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Jeffrey Epstein Is Denied Bail in Sex Crimes Case Jeffrey Epstein Is Denied Bail in Sex Crimes Case
(about 3 hours later)
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A federal judge on Thursday denied bail for Jeffrey Epstein, the financier facing sex-trafficking charges, rejecting his request to await trial under home detention at his Upper East Side mansion. A federal judge on Thursday denied bail for Jeffrey Epstein, the financier facing sex-trafficking charges in Manhattan, rejecting his request to await trial under home detention at his Upper East Side mansion.
The judge, Richard M. Berman of Federal District Court in Manhattan, said Mr. Epstein, who owns property in Paris and has a private plane, would be detained in jail until his trial on charges that he sexually abused and trafficked dozens of underage girls in the early 2000s. The judge, Richard M. Berman of Federal District Court, said Mr. Epstein’s “past sexual conduct is not likely to have abated," and he was concerned that if Mr. Epstein were released, he would continue to abuse teenage girls.
Judge Berman emphasized Mr. Epstein’s danger to others, particularly his accusers and “prospective victims as well.” The judge cited what he called “compelling testimony” by two of the accusers — Annie Farmer and Courtney Wild — who said at a hearing on Monday that they feared for their safety and the safety of others if Mr. Epstein were to be released. “Mr. Epstein’s alleged excessive attraction to sexual conduct with or in the presence of minor girls — which is said to include his soliciting and receiving massages from young girls and young women perhaps as many as four times a day — appears likely to be uncontrollable,” Judge Berman wrote in a bail decision.
Mr. Epstein’s lawyers had proposed allowing him to post a substantial bond and remain in his mansion guarded around the clock by private security guards, whom he would pay. Prosecutors vigorously opposed that proposal, saying he was seeking “special treatment” and trying to build his own private jail — a “gilded cage.” The judge said he had taken into account the statements of two of Mr. Epstein’s accusers — Annie Farmer and Courtney Wild — who he said had “movingly testified” in a hearing earlier in the week that they feared for their safety and the safety of others if Mr. Epstein were to be released.
Judge Berman said that Mr. Epstein’s proposed bail package was “irretrievably inadequate,” and that he would not entertain any other bail proposals from the financier’s legal team. A federal indictment has charged that between 2002 and 2005, Mr. Epstein and his employees paid dozens of underage girls to engage in sex acts with him at his homes in Manhattan and Palm Beach, Fla.
“I doubt that any bail package can overcome danger to the community,” the judge said. The indictment also accused Mr. Epstein of using some of his victims to recruit additional girls, paying his “victim-recruiters” hundreds of dollars for each girl they brought to him.
Prosecutors had also argued that Mr. Epstein’s fortune, said to be more than $500 million, would make it possible for him to flee the country if he were not detained. Ever since his July 6 arrest at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey after a flight from Paris, Mr. Epstein, 66, has been detained at the highly secure Metropolitan Correctional Center. His lawyers had proposed allowing him to post a substantial bond and remain in his mansion guarded by 24-hour security guards, at his expense.
The judge agreed, pointing to Mr. Epstein’s “great wealth and his vast resources,” including private planes and a residence in Paris. Prosecutors vigorously opposed that proposal, saying Mr. Epstein was seeking “special treatment” and trying to build his own private jail — a “gilded cage.”
Ever since his July 6 arrest at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey after a flight from Paris, Mr. Epstein, 66, has been detained at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, a highly secure jail in Manhattan that has housed accused terrorists, mobsters and even the Mexican cartel leader known as El Chapo. In a court hearing earlier Thursday, Judge Berman announced he was denying Mr. Epstein’s request, saying his proposed bail package was “irretrievably inadequate.”
A federal indictment charged that between 2002 and 2005, Mr. Epstein and his employees paid dozens of underage girls to engage in sex acts with him at his homes in Manhattan and Palm Beach, Fla. “I doubt that any bail package can overcome danger to the community,” the judge said in court.
The indictment also accused Mr. Epstein of using some of his victims to recruit additional girls for him to abuse. He paid his “victim-recruiters” hundreds of dollars for each girl they brought to him, prosecutors said. In his written opinion, the judge noted, “The crimes Mr. Epstein has been charged with are among the most heinous in the law principally, in the court’s view, because they involve minor girls.”
He has pleaded not guilty and has vowed to fight the charges, his lawyers said. If convicted, he faces up to 45 years in prison. One of Mr. Epstein’s lawyers, Marc Fernich, said of the judge’s ruling, “We expect to appeal and look forward to fighting the case.”
In 2008, Mr. Epstein pleaded guilty to two state prostitution charges in Florida as part of a secret, lenient deal he negotiated with the United States attorney in Miami to avoid federal prosecution. He served 13 months in jail. The judge also found that Mr. Epstein was a flight risk, citing his “vast wealth” — prosecutors said they believe he is worth more than $500 million — including private planes and residences in Paris and the Caribbean.
In seeking Mr. Epstein’s detention, prosecutors also sharply disputed his lawyers’ argument that for more than a decade he had lived a law-abiding life. They noted, for example, that he had tried to influence possible witnesses against him as recently as last year. The judge pointed to a safe the authorities said they found in Mr. Epstein’s mansion that contained piles of cash, dozens of diamonds and an expired passport issued by a foreign country (later identified as Austria). The passport had Mr. Epstein’s photo but a different name.
The prosecutors said Mr. Epstein had wired $350,000 to two people close to him who were potential witnesses just days after The Miami Herald revealed details last November about his deal to avoid federal prosecution in Florida. Mr. Epstein’s lawyers, writing to the judge on Tuesday, offered an explanation for the passport: They described Mr. Epstein as “an affluent member of the Jewish faith,” and said he had acquired the passport in the 1980s when hijackings were prevalent, in connection with Middle East travel.
On Monday, a prosecutor, Alexander Rossmiller, told the judge that investigators had also discovered a safe in Mr. Epstein’s mansion containing piles of cash, dozens of diamonds and a passport issued by a foreign country (later identified as Austria). The passport had his photo but a different name.
Mr. Epstein’s lawyers, writing to the judge on Tuesday, offered an explanation for the passport: They described Mr. Epstein as “an affluent member of the Jewish faith” and said he had acquired the passport in the 1980s when hijackings were prevalent, in connection with Middle East travel.
“The passport was for personal protection in the event of travel to dangerous areas, only to be presented to potential kidnappers, hijackers or terrorists should violent episodes occur,” they wrote.“The passport was for personal protection in the event of travel to dangerous areas, only to be presented to potential kidnappers, hijackers or terrorists should violent episodes occur,” they wrote.
Mr. Epstein has pleaded not guilty. If convicted, he faces up to 45 years in prison.
In 2008, Mr. Epstein pleaded guilty to two state prostitution charges in Florida as part of a secret, lenient deal he had negotiated with the United States attorney in Miami to avoid federal prosecution. He served 13 months in jail, but was allowed to leave for 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, to work.
In seeking Mr. Epstein’s detention, prosecutors had sharply disputed an argument by his lawyers that for more than a decade he had lived a law-abiding life. The government noted, for example, that Mr. Epstein tried to influence possible witnesses as recently as last year.
The prosecutors said Mr. Epstein had wired $350,000 to two people close to him days after the Miami Herald revealed details in November about his deal to avoid federal prosecution in Florida.
Judge Berman, in his opinion, wrote that the payments also were a basis for denying Mr. Epstein bail.
In court earlier in the day, as Judge Berman announced how he would rule, Mr. Epstein, seated at the defense table, stared ahead without apparent emotion.