This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/27/us/politics/jeffrey-epstein-death-report.html

The article has changed 3 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 1 Version 2
Report on Epstein’s Death Finds Errors and Mismanagement at Manhattan Jail Report on Epstein’s Death Finds Errors and Mismanagement at Manhattan Jail
(about 5 hours later)
Jeffrey Epstein, who was found dead in a cell with a bedsheet tied around his neck in 2019, died by suicide, not foul play — following a cascade of negligence and mismanagement at the now-shuttered federal jail in Manhattan where he was housed, according to the Justice Department’s inspector general. Jeffrey Epstein, who was found dead in a cell with a bedsheet tied around his neck in 2019, died by suicide, not foul play — after a cascade of negligence and mismanagement at the now-shuttered federal jail in Manhattan where he was housed, according to the Justice Department’s inspector general.
The inspector general, who released a report on Tuesday after a yearslong investigation, found that the leadership and staff members at the jail, the federal Metropolitan Correctional Center, created an environment in which Mr. Epstein, a financier charged with sex trafficking, had every opportunity to kill himself. In a report released on Tuesday after a yearslong investigation, the inspector general said that leaders and staff members at the jail, the federal Metropolitan Correctional Center, created an environment in which Mr. Epstein, a financier awaiting trial on sex trafficking and conspiracy charges, had every opportunity to kill himself.
The inspector general, Michael Horowitz, referred two supervisors at the facility responsible for ensuring Mr. Epstein’s safety for criminal prosecution by the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York after they were caught falsifying records and lying to investigators. But prosecutors declined to bring charges. The inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, referred two employees, including one supervisor, for criminal prosecution by the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York after they were caught falsifying records. But prosecutors declined to bring charges, the report said.
While the inspector general concluded the jail’s staff members “engaged in significant misconduct and dereliction of their duties,” investigators — who combed through 100,000 records and conducted dozens of interviews — “did not uncover evidence” that contradicted the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s finding that Mr. Epstein had died by his own hand, with a homemade noose. Even as the jail’s staff members “engaged in significant misconduct and dereliction of their duties,” investigators, who combed through more than 100,000 records and conducted dozens of interviews, “did not uncover evidence” that contradicted the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s finding that Mr. Epstein had died by his own hand, with a makeshift noose, the report said.
What they did find was a remarkable, and largely unexplained, succession of circumstances that made it easy for Mr. Epstein to kill himself. For reasons that remain unclear, the jail’s staff members allowed Mr. Epstein to hoard extra blankets, linens, bedding and clothing, despite the fact that he had tried to hang himself earlier. The report’s conclusions seem unlikely to quell widespread conspiracy theories about Mr. Epstein, whose philanthropy and high-profile relationships with politicians and Wall Street titans masked a darker pattern of abuse.
And they violated a standing order intended to prevent Mr. Epstein from self-harm, by allowing him to remain alone in his cell for a full day after his cellmate left — after one official sent an email to 70 Bureau of Prisons employees warning them that doing so was dangerous, according to the report. While the inspector general’s office found no evidence of a plan to kill Mr. Epstein, it described a remarkable, at times unexplained, succession of circumstances that made it easy for him to kill himself. For reasons that remain unclear, the jail’s staff members allowed Mr. Epstein to hoard extra blankets, linens, bedding and clothing, even though he had tried to hang himself earlier.
The inspector general’s report comes nearly four years after Mr. Epstein, 66, was found dead in his cell with a bedsheet tied around his neck. The medical examiner ruled the death a suicide. Mr. Epstein had been awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking and conspiracy charges, and if convicted, would have faced up to 45 years in prison. They also violated a directive intended to prevent Mr. Epstein from doing self-harm, by allowing him to remain alone in his cell for a full day after his cellmate left — one day before he was found dead. More than a week earlier, a jail psychologist had emailed more than 70 Bureau of Prisons employees, warning that Mr. Epstein needed to be housed with a cellmate, according to the report.
Almost immediately, an explosion of conspiracy theories suggested he had been killed because of potential secrets he held and his connections to politicians and Wall Street titans. “The combination of negligence, misconduct and outright job performance failures documented in this report all contributed to an environment in which arguably one of the B.O.P.’s most notorious inmates was provided with the opportunity to take his own life,” Mr. Horowitz’s report said.
Two days after Mr. Epstein’s death, Attorney General William P. Barr said that there had been “serious irregularities” at the jail. He later attributed the death to “a perfect storm of screw-ups.” Such failures, the report added, raised significant questions about Mr. Epstein’s death and how it could have been allowed to happen, ultimately depriving “his numerous victims, many of whom were underage girls at the time of the alleged crimes, of their ability to seek justice through the criminal justice process.”
Mr. Epstein’s death occurred just over two weeks after he was found in his cell with bruising around his neck in a possible suicide attempt. That occurred the week after a federal judge in Manhattan denied Mr. Epstein’s request to be released into home detention at his Upper East Side estate while awaiting trial. The judge found that if Mr. Epstein were released, he would continue to abuse teenage girls. But the report was unequivocal in rejecting any alternative theory of how Mr. Epstein died, saying that all of the New York staff members of the jail interviewed by the inspector general’s office said they had no “information suggesting that Epstein’s cause of death was something other than suicide.”
