Jeffrey Epstein: Lawyer said financier had sex with woman during work-release

NEW YORK -- Although convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was supposedly under the watchful eye of Palm Beach County sheriff's deputies, he had sex with at least one young woman while on work release from the stockade nearly a decade ago, a lawyer for more than a dozen of Epstein's accusers said Tuesday.

Attorney Bradley Edwards scoffed at the notion that the 66-year-old money manager, who is now facing child sex trafficking charges in New York, was a "model prisoner" when he served 13 months in the stockade on prostitution charges more than a decade ago.

"I don't know if any of his visitors were underage but I do know he was able to have visitors under the age of 21 and the information we've received from victims, including one who personally visited him, it was for improper sexual conduct," Edwards said during a wide-ranging press conference to talk about what he described as Epstein's insatiable appetite for young women.

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The information Edwards said he has gleaned in the last several days about Epstein's activities while on work release contradicts statements by PBSO's Chief Deputy Michael Gauger. Sheriff Ric Bradshaw's longtime right-hand man wasn't immediately available for comment about Edwards' allegations.

In a videotaped interview that was posted online last week, Gauger insisted Epstein was closely watched after he got permission to leave the stockade 12 hours a day, six days a week to work at his nonprofit Florida Science Foundation.

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Epstein was forced to hire off-duty sheriff's deputies who made sure no one but his attorneys could visit him when he was at his 14th-floor office in One Clearlake Centre on Australian Avenue, Gauger said. Further, Epstein was outfitted with an ankle monitor that tracked his whereabouts, he added.

However, records show that while the terms of Epstein's house arrest prohibited anyone other than his attorneys or their staff from dropping by, visitor logs were kept by the off-duty deputies, who were required to check guests' identification and sign in their arrival and departure times.

The deputies' shift reports show Epstein regularly received visitors but the visitor sign-in log has been destroyed as part of routine record purges allowed under Florida law, according to the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office.

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For his part, Gauger described the globe-trotting millionaire as a "model prisoner" during the 3 ½ months he spent on lockdown before sheriff's officials approved his request for work release.

"He was cooperative. He was friendly. He created no issues during his incarceration period," Gauger said during the April interview with a unidentified crew working on a documentary.

Edwards insisted Epstein was well behaved because he wasn't forced to change his ways. He wasn't going to the foundation to work, he said.

"He was not conducting scientific research," Edwards said. "He engaged in similar conduct (that was alleged by Palm Beach police in 2006 and recently by federal prosecutors in New York) while he was quote, unquote, in jail."

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During the press conference at a hotel in midtown Manhattan, Edwards said that Epstein's behavior while in the Palm Beach County jail wasn't surprising.

After representing nearly 20 of Epstein's accusers over the last decade, Edwards said he has concluded Epstein's sexual appetite for young women was enormous. He invited women to his mansion in El Brillo Way in Palm Beach three or four times a day, he said.

Epstein's exploitation of young women dates back until at least 1994, Edwards estimates. He alleges the abuse occurred at Epstein's homes in New York and Palm Beach, his ranch in New Mexico, his private islands in the U.S. Virgin Islands and on his private jet.

"Not only was Mr. Epstein engaging in this type of conduct with minors and other vulnerable young women in Florida multiple times a day but also in every other place he resided," Edwards said. "This was not an addiction he turned on and off when he crossed the border into Florida."

In court papers, Epstein's attorneys said he is worth $500 million. But, Edwards said, in the scores of depositions he has conducted he could never divine what Epstein did for work. Others who have looked into Epstein's financial empire over the years have raised similar questions.

It appeared that molesting young women was Epstein's full-time job, Edwards said.

Over the years, he said, Epstein's tactics haven't changed.

Epstein would lure young women by promising to assist with their schooling, help them become models or, as Palm Beach police said he did at his Palm Beach mansion, by offering to pay them for nude massages that, for most, led to sex.

He employed people to help him. "It wasn't an operation that was haphazard or reckless," he said. "He had employees, associates whose sole job was the recruitment of children and young adults."

Courtney Wild was one of the young women who said she fell victim to Epstein. She said she was 14 when Epstein began molesting her.

"It's no surprise that Jeffrey Epstein was sexually abusing girls in New York," she said in a statement at the press conference. "He was doing it in Florida and elsewhere."

Wearing a strand of pearls around her neck and a white blouse and black suit, Wild said the only surprise is that New York prosecutors finally charged Epstein with crimes that could send him to prison for as long as 45 years.

"In 2008, they gave him a free pass for abusing me and many other victims," she said. "I never had a chance for my voice to be heard. My voice was muted by the same government that was supposed to protect me."

When Wild and other women accused Epstein of luring dozens of teenage girls to his Palm Beach mansion for erotic massages, he and his star-studded legal team went on the offensive, Edwards said.

Attorneys, including famed lawyer Alan Dershowitz, New York attorney Jay Lefkowitz, West Palm Beach lawyer Jack Goldberger, first convinced Palm Beach County State Attorney Barry Krischer and then South Florida U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta to cut a deal with Epstein, Edwards said.

Instead of facing serious child molestation charges that Palm Beach police pushed for, Epstein was allowed to plead guilty to two state prostitution charges and was handed a 18-month jail sentence. He was also forced to register as a sex offender.

In return, Acosta, who resigned as U.S. labor secretary last week over his role in the deal, agreed to shelve a 53-page indictment that had been prepared against Epstein.

That Epstein and his attorneys found loopholes in the sheriff's office work release program is part of the pattern, Edwards said.

The New York Post reported that Epstein didn't appear every 90 days New York City to register as a sex offender as ordered by a Manhattan judge. His attorney, Martin Weinberg, told U.S. District Judge Richard Berman on Monday that Epstein was allowed to avoid the requirement if he didn't stay at his palatial townhouse on the Upper East Side for more than a certain number of consecutive days.

No one was in danger and no rules were broken Weinberg insisted. Since Epstein spends most of his time on his private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands, he tells authorities there of his travel plans, he said.

"The Virgin Islands tells different states where he's going to that he's coming," Weinberg said, adding that Epstein has never been charged with violating sex offender rules.

But, Edwards said, the rules have been different for Epstein. He said, he is now hopeful that will stop.

A federal judge in West Palm Beach in February ruled that Acosta violated the federal Crime Victims' Rights Act by not telling Epstein's accusers of the secret deal that allowed Epstein to avoid criminal charges.

While U.S. District Judge Kenneth Marra hasn't ruled on whether he will throw the non-prosecution deal out, he has said it is a possibility.

Edwards filed that lawsuit against Acosta, on behalf of Wild and another still anonymous women. He and Wild urged other girls to come forward. Already, dozens have responded to a plea from the FBI and contacted it through 1-800-CALLFBI, officials in the Manhattan U.S. attorney's office have said.

Wild said she understands why some of Epstein's accusers are reluctant. She said they feel afraid, embarrassed and don't want others to know what they did.

"To every victim out there, I know what you are going through," she said. "You are not alone and this was not your fault.

"It did happen and it will continue to happen to young girls," she added. "He will never stop sexually abusing children until he's in jail."

Reporting by Palm Beach Post staff writer Christine Stapleton was used in this story.

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