Palm Beach Police Surveillance, Trash Collection, and $90K Donation Linked to Jeffrey Epstein’s 2005‑2006 Investigation

ws ¢ THE PALM BEACH POST = « WEDNESDAY, JULY 26, 2006 Police kept watch on home, airport, sifted through trash b> EPSTEIN from 1B suggesting the county’s top prosecutor disqualify himself. “I must urge you to ex- amine the unusual course that your office’s handling of this tter has taken and consider Cz00d and sufficient reason exists to require your dis- qualification from the prose- cution of these cases,” Reiter wrote in a May 1 memo to Krischer. While not commenting specifically on the Epstein case, Mike Edmondson, spokesman for the state at- torney, said his office pre- sents cases ‘other than mur- ders to a grand jury when there are questions about witnesses’ credibility and their ability to testify. . By the nature of their jobs, police officers look at evi- “once from a “one-sided per- ‘\wwpective,” Edmondson said. “A prosecutor has to look at it in a much broader fashion,” weighing the veracity of wit- nesses and how they may fare ‘under defense attorneys’ questioning, he said. Epstein’s attorney, Jack Goldberger, said his client committed no crimes. “The reports and _ state- ments in question refer to false accusations that were not charged becatise the Palm Beach County state attorney questioned the credibility of the witnesses,” Goldberger said. A county grand jury “found the allegations wholly unsubstantiated and not credible,” and that’s why his client was not charged with sexual activity with minors, he said. Goldberger said Epstein passed a lie detector test ad- ministered by a reputable ‘ polygraph examiner in which he said he did not know the ‘girls were minors. Also, a search warrant served. on Epstein’s home found no evi- dence to corroborate the girls allegations, Goldberger According to police docu- ments: g@ A Palm Beach Commu- nity College student said she gave Epstein a massage in the nude, then brought him six girls, ages 14 to 16, for mas- sage and sex-tinged sessions at his home. @A 27-year-old woman who worked as. Epstein’s personal assistant also facili- tated the liaisons, phoning the PBCC student to arrange for girls when Epstein was coming to town. And she es- corted the girls upstairs when they arrived, putting fresh sheets on amassage table and placing massage oils nearby. @ Police took sworn statements from five alleged victims and 17 witnesses. They contend that on three occasions, Epstein had sex with the girls. ~ . The chief's letter See the letter Paim Beach Police Chief Michael Reiter wrote to State Attomey Bary Krischer on the Epstein case. PaimBeachPost.com A money manager for the ultra-rich, Epstein was named one of New York’s most eligi- ble bachelors in 2003 by The New York Post. He reportedly hobnobs with the likes of former President Clinton, former Harvard University President Lawrence Sum- mers and Donald Trump, and has lavish homes in Manhat- tan, New Mexico and the Vir- ‘gin Islands. He has contributed tens of thousands of dollars to Dem- ocratic Party candidates and organizations, including Sen. John Kerry’s presidential bid, and the Senate campaigns of Joe Lieberman, Hillary Clin- ton, Christopher Dodd and Charles Schumer. Goldberger is one of five attorneys Epstein has re- tained since he became the subject of an investigation, Edmondson said. Among the others: Alan Dershowitz, the well-known Harvard law pro- fessor and author, who is a friend of Epstein. Dershowitz could not be reached for comment. _ Police said the woman who enlisted young girls for Epstein was Haley Robson,’ 20, of Royal Palm Beach. Robson has worked at an O1- ive Garden restaurant in Wellington and said she wasa journalism major at Palm Beach Community College when she was questioned by police last October. She has an unlisted phone number and could not be reached for comment. Robson said she met Ep- stein when, at age 17, a friend asked her if she would like to make money giving him a massage. She said she was driven to his five-bedroom, 7%bath home on the Intra- coastal Waterway, then es- corted upstairs to a bedroom with a massage table and oils. Epstein and Robson were both naked during the mas- sage, she said, but when he grabbed her buttocks, she said she didn’t want to be touched. Epstein said he’d pay her to bring him more girls — the younger the better, Robson told police. When she tried once to bring a 23-year-old woman to him, Epstein said she was too old, Robson said. Robson, who has not been charged in the case, said she eventually brought six girls to Epstein who were paid $200 each time, Robson said. “I'm like a Heidi Fleiss,” police quoted her as saying. The girls knew what to expect _ when they were taken to Ep- stein’s home, Robson said. Give a massage — maybe na- ked — and allow some touching. One 14-year-old girl Rob- son.took to meet Epstein led police to start the investiga- tion of him in March 2005. A relative of the girl called to say she thought the child had re- cently engaged in sex with a Palm Beach man. The girl then got into a fight with a classmate who accused her of being a prostitute, and she couldn’t explain why she had $300 in her purse. The girl gave police this. account of her meeting with Epstein: She accompanied Robson and a second girl to Epstein’s house on a Sunday in Febru- ary 2005. Once there, a wom- an she thought was Epstein’s assistant told the girl to follow her upstairs to a room featur- ing amural of anaked woman, several photographs of naked women on a shelf, a hot pink and green sofa and amassage table. She stripped to her bra: and panties and gave him a . massage. Epstein gave the 14-year- old $300 and she and the oth- er girls left, she said. She said Robson told her that Epstein paid her $200 that day. Other girls told similar stories. In most accounts, Epstein’s personal assistant at the time, Sarah Kellen, now 27, escorted the girls to Ep- stein’s bedroom. Kellen, whose most re- cent known address is in North Carolina, has not been charged in the case. Palm Beach police often conducted surveillance of Epstein’s home, and at Palm Beach International Airport to see if his private jet was there, so they would know when he was in town. Police also arranged repeatedly to . receive his trash from Palm Beach sanitation workers, collecting papers with names and phone numbers, sex toys and female hygiene products. . One note stated that a fe- male could not come over at 7 p.m. because of soccer. An- other said a girl had to work Sunday — “Monday after school?” And _ still another note contained the work hours of a girl, saying she leaves school at 11:30 a.m. and would come over the next day at 10:30 a.m. Only three months before the police department probe began, Epstein donated $90,000 to the department for the purchase of a firearms simulator, said Jane Struder, town finance director. The purchase was never made.- The money was returned to Epstein on Monday, she said. Staff writers Andrew Mora and Tim O'Meilia and staff re- searcher Angelica Cortez con- tributed to this story. @ lary_keller@pbpost.com HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_018919