Multimillionaire Palm Beach sex offender's secret plea deal with feds to be revealed today

Multimillionaire Palm Beach sex offender's secret plea deal with feds to be revealed today Page 1 of 4 PalmBeachPost.com Multimillionaire Palm Beach sex offender's secret deal: Possible co- conspirators not charged, presses victims to settle civil suits By SUSAN SPENCER-WENDEL Palm Beach Post Staff Writer Friday, September 18, 2009 Err2-1 PRINTTHIS WEST PALM BEACH - Billionaire financier sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's secret non-prosecution agreement he struck with federal prosecutors was unsealed this morning, offering the first public look at the deal Epstein's high-powered legal counsel brokered on his behalf. Following requests by The Palm Beach Post and attorneys for some of his alleged young victims, the document - sealed in state court without following proper sealing procedures - was released by Circuit Judge Jeffery Colbath. Epstein's attorney have unsuccessfully fought the release. Read the agreement unsealed today(pdf) According the agreement, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Attorney's Office investigated Epstein for various federal crimes, including using a facility or means of interstate or foreign commerce to induce minor females to engage in prostitution and for purposes of engaging it. http://palmbeachpost.printthis.clickability.corn/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=Multimillionaire+Palm+Beach+sex+offender%26%233... 9/18/2009 EFTA00212113 Multimillionaire Palm Beach sex offender's secret plea deal with feds to be revealed today Page 2 of 4 But federal prosecutors backed down and agreed to recall grand jury subpoeanas, if Epstein pleaded guilty to prostitution- related felonies in state court, which he ultimately did. The federal prosecutors also agreed not to charge an otential co-cons irators of Epstein - Lesley Groff or The agreement, negotiated in part by New York heavyweight criminal defense attorney Gerald Lefcourt, on its first draft in September 2007 required Epstein to Page2Live:Epstein fined for leaving a deposition after attorneys ask about his genitals (EXPLICIT) pay the victims' attorneys. Jeffrey Epstein Billionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein has been sentenced to 18 months for felony solicitation of prostitution following accusations by teen girls. Past coverage • Page2Live.com coverage Post your comments on this story below But the following month, an addendum to the agreement relieved Epstein of the duty to pay the victim's lawyers if they do not accept a settlement. Former Circuit Judge Bill Berger, who represents one of the victims, sought the unsealing of the agreement, which he refers to as a "sweetheart deal." "Why was it so important for the government to make his deal?" Berger asked rhetorically. "We have not yet had honest explanation by any public official as to why it was made." The back room deal with federal prosecutors is all the more interesting in light of the legal heavyweights who have worked for Epstein, including Harvard hup://palmbeachpost.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title.Multimillionaire+Palm+Beach+sex+offender%26%233... 9/18/2009 EFTA00212114 Multimillionaire Palm Beach sex offender's secret plea deal with feds to be revealed today Page 3 of 4 professor Alan Dershowitz and Kenneth Share This Story Starr of Clinton impeachment fame. Epstein ended up avoiding federal charges, and pleaded guilty in state court to felony solicitation of prostitution and procuring a person under the age of 18 for prostitution. In July 2008, he was sentenced to 18 months in jail, and later allowed out up to six days a week on work release. Epstein left the jail in late July 2009 after serving not quite 13 months of the sentence, having earned gain time for good behavior. Palm Beach Police began an 11-month investigation of "international moneyman of mystery," as New York magazine dubbed him, after they received a complaint from a relative of a 14-year-old girl who had given Epstein a naked massage at his home, an $8.5 million mansion on the Intracoastal Waterway. Police sought and found in poor neighborhoods a variety of tall, thin, model-like young women, who told stories of being recruited to go to Epstein's home, massaging and stimulating him and walking away with between $200 and $1,000. The investigation triggered tensions between police and prosecutors, with then-Chief Michael Reiter saying in a May 2006 letter to then-State Attorney Barry Krischer that the chief prosecutor should disqualify himself. "I continue to find your office's treatment of these cases highly unusual," Reiter wrote. He then asked for and got the federal investigation that ended in the sealed deal. "The Jeffrey Epstein matter was an experience of what a many-million-dollar defense can accomplish," Reiter told the Palm Beach Daily News upon his retirement. Epstein now faces at least 20 civil suits filed by young woman represented by prominent attorneys. The civil litigation intensified recently with a lawyer for the one of the women, Spencer Kuvin, making a request to inspect and photograph Epstein's genitalia. One of the young women, who told police she was Epstein's "number one girl," described his genitalia as being deformed, "egg-shaped", according to a police record. Attorneys, including former Cirucit Judge William Berger, sought the release of the sealed deal also as part of their legal strategy in those civil suits. Epstein has repeatedly invoked his right to remain silent and not incriminate himself when being deposed in the civil lawsuits, the The attorneys sought the deal to clarify whether Epstein faces the possibility of further prosecution, which may or may not impact his right to remain silent. http://palmbeachpost.printthis.clickability.corn/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=Multimillionaire+Palm+Beach+sex+offender%26%233... 9/18/2009 EFTA00212115 Multimillionaire Palm Beach sex offender's secret plea deal with feds to be revealed today Page 4 of 4 Find this article at: http://www.palmbeachpost.conlocalnewsicontentflocal_news/epaper/2009/09/18/0918cpstoin.html 7 Check the box to include the list of links referenced in the article. http://palmbeachpost.printthis.clickability.corn/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=Multimillionaire+Palm+Beach+sex+offender%26%233... 9/18/2009 EFTA00212116