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318 KB

Extraction Summary

25
People
10
Organizations
6
Locations
8
Events
11
Relationships
9
Quotes

Document Information

Type: Newspaper article
File Size: 318 KB
Summary

This newspaper article from February 28, 2019, details the sexual abuse committed by Jeffrey Epstein, focusing on the testimony of Michelle Licata and the controversial non-prosecution agreement. It highlights the efforts of Palm Beach Police Chief Michael Reiner and Detective Joseph Recarey to pursue the case despite pressure, and the role of Epstein's high-profile legal team, including Alan Dershowitz and then-U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta, in securing a lenient deal. The article also touches on the defense's tactics to discredit victims and the broader context of Epstein's influence given his wealth and connections.

People (25)

Name Role Context
Michelle Licata Victim, Witness
Describes her experience with Epstein at age 16; officially identified as Jane Doe 2 and later as one of 30 women by ...
Jeffrey Edward Epstein Perpetrator, Multimillionaire hedge fund manager
Accused of sex trafficking, luring teenage girls to his Palm Beach mansion for a sex pyramid scheme; agreed to plead ...
Alexander Acosta U.S. Attorney in Miami, U.S. Secretary of Labor
Personally involved in negotiating the non-prosecution agreement for Epstein; currently President Donald Trump's Cabi...
Alan Dershowitz Epstein's attorney, Harvard professor
Part of Epstein's legal team; met privately with Krischer; denied involvement in gathering background on girls or dir...
Jay Lefkowitz Epstein's attorney
Part of Epstein's legal team.
Gerald Lefcourt Epstein's attorney
Part of Epstein's legal team.
Jack Goldberger Epstein's attorney
Part of Epstein's legal team.
Roy Black Epstein's attorney
Part of Epstein's legal team.
Guy Lewis Epstein's attorney
Part of Epstein's legal team.
Kenneth Starr Former Whitewater special prosecutor, Epstein's attorney
Part of Epstein's legal team; reached consensus that Epstein would not serve federal/state prison time.
Michael Reiner Palm Beach Police Chief
One of two people willing to pursue Epstein; revealed new details about the investigation and pressure from Barry Kri...
Joseph Recarey Palm Beach Police Detective
One of two people willing to pursue Epstein; revealed new details about the investigation and pressure from Barry Kri...
Barry Krischer then-Palm Beach State Attorney
Pressured police to downgrade the case; convinced by Dershowitz that victims were not credible; dodged calls and emai...
Laura Boloblavick Assistant State Attorney, Lead state prosecutor
Began to dodge Recarey and Reiner's calls and emails; dragged feet on subpoenas; did not respond to email for comment.
Sarah Kellen Epstein's assistant, alleged scheduler of massages
Intimidated and frightened girls, warned them not to talk to police.
Donald Trump President
His 'winter White House' is located in Palm Beach.
Harvey Weinstein Figure in #MeToo movement
Mentioned as part of the broader #MeToo context.
Bill Cosby Figure in #MeToo movement
Mentioned as part of the broader #MeToo context.
Larry Nassar U.S. Olympic gymnastics doctor
Mentioned as part of the broader #MeToo context.
Jane Doe 2 Victim
Michelle Licata was referred to as Jane Doe 2 in the police report.
Jane Doe No. 3 Victim
Mentioned as one of many victims.
Jane Doe No. 4 Victim
Mentioned as one of many victims.
Jane Does 5, 6, 7, 8 Victims
Mentioned as part of a group of victims.
Jane Does 102 and 105 Victims
Mentioned as part of a group of victims.
William Kennedy Smith Subject of a past rape case handled by Palm Beach Police
Mentioned in context of wealthy residents and sensational cases.

Organizations (10)

Name Type Context
The Virgin Islands Daily News
Publisher of the article.
Royal Palm Beach High School
Michelle Licata's school where fellow students heard about Epstein.
Palm Beach Police
Investigated Epstein; Chief Michael Reiner and Detective Joseph Recarey were key figures.
FBI
Investigated Epstein; closed the case in 2008.
U.S. Attorney's Office (Miami)
Involved in negotiating the non-prosecution agreement; Alexander Acosta was U.S. Attorney.
Palm Beach County stockade
Where Epstein served his 13-month sentence.
U.S. Department of Labor
Alexander Acosta is the U.S. Secretary of Labor.
Harvard University
Alan Dershowitz is a Harvard professor.
Trump Cabinet
Alexander Acosta is a member.
U.S. Olympic gymnastics
Mentioned in context of Larry Nassar.