Moreover, no inmate provided information “suggesting that anyone assisted Epstein with taking his own life or had any credible information suggesting that Epstein’s cause of death was something other than suicide,” the report said.
Many of the lapses detailed in the report reflect problems found in prior investigations of federal prisons: Severe staffing shortages that forced employees to work long shifts (24 straight hours in the case of one of Mr. Epstein’s jailers), the failure to maintain functional security cameras and a lack of consistent guidelines for monitoring patients at risk of suicide.
In Aug. 10, 2019, Mr. Epstein, 66, was found dead in his cell, and the medical examiner ruled his death a suicide.
Mr. Epstein faced up to 45 years in prison on charges of recruiting dozens of teenage girls, some as young as 14, to engage in sex acts with him, at his Manhattan residence and at his estate in Palm Beach, Fla., paying each of them hundreds of dollars in cash.
He also paid some of his victims to recruit more girls, allowing him to create “a vast network of underage victims for him to sexually exploit,” according to the federal indictment.
Two days afterward, Attorney General William P. Barr said that there had been “serious irregularities” at the jail. He later attributed the death to “a perfect storm of screw-ups.”
Mr. Epstein died just over two weeks after he was found in his cell with bruising around his neck from a possible suicide attempt. That happened the week after a federal judge in Manhattan denied Mr. Epstein’s request to be released into home detention at his Upper East Side estate while awaiting trial. If Mr. Epstein were released, the judge found, he would continue to abuse teenage girls.
The Bureau of Prisons has never offered a public explanation as to why Mr. Epstein was able to kill himself while in government custody.The Bureau of Prisons has never offered a public explanation as to why Mr. Epstein was able to kill himself while in government custody.
But an investigation in 2021 by The New York Times, based on thousands of pages of internal Bureau of Prisons records obtained after filing a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the government, found incompetence and sloppiness by some prison officials and a failure to detect hints that Mr. Epstein was increasingly despondent.But an investigation in 2021 by The New York Times, based on thousands of pages of internal Bureau of Prisons records obtained after filing a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the government, found incompetence and sloppiness by some prison officials and a failure to detect hints that Mr. Epstein was increasingly despondent.
Prosecutors later accused two correctional officers of leaving Mr. Epstein unmonitored in his cell the night before his suicide as they spent their time surfing the internet and appearing to be asleep. In November 2019, the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District filed charges against two correctional officers who were accused of leaving Mr. Epstein unmonitored in his cell the night before his suicide; the officers had spent their time surfing the internet and appearing to be asleep, an indictment said.
The government charged the two guards with falsifying jail records to cover up their failure to perform their duties. The guards ultimately entered into deferred prosecution agreements, and the charges have since been dropped. The two officers, Tova Noel and Michael Thomas, were charged with falsifying jail records to cover up their failure to perform their duties. They ultimately entered into deferred prosecution agreements, and the charges have since been dismissed.
Mr. Epstein was taken to the Metropolitan Correctional Center on July 6, 2019, after he was arrested at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey, where he had flown on a private jet from Paris. Jason E. Foy, a lawyer for Ms. Noel, said he had no immediate comment and would review the report. A lawyer for Mr. Thomas did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mr. Epstein was charged in a federal indictment with recruiting dozens of teenage girls, some as young as 14, to engage in sex acts with him, at his Manhattan mansion and his estate in Palm Beach, Fla., paying each of them hundreds of dollars in cash. According to the report, the two Bureau of Prisons employees who the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District declined to prosecute “falsely certified inmate count slips and round sheets on the day before and the day of Epstein’s death.” A spokesman for the Southern District declined to comment on the report.
He also paid some of his victims to recruit additional girls, allowing him to “create a vast network of underage victims for him to sexually exploit,” the indictment charged. Mr. Epstein’s case continues to reverberate through the courts, and even the banking system. Since his death, his estate, once worth $600 million, has paid out more than $150 million in settlements to more than 125 victims — many of whom were just teenage girls at the time of their abuse. In November, the estate also paid $105 million to settle a lawsuit by the U.S. Virgin Islands, where Mr. Epstein had a private residence for nearly two decades.
The Metropolitan Correctional Center, a high-security federal jail in Lower Manhattan that long was criticized for poor conditions and inhumane treatment of prisoners, has since been closed and its prisoners moved to other institutions. And in recent weeks, two big banks reached large settlements in class-action lawsuits filed on behalf of Mr. Epstein’s victims: JPMorgan Chase agreed to pay $290 million, and Deutsche Bank agreed to pay $75 million.
The Metropolitan Correctional Center, where Mr. Epstein died and which was long criticized for poor conditions and inhumane treatment of prisoners, has since been closed.
But the report provided a snapshot of a failing institution near its breaking point.
Mr. Epstein’s deteriorating mental state, and special status, were well known inside the restrictive housing unit where he was placed, according to inmates interviewed for the report. One former cellmate recounted how Mr. Epstein threatened staff members at the jail by saying he would report them — which led them to relax some restrictions, such as a prohibition against keeping pens.
The correctional officers “were on ‘eggshells’ around Epstein,” the cellmate told investigators.
The cellmate was so concerned by Mr. Epstein’s mind-set that he asked him “not to kill himself,” fearing that it might delay his own release.
Mr. Epstein told him “not to worry,” the cellmate said.
Matthew Goldstein contributed reporting.