12 The Virgin Islands Daily News PERVERSION OF JUSTICE Saturday, March 2, 2019 Federal prosecutors admit backing down Epstein’s attorneys applied relentless pressure, they say By JULIE K. BROWN Miami Herald In recent court filings, the government was forced to answer questions about its negotia- tions, finally admitting in 2013 that federal prosecutors had backed down under relentless pressure by Jeffrey Epstein’s attomeys. “The government admits that, at least in part as a result of objections lodged by Epstein’s law- yers to victim notifications, the [United States Attomey’s Office] reevaluated its obligations to provide notification to victims and Jane Doe #1 was thus not told that the US.AO had entered into a non-prosecution agreement with Epstein until after it was signed,” wrote Assistant | U.S. Attorney Dexter Lee. | Said Francey Hakes, the former federal prosecutor: “| have never heard of a case where federal prosecutors consult with a defense at- torney before they send out standard victim notification letters. To negotiate what the letters would say and whether they would be sent at all suggest that the victims’ rights were violated multiple times.” Kenneth Starr's aggressive advocacy for Epstein against allegations of improper sexual behavior was in stark contrast to the path he took investigating President Bill Clinton as independent counsel forthe Whitewater probe. The Starr Report, the summary of his find ings in the Whitewater investigation, which started as a probe of a land deal gone sour and veered into an investigation of sexual miscon- duct, savaged the president for his involvement with White House intern Monica Lewinsky and was the basis for impeachment. Starr himself would face criticism in 2016 — he stepped down as president of Baylor Univer- sity amid allegations that he and other university officials mishandled sexual assault allegations brought by female students against members of the school’s football team. The Miami Herald reached out to Starr, through certified letter and through a spokesman for his current law firm, the Lanier Firm, but did not receive a response for this story. Palm Beach police detective Joseph Recarey, one of the most highly decorated officers on the Palm Beach Police Department, called the Epstein case the most troubling of his 23-year career. “Some of the victims were — and still are — afraid of Epstein,” he said as part of a series of interviews with the Herald earlier this year. Privately, Michael Reiter and Recarey said they held onto hope that Epstein would be brought to trial someday, but they said that that notion had faded. “Lalways hoped that the plea would be thrown out and that these teenage girls, who were labeled as prostitutes by prosecutors, would get to finally shed that label and see him go to prison where he belongs,” Recarey said. Recarey died in May after a briefillness. He Kenneth Starr File photo by MIAMI HERALD After he pleaded guilty in state court, Jeffrey Epstein was assigned to a private section of the Palm Beach County stockade. Soon, however, he was allowed to leave the compound six days a week, 12 hours a day, for what was termed work release. Sietwe: | Relemed -Reavired to toe wiTss Jeffrey Epstein, ac- cused of sexually abusing dozens of un- derage women, grins for his mugshot on Florida's sex offender registry. He once Esinter ce Saaec the Dent of Comecsions Website Ohne 1833 compared his crimes to “stealing a bagel.” Photo by FLORIDA SEX OFFENDER REGISTRY was 50 years old. Epstein’s sentencing hearing Jeffrey Edward Epstein appeared at his At the end of the 68-minute hearing, the 55-year-old silver-haired financier — accused of sexually abusing dozens of underage girls —was fingerprinted and handcuffed, just like sentencing on June 30, 2008 atthe Palm Beach — any other criminal sentenced in Florida. County Courthouse dressed comfortably in a blue blazer, blue shirt, jeans and gray sneakers. His attorney, Jack Goldberger, was at his side. But inmate No. W35755 would not be treated like other convicted sex offenders in the state of Florida, which has some of the strictest sex offender laws in the nation. Ten years before the #MeToo movement raised awareness about the kid-glove handling of powerful men accused of sexual abuse, Epstein’s lenient sentence and his extraordi- nary treatment while in custody are still the source of consternation for the victims he was accused of molesting when they were minors. Beginning as far back as 2001, Epstein lured a steady stream of underage girls to his Palm Beach mansion to engage in nude massages, masturbation, oral sex and intercourse, court and police records show. The girls — mostly from disadvantaged families — were recruited from middle schools and high schools around Palm Beach County. Epstein would pay the girls for massages and offer them further money to bring him new girls every time he was at his home in Palm Beach, according to police reports. The girls, now in their late 20s and early 30s, allege in a series of federal civil lawsuits filed during the last decade that Epstein sexu- ally abused hundreds of girls, not only in Palm Beach, but at his homes in Manhattan, New Mexico and on Little St. James island in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Special treatment in prison In 2007, the FBI had prepared a 53-page federal indictment charging Epstein with sex crimes that could have put him in federal See PERVERSION, next page HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_022211