Timeline (8 events)

2006 (March)
Palm Beach Police opened the case against Epstein.
Palm Beach
2006 (October)
Police executed a search warrant at Epstein's home.
Epstein's home on El Brillo Way, Palm Beach
2007
Federal prosecutors and Epstein's lawyers reached a non-prosecution agreement.
Miami
Federal prosecutors Epstein's lawyers Jeffrey Epstein Alexander Acosta
2007
Epstein pleaded guilty to two felony prostitution charges in state court.
State court
Jeffrey Epstein
2008
FBI case closed.
Not specified
FBI
Not specified (after 2007 plea)
Epstein served 13 months in a private wing of Palm Beach County stockade.
Palm Beach County stockade
Jeffrey Epstein
Not specified (after 2008)
Witnesses and alleged victims testified in civil court.
Civil court
victims
circa 2001
Alleged abuse by Jeffrey Epstein began and continued for years.
Epstein's home on El Brillo Way, Palm Beach
Jeffrey Epstein Michelle Licata other Jane Does

Locations (6)

Location Context
Location of Jeffrey Epstein's home in Palm Beach.
Epstein's residence, described as a 10.4-square-mile barrier island, home to wealthy residents and President Trump's ...
Location of the U.S. Attorney's Office where Alexander Acosta was U.S. Attorney.
Origin of some girls brought to Epstein's homes.
Origin of some girls brought to Epstein's homes.
Origin of some girls brought to Epstein's homes.

Relationships (11)

Jeffrey Epstein abuser-victim Michelle Licata
Licata describes being sexually assaulted by Epstein.
Jeffrey Epstein abuser-victim Jane Does (multiple)
Epstein lured teenage girls for sex pyramid scheme; FBI identified 30 women as victims, hundreds more later.
Jeffrey Epstein employer-employee, co-conspirator Sarah Kellen
Kellen was Epstein's assistant and alleged scheduler of massages, intimidated victims.
Jeffrey Epstein party to legal agreement Alexander Acosta
Acosta, as U.S. Attorney, was personally involved in negotiating Epstein's non-prosecution agreement.
Jeffrey Epstein client-attorney Alan Dershowitz
Dershowitz was part of Epstein's legal team, met with Krischer, and tried to discredit victims.
Jeffrey Epstein subject of investigation-investigator Michael Reiner
Reiner, as Police Chief, was determined to pursue Epstein.
Jeffrey Epstein subject of investigation-investigator Joseph Recarey
Recarey, as Detective, was determined to pursue Epstein and identified multiple victims.
Barry Krischer superior-subordinate (professional pressure) Michael Reiner
Krischer, State Attorney, pressured Reiner to downgrade the case.
Barry Krischer superior-subordinate (professional pressure) Joseph Recarey
Krischer, State Attorney, pressured Recarey to downgrade the case.
Alan Dershowitz negotiator-negotiator Barry Krischer
Dershowitz met privately with Krischer and convinced him the girls were not credible.
Michael Reiner colleagues, investigative partners Joseph Recarey
Worked together to investigate Epstein and faced pressure from superiors.

Key Quotes (9)

""I kept looking at the timer because I didn't want to have this mental image of what he was doing.""
Source
HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_016508.tif
Quote #1
""He kept trying to put his fingers inside me and told me to pinch his nipples. He was mostly saying 'just do that, harder, harder' and do this.'""
Source
HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_016508.tif
Quote #2
""How come people who don't have money get sent to jail --- and can't even make bail --- and they have to do their time and sit there and think about what they did wrong? He had no repercussions and doesn't even believe he did anything wrong.""
Source
HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_016508.tif
Quote #3
""I was surprised at how quickly it snowballed. I thought at some point there would be a last interview, but the next victim would supply me with three or four more names and the next one had three or four names and it just kept getting bigger and bigger.""
Source
HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_016508.tif
Quote #4
""I'm not an investigator. My only job was to negotiate and try the case when it comes to trial.""
Source
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Quote #5
""Our investigation had discovered at least one of her websites and I am enclosing some examples ... the site goes on to detail, including photos, her apparent fascination with marijuana.""
Source
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Quote #6
""His attorney showed us a MySpace page where one of the girls was holding a beer in her hand, and they said, 'oh look, she is underage drinking,'" Recarey recalled. "Well, tell me what teenager doesn't? Does that mean she isn't a victim because she drank a beer? Basically, what you're telling me is the only victim of a sexual battery could be a nun.""
Source
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Quote #7
""Early on, it became clear that things had changed. from Krischer saying, 'we'll just put this guy away for life,' to 'these are all the reasons why we aren't going to prosecute this,'""
Source
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Quote #8
""It became apparent to me that some of our evidence was being leaked to Epstein's lawyers, who began to question everything that we had in our probable cause affidavit,""
Source
HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_016508.tif
Quote #9

