Federal prosecutors admit backing down on victim notifications in Jeffrey Epstein case after pressure from his attorneys

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 tliTaild"`"" In recent court filings, the government was fore. to ans,Aer questions about its negotia- tions, fin.ly admitting in 2013 that federal prosecutors had back. down under relentless pressure by Jeffrey Epstein, attomeys. "The government admits that, at least in part as a result of objections lodg. by Epstein, law- yers to victim notifications, the [Unit. States Attorney, Office] teev.uated its obligations to provide notification to victims and Jane Doe it 1 was thus not told that the USAO had entered into a r:irtil;P=trftilgrafteeffnr ;A i " Francey Hakes, the former feder. prosecutor "I have never heard of a case where feder. prosecutors consult with a defense at- Kenneth torney before they send out Starr standard victim notification letters. To negotiate what the letters ,rnuld say and whether they Aould be sent at all suggest that the victims' rights were violated mukiple times." Kenneth Staff, aggressive advocacy for Epstein against allegations of improper sexual behavior was in stark contr. to the path he took investigating President Bill Clinton as independent counsel for the Whitewater probe. The Starr Report, the summary of his find- ings in the Whitewater investigation, which start. as a probe of a land deal gone sour and veer. into an investigation of sexu. miscon- duct, savag. the president for his involvement with White House intern Monica Lewinslcy and was the basis for impeachment Starr himself Amid face criticism in 2016 - he stepp. down as president of Baylor Univer- sity amid .legations that he and other university officials mishandled sexual assault allegations brought by fem.e students against members of the school, footb.I team. The Miami Herald reach. out to Starr, though cettifi. letter and through a spokesmail for his current law finn, the Lanier Finn, but did not receive a response for this story. Palm Beach police detective Joseph Recarey, one of the most highly decorat. officers on the P.m Beach Police Department, call. 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 Her.d 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 fad.. "I always hop. that the plea would be drown out and that these teenage girls, who were labeled as prostitutes by prosecutors, would get to fmally shed that label and see him go to prison where he belongs:. Recarey said. Recarey died in May after a brief illness. He ftrattda erettrhi::O in=idts :reeegdt0 5t2 ie°rIiin:fdteorka:eBal:ir C°untY st'kad"°nt:141'11:t was 50 wars oid. Epstein's sentencing hearing Jeffrey Edward Epstein appeared at his sentencing on June 30, 2008 at the Palm Beach County Coutthouse dress. comfortably in a blue blazer, blue shirt, jeans and gray sneakers. His attorney, Jack Goldberger, was at his side. Jeffrey Epstein, ac- cused of sexually abusing dozens of un- derage women, grins for his mugshot on Florida's sex offender registry. He once rsi)taeral,`,1-,I;:grgmer At the end of the 68-minute hearing, the 55-year-old silver-haired financier - accus. of sexually abusing dozens of underage girls - was fingerprinted and handcuffed, just like any other crimin. sentenced in Florida. But inmate No. W35755 would not be treated like other convicted sex offenders in the state of Florida, which has some of the strictest s "T:tflfeyietesr baerrentrifrvItZO movement raised awareness about the kid-glove handling of powerful men accus. of sexu. abuse, Epstein, lenient sentence and his extraordi- nary treatment while in custody are still the source of consternation for the victims he was accus. of molesting when they were minors. Beginning as far back as 2001, Epstein lured 1 :14 s IngdEei rgaet gni:idet crn ha Iss masturbation, szczxl intercourse, court an'tigifilsr- mostly fn. disadvantaged families - were recruit. from middle schools and high schools around P.m 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 P.m Beach, according to police reports. The girls, now in their late 20s and early 30s, allege in a series of f.eral civil lawsuits fil. during the last decade that Epstein sexu- .ly abused hundreds of girls, not only in P.m Beach, but at his homes in Manhattan, New Mexico and on Litde St. James island in the U.S. Virgin Islands Special treatment in prison In 2007, the .1 had prepared a 53-page federal indictment charging Epstein with sex crimes that could have put h. in f.er. See PERVERSION, next page