Self‑authored statement alleging police misconduct and plea‑deal pressure in underage prostitution investigation

I have up until now, not told my side of the story. My attorneys and PR people advised me to just stay quiet, and it will all go away. I have received the same advice for five years now. I realize my silence is now causing collateral damage to my friends and other innocent bystanders. The time has come to let the hounds of investigative reporters loose on those that, driven by money, have made false claims, concocted malicious fabrications, and have expanded their fictions now to include others in my orbit. I was investigated for soliciting underage prostitutes. To be precise, girls under the age of 18 who were brought to my house by their close friends who worked in local massage parlors or strip clubs(West Palm Beach has scores of massage parlors and happy ending places that routinely advertise in the same local papers that have chastised my behavior)| see Palm Beach Post classifieds]. 1 am and have always been a bachelor. eee massage parlor women, licensed massage therapists, and women with no massage experience. | have never ever used force, coercion, or in fact had intercourse with any of these women. When the police investigated me, went through my garbage, searched my house, they found sex toys, but NO cameras or camera equipment; nothing in fact out of the ordinary from many homes of single men. There were never any photos of underage girls. Never. A careful reading of any law enforcement document makes that clear. The camera that was referred to in the search warrant, was the camera installed in my house with the help of the local police to catch my houseman, John Allessi; the same houseman mentioned in many articles. He was breaking into my house and stealing money after being fired. The camera caught him in the act. These cameras were the only cameras at my house; security cameras. The local state attorney, after conducting an extensive investigation and interviewing the girls herself, a sex crimes prosecutor with over 13 years experience, and who had herself authored the more tough legislations dealing with sex crimes, said in her own words, “There are no real victims here. The girls knew they were going to a house in Palm Beach, they had their boyfriends or family members drive them to the house and wait outside, and then they encouraged their friends to go.” Many of the girls interviewed were in their mid twenties, some in their early thirties, and some younger than 18. The girl that the newspapers have referred to as a fourteen year old told the police that she had repeatedly told me that she was 18 and a senior in high school, like many of the massage parlor girls told me, and in her own words to the police, said the reason she said she was 18 was that she was told if she didn’t, MR EPSTEIN would not let her in the house. These reports are available. The state attorney offered me to take a plea to aggravated assault with only probation. My attorneys told me that it would be forever a blight on my record, and | should refuse the deal. I did so. The state attorney, Barry Krisher, took the unusual step of bringing the facts before a state grand jury. In Florida, this happens most often in capital murder cases, not prostitution in someone’s own home. To be certain that the public would not criticize the outcome, the state grand jury was given all the evidence and returned a verdict of Solicitation of Prostitution. Solicitation, a non-registrable offense which carries with it a sentence of mandatory HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_025540