Full Extracted Text

Complete text extracted from the document (10,278 characters)

14 The Virgin Islands Daily News
PERVERSION
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 13
dropped his towel, exposing himself.
He told Licata to get comfortable and then,
in a firm voice, told her to take off her clothes.
At 16, Licata had never before been fully na
ked in front of anyone.
Shaking and panicked,
she mechanically
pulled off her jeans
and stripped down to
her underwear.
He set the timer
for 30 minutes and
then reached over and
unsnapped her bra. He
then began touching
her with one hand and
masturbating himself
with the other.
"I kept looking at
the timer because I
didn't want to have
this mental image of
what he was doing,"
she remembered of the
massage. "He kept try
ing to put his fingers
inside me and told me
to pinch his nipples.
He was mostly saying
'just do that, harder,
harder' and do this."
After he was done,
he stood up and
walked to the shower,
dismissing her as if
she had been in history class.
It wasn't long before a lot of Licata's fellow
students at Royal Palm Beach High School
had heard about "a creepy old guy" named
Jeffrey who lived in a pink waterfront mansion
and was paying girls $200 to $300 to give him
massages that quickly turned sexual.
Eventually, the Palm Beach police, and then
the FBI, came knocking on Licata's door. In
the police report, Licata was referred to as a
Jane Doe 2 in order to protect her identity as a
minor.
There would be many
more Jane Does to follow:
Jane Doe No. 3, Jane Doe
No. 4, Jane Does 5, 6, 7, 8
--- and as the years went by
--- Jane Does 102 and 105.
Long before #MeToo
became the catalyst for a
women's movement about
sexual assault --- and a
decade before the fall of
Harvey Weinstein, Bill
Cosby and U.S. Olympic
gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar --- there was
Jeffrey Edward Epstein.
Epstein, a multimillionaire hedge fund
manager whose friends included a constella
tion of entertainers, politicians, business titans
and royalty, for years lured teenage girls to his
Palm Beach mansion as part of a sex
pyramid scheme, police in the town of Palm
Beach found.
The girls arrived, sometimes by taxi, for
trysts at all hours of the day and night.
Few were told much more than that they
would be paid to give an old man a massage
--- and that he might ask them to strip down to
their underwear or get naked. But what began
as a massage often led to masturbation, oral
sex, intercourse and other sex acts, police and
court records show.
The alleged abuse dates back to 2001 and
went on for years.
Prosecutors' special offer
Michelle Licata says she was 16 when she first visited Jeffrey Epstein's
home on El Brillo Way to give him a massage. She says he tried to
penetrate her with his fingers.
In 2007, despite ample physical evidence
and multiple witnesses corroborating the girls'
stories, federal prosecutors and Epstein's law
yers quickly put together a remarkable deal for
Epstein, then 54.
He agreed to plead guilty to two felony pros
titution charges in state court, and in exchange,
he and his accomplices received immunity
from federal sex-trafficking charges that could
have sent him to prison for life.
He served 13 months in a private wing of
the Palm Beach County stockade. His alleged
co-conspirators, who helped schedule his sex
sessions, were never prosecuted.
The deal, called a federal non-prosecution
agreement, was sealed so that no one --- not
even his victims --- could know the full scope
of Epstein's crimes and who else was involved.
The U.S. attorney in Miami, Alexander
Acosta, was personally involved in the negoti
ations, records, letters and emails show.
Acosta is now a member of President
Donald Trump's Cabinet. As U.S. secretary of
labor, he has oversight over international child
labor laws and human trafficking.
"How come people who don't have money
get sent to jail --- and can't even make bail ---
and they have to do their time and sit there and
think about what they did wrong? He had no
repercussions and doesn't even believe he did
anything wrong," said Licata, now 30.
Licata is among 30 women who were
officially identified by the FBI and the U.S.
Attorney's Office as victims of Epstein, now
65. But after the FBI case was closed in 2008,
witnesses and alleged victims testified in civil
court that there were now hundreds of girls who
