recommendation of police, who came back with just one charge against Epstein – felony solicitation of prostitution.

Epstein initially pleaded not guilty to that charge in August 2006, but changed that plea after singing his plea agreement a little over a year later.

On June 30, 2008 Epstein pleaded guilty to a single state charge of soliciting an underage girl for prostitution, and ultimately served just 13 months of his 18-month sentence.

That time was served not in a prison, but rather the Palm Beach Stockade, which is a local detention center.

Epstein was also allowed to leave six days a week to go work out of his West Palm Beach office during his time behind bars.

After his release he did have to register as a sex offender.

Shortly after Esptein’s release his butler Alfredo Rodriguez – whose duties included washing sex toys he would find scattered on the floor of Epstein’s many houses according to New York – also received an 18-month prison sentence on an obstruction charge when it was discovered that he had been trying to sell a journal in which he recorded his boss’ activities.

DailyMail.com revealed that Rodriguez kept a black book of Epstein’s contacts — which he referred to as ‘The Holy Grail.’ or ‘Golden Nugget.’ The dozens of entries included contact details for A-list names including former President Bill Clinton, Mick Jagger, Donald Trump, Earl Spencer, Barbara Walters, Henry Kissinger and at least three members of the Kennedy clan.

Court papers state that Rodriguez argued that he needed to keep the journal as insurance – as he feared Epstein would make him ‘disappear’.

Court papers also reveal that Rodriguez witnessed nude girls whom he believed were underage at the pool area of the home and knew that his former employer was engaging in sexual contact with underage girls and had viewed pornographic images of underage girls on his home computers.

U.S. District Judge Marra, who is the same man being asked to consider this current lawsuit, said when he was sentencing Rodriguez for obstruction; ‘If this book had been produced when requested, Mr. Epstein’s sentence may have been significantly different.’

Jeffrey Epstein

Jeffrey Epstein

Lenient: Epstein (above) served just 13 months of his 18-month sentence, going to a local jail and not a prison where he was allowed to leave six days a week for work

Same: Epstein's butler Alfredo Rodriguez (above) received the same 18-month sentence as his boss in 2010 when it was discovered he was trying to sell his journal with information about some victims

Same: Epstein’s butler Alfredo Rodriguez (above) received the same 18-month sentence as his boss in 2010 when it was discovered he was trying to sell his journal with information about some victims

This new filing claims that Epstein – who was facing up to 15 years in prison on that one conviction – was able to get his ‘sweetheart deal’ due to the pressure his legal team placed on State Attorney Krischer and U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta, both of whom have since left those positions.

Epstein’s team was made up of some of the country’s most prominent legal minds, including Alan Dershowitz, Roy Black and Kenneth Starr.

Dershowitz later got caught up in some of the allegations as well when he was accused of having sex with an underage girl procured by Epstein, something he strongly denied and said was completely false.

The defense team, U.S. Attorney and State Attorney ‘were conferring daily’ according to this new court filing, with Epstein’s team working to get him immunity from federal charges by paying restitution to the victims.

Epstein then signed a non-prosecution agreement in September 2007, meaning he would only be facing state charges for his crimes.

The victims where never notified of this non-prosecution agreement over the course of the next nine months according to the filing, though many did begin to receive restitution after being identified as victims by the government – including Jane Doe 1 and Jane Doe 2.

One of the victim’s attorneys, Edwards, also claims that he was led to believe that federal charges would still be filed as of June 2008, just days before Epstein pleaded guilty to the one state charge.

The court filing also claims that at this same time the government was working with Epstein about how to keep his victims from ever learning the details of his non-prosecution agreement and how to handle and defend the situation should it ever become public.

Epstein now splits his time between his townhouse in Manhattan’s Upper East Side, his Palm Beach mansion and a U.S. Virgin Islands property in Little Saint James.

He has never been married

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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3442403/Jeffrey-Epstein-underage-abuse-victims-sue-government-saying-kept-dark-sweetheart-deal-giving-immunity-pleaded-guilty-hiring-teen-sex.html