Jeffrey Epstein’s work release setup puts Palm Beach County sheriff under scrutiny
By Skyler Swisher
South Florida Sun Sentinel
July 18, 2019
Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw is facing scrutiny over his agency’s decision to grant wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein work release even though the program’s policy bars sex offenders from participating.
State Sen. Lauren Book said Wednesday that she wants the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate allegations that Epstein was able to continue having sex with young women while he was in jail in 2008-09.
If true, it marks “another breakdown” in the system’s dealings with a “serial abuser,” she said. Bradshaw has led the agency since 2004.
“We are calling for accountability on all fronts so things like this never happen again, and that means looking back at the entire system of law and order which failed his young victims,” said Book, D-Plantation.
As part of a once-secret deal with prosecutors, Epstein, 66, avoided serious prison time by pleading guilty to two state prostitution charges and agreeing to register as a sex offender, serve 18 months in the county jail, and pay settlements to victims. The federal sex abuse investigation involved at least 40 teenage girls.
About 3 1/2 months into his sentence, Epstein was allowed to work up to 12 hours a day, six days a week in a downtown West Palm Beach office for his nonprofit organization, The Florida Science Foundation, as part of the jail’s work-release program
The program’s policy states, though, that “convicted sexual offenders are ineligible," according to operating procedures released through a public records request. Sheriff’s officials say Epstein was eligible because he didn’t register as a sex offender until July 22, 2009, a day after he was released after serving 13 months of his 18-month sentence. The operating procedures the agency provided are the most recent on file and don’t detail revisions that could have been made after Epstein’s incarceration.
Epstein had “improper sexual contact” with at least one young woman when he was on work release, said attorney Bradley Edwards, who is representing more than a dozen accusers.
“He was not sitting there conducting some scientific research for the betterment of the community, but he was having office visitors, some who were flown to him from New York, and continuing to engage in similar conduct even while he was in quote, unquote jail," Edwards said during a news conference Tuesday.
Edwards said he was not aware of underage visitors, but some women were under 21. He said he has spoken with one woman who personally visited Epstein during his work release.
Gov. Ron DeSantis has not ordered the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to look into how the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office handled Epstein’s work release. The FDLE has not received any official complaints or allegations regarding the Sheriff’s Office, but any that are received will be reviewed, said Helen Ferre, a spokeswoman for the governor’s office.
Attorney Jack Scarola, who represents some of Epstein’s accusers, said he thinks an outside investigation is needed so the public will know why Epstein was allowed to leave the stockade.
“This appears to have been a matter that was within the discretion of Sheriff Bradshaw,” he said. “Whether the exercise of discretion was influenced by anyone else remains an unanswered question."
Bradshaw has said little about the matter and hasn’t scheduled a news conference to answer questions. Instead, the agency released a 19-minute video of an April interview that a documentary crew did with Chief Deputy Mike Gauger.
A sheriff’s spokeswoman didn’t respond to an inquiry asking whether the agency will launch an internal investigation.
Bradshaw told WLRN in March that Epstein did not receive special treatment, and any other inmate in his position would have been eligible for work release. He dismissed any notion that his agency was at fault.
“I went by the guidelines," Bradshaw said. "I am not concerned at all about whether it was done properly or not because it was and we’ll go from there. ... I don’t control the State Attorney’s Office. I don’t control the federal prosecutors. I don’t control the investigators. They came to us. I house them. I go by the rules. And that’s it.”
Renewed scrutiny over the once-secret plea deal led to Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta resigning his post in President Donald Trump’s Cabinet. Acosta was the lead federal prosecutor in South Florida at the time the plea deal was reached.
New charges have now been filed against Epstein by federal prosecutors in New York.
In the April interview, Gauger gave a much different assessment of Epstein’s behavior in jail. He described Epstein as a “friendly” inmate who created “no issues whatsoever during his incarceration period.”
He said Epstein was “very closely watched” while on work release by an off-duty deputy that Epstein was required to pay for. Epstein served 3 1/2 months locked down at the stockade before he was granted work release, which was approved in consultation with Epstein’s high-powered legal staff, Gauger said.
“He did not have free time to wander," Gauger said. "He was not allowed to go out for lunch. He was to stay in that office the entire time.”
The agency provided documents outlining the terms of Epstein’s work release. An off-duty deputy wearing a suit was required to remain in Epstein’s downtown West Palm Beach office at “all times.” The agreement required a visitor log and restricted visitors to Epstein’s lawyers and “business associates.” He was not permitted to have contact with family members, girlfriends, children, friends or minors. He was only allowed to leave his office to return to the stockade or for “emergency medical treatment.”
Epstein was equipped with a GPS device to monitor his movements, and the two listed victims were notified of his work release, Gauger said.
If Epstein had violated the terms, he would “have immediately been arrested, taken into custody, taken back to the stockade and all privileges would have ceased,” Gauger said.
Sheriff’s officials have said the visitor logs were destroyed as part of a routine records purge allowed by Florida law.
A 2008 memorandum released in response to a public records request showed about 20 approved visitors, including lawyers from five firms and their paralegals. In a 2010 email, Sheriff’s Maj. Chris Kneisley, a jail supervisor, questioned whether they had been properly screened, asking if “we did any vetting of his people.”
“An investigator from one of the plaintiff’s attorney has indicated 2 are not paralegals,” the email read. “Trying to prepare a preemptive strike.”
State business records show The Florida Science Foundation was created in November 2007 when Epstein’s legal staff was negotiating the plea agreement. It was dissolved in September 2009 about three months after Epstein was released from the stockade.
Gauger dismissed allegations that Epstein’s wealth made his time at the jail easier.
“He was made to jump through extra hoops and meet additional requirements because of his wealth that others are not mandated to do during their work release,” he said.
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