Prosecutor to Jeffrey Epstein victims: I'm sorry deal labeled you as prostitutes

A prosecutor on Thursday apologized for the government’s failure to tell Jeffrey Epstein’s victims about a controversial agreement that allowed the politically connected financier to escape federal charges for molesting dozens of young girls at his Palm Beach mansion.

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Further, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jill Steinberg told an appeals court, it was unfortunate that the way the nonprosecution agreement was crafted had the effect of labeling the teenage girls as prostitutes instead of victims of sexual assault.

“She was not a prostitute,” Steinberg said, referring specifically to Courtney Wild who is seeking to invalidate the agreement on behalf of Epstein’s other young victims. “Minors can’t consent to sex.”

However, despite Steinberg's acknowledgment that the young women were mistreated and misled, Steinberg was adamant that Wild’s legal quest to throw out the plea deal is misguided.

“Even if the law didn’t require it, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Florida should have communicated to Ms. Wild in a transparent and straightforward way,” Steinberg told the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. “Although we are sympathetic to Ms. Wild and apologize to her for what happened, her legal arguments are incorrect.”

The hearing marked the second time in a year that Steinberg and Wild’s attorney, Paul Cassell, have faced off before the Atlanta-based appeals court on the question of whether prosecutors in South Florida violated the federal Crime Victims’ Rights Act.

Although the law requires prosecutors to confer with victims, none of the teens was told when Epstein in 2007 agreed to plead guilty to two state charges of solicitation of prostitution. In exchange for his plea in Palm Beach County Circuit Court, federal prosecutors agreed to shelve a 53-page indictment they prepared against him.

While a deeply divided three-judge panel in April ruled that prosecutors had no obligation to tell Epstein’s victims about the secret agreement, in an unusual move, the court threw out that ruling so the complex and potentially far-reaching decision could be heard by a full court.

Not only will the court’s decision impact how federal prosecutors deal with victims of crimes, but it has serious implications for the women who were abused by Epstein more than a decade ago, Cassell said.

While the 66-year-old multi-millionaire hung himself in a Manhattan jail cell in August 2019 after being charged with sex trafficking in New York, the nonprosecution agreement protects four women and others who allegedly helped him carry out his lurid scheme.

As part of the deal, Epstein's assistants, Sarah Kellen, Adriana Ross, Lesley Groff and Nadia Marcinkova, as well as any other “potential co-conspirators,” were given immunity from prosecution.

If the court agrees the victims' rights were violated and the agreement is thrown out, they would be allowed to talk to federal prosecutors about why Epstein’s alleged co-conspirators should be charged, he said.

“The only thing we are asking in this case is for the right to confer with prosecutors,” Cassell said. “Ms. Wild can be very persuasive about why charges should be filed in this case, and that’s the opportunity that Congress gave her under the CVRA.”

Wild was a 15-year-old Lake Worth Middle School student when she along with dozens of teens were lured to Epstein’s mansion with the promise that they would be paid to give him massages. Instead, they were forced to disrobe and were fondled and probed. Some were forced to have sex with the man who was 40 years their senior.

'She wants to talk to prosecutors'

Even if some of the victims met with federal prosecutors in New York who are prosecuting Epstein’s former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, for her role in the sex scheme, that’s not enough, said Cassell, a law professor and former federal judge.

“Ms Wild was sexually abused in the Southern District of Florida,” he said. “Prosecutors in the Southern District of New York have no authority to prosecute crimes … that were committed against Ms. Wild in another jurisdiction.

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“She wants to talk to prosecutors in Florida about prosecuting sex offense crimes that were committed against her in the Southern District of Florida and she can’t do that,” he said.

During the roughly hour-long hearing, the 11 judges tusseled with whether victims should have the right to inject themselves in cases where charges haven't been filed.

In Epstein’s case, no federal charges were ever filed because the agreement allowed him to plead guilty to state prostitution charges.

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Allowing victims to weigh in before charges are filed would hamstring prosecutors who often have to craft agreements with people in exchange for their testimony against other defendants, said Steinberg, a federal prosecutor in Atlanta who took over the case after those in South Florida recused themselves.

In addition to interfering with prosecutors' decision-making, some of the 11 judges wondered about a victim's ability to file a civil lawsuit and how it would play out.

To determine whether a person was a victim, a judge would have to determine whether a crime had been committed even before charges were filed. That would upend the criminal justice system, several judges said.

“That just seems cart before the horse to me,” said Judge Kevin Newsom, who wrote the April ruling, declaring that victims don’t have to be consulted before charges are filed.

But, Judge Frank Hull, who was a member of the original three-judge panel and vehemently objected to Newsom’s conclusion, said federal prosecutors in West Palm Beach repeatedly told Epstein’s victims they would be kept informed.

Left in the dark

Even though more than seven months elapsed between the time Epstein signed the plea deal and when he pleaded guilty to the state charges, victims were left in the dark, she said. In fact, prosecutors told them the case was still under investigation even after the agreement was signed.

The victims were robbed of their ability to contest the agreement , Hull said. Epstein eventually served 12 months of an 18-month sentence in a largely vacant wing of the Palm Beach County Stockade where he was granted lenient work-release privileges.

“They could have gone to the state court judge, if the victims so chose, and said, ‘Please don’t accept this plea,’” Hull said. “Why did the government not only not tell the victims but misrepresent things?

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Sending the letters was a mistake, Steinberg said. Without mentioning Assistant U.S. Attorney Marie Villafana by name, she said the lead prosecutor was trying to be “a good human being” by keeping the victims informed.

But, Steinberg insisted, since Epstein was never charged with a federal crime, Villafana had no legal obligation to reach out to victims.

“They erred in making a representation that was technically not true,” she said of the letters that were sent on letterhead signed by then-South Florida U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta.

In an enormous understatement, Steinberg added: “There’s a lot of things that are really peculiar about this case, undoubtedly.”

Despite Steinberg’s claims, Cassell insisted there’s no question that the victims should have been informed and that by failing to do so, prosecutors violated the law.

The 16-year-old law clearly says that victims should be conferred with even when “no prosecution is underway.” Wild has been denied that.

“There’s never been conferral in a meaningful way,” he said. “She wants to go to the prosecutors in Florida and say prosecute the men and women who abused me. The U.S. attorney's position is, ‘We can’t because we signed a nonprosecution agreement.’ So conferral is meaningless.”

The court gave no indication when it might issue a ruling.

jmusgrave@pbpost.com

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Prosecutor to Jeffrey Epstein victims: I'm sorry deal labeled you as prostitutes

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