were brought to Epstein's homes, including
girls from Europe, Latin America and former
Soviet Republic countries.
PERVERSION OF JUSTICE
But Acosta and Epstein's
armada of attorneys ---
Harvard professor Alan Dershow
itz, Jay Lefkowitz, Gerald
Lefcourt, Jack Goldberger,
Roy Black, Guy Lewis and
former Whitewater special
prosecutor Kenneth Starr ---
reached a consensus: Epstein
would never serve time in a
federal or state prison.
There were really just
two people willing to risk
their careers to go after
Epstein: Palm Beach Police
Chief Michael Reiner and
Detective Joseph Recarey.
For Reiner, business
tycoon Jeffrey Epstein
wasn't any more formidable
than any of the other 8,000
or so wealthy and powerful
people living on the island.
Police had handled sensational cases involving
wealthy residents before --- from the murders
of heiresses to the rape case involving William
Kennedy Smith, of the Kennedy family.
The easternmost town in Florida, Palm
Beach is a 10.4-square-mile barrier island
between the Intracoastal Waterway and the At
lantic Ocean populated by some of the richest
people in the country.
President Trump has his "winter White
House" in Palm Beach, and the town makes
news as much for its glitz as it does for its
unusual efforts to preserve its well-mannered
image, like banning shirtless joggers.
But it was a little surprising, even to Reiner,
to learn that one of its residents had a revolv
ing door of middle school and high school girls
coming to his gated compound throughout the
day and night.
In their first media interviews about the case,
Reiner and Recarey revealed new details about
the investigation, and how they were, in their
view, pressured by then-Palm Beach State At
torney Barry Krischer to downgrade the case
to a misdemeanor or drop it altogether.
Between March of 2006 --- when the case
was opened --- and seven months later, when
police executed a search warrant at Epstein's
home. Recarey had identified 21 possible
victims, according to a copy of the unredacted
police report obtained by the Herald.
By the time police felt they had enough
evidence to a sex charges, they
had identified about 35 possible underage vic
tims and were tracking down at least a dozen
more, the police report said.
"I was surprised at how quickly it snow
balled. I thought at some point there would
be a last interview, but the next victim would
supply me with three or four more names and
the next one had three or four names and it just
kept getting bigger and bigger," Recarey said.
Blaming the victims
By then, word had gotten
back to Epstein from some
of the girls that they had
been questioned by police.
Epstein hired famed lawyer
Alan Dershowitz.
"Alan Dershowitz flew
down and met privately
with Krischer," Recarey
said. "And the shenanigans
that happened, I don't think
I've ever seen or heard of
Kenneth Starr
Michael Reiner
Alan Dershowitz
Thursday, February 28, 2019
before."
Police reports show that Epstein's private
investigators attempted to conduct inter
views while posing as cops, that they picked
through Reiner's trash in search of dirt to
discredit him, and that the private investiga
tors were accused of following the girls and
their families.
In our case, the father of one girl claimed
he had been run off the road by a private
investigation, police and court reports show.
Several of the girls said they felt intimi
dated and frightened by Epstein and Sarah
Kellen, the millionaire's assistant and alleged
scheduler of massages, who warned them
not to talk to police, according to the police
report.
Dershowitz, in an interview with the Her
ald, said he had nothing to do with gathering
background on the girls --- or in directing
anyone to follow the police, or the girls and
their families.
"I'm not an investigator. My only job was
to negotiate and try the case when it comes to
trial," he said.
He nevertheless convinced Krischer that
the girls would not be credible on the witness
stand, according to Reiner and Recarey.
The defense team's investigators compiled
dossiers on the victims in an effort to show
that Epstein's accusers had troubled pasts.
Dershowitz met with Krischer and Recarey,
sharing with them the results of an investiga
tion into one of the girls whom Dershowitz
described as "an accomplished drama stu
dent" who hurled profanities at his investiga
tor at "a furious pace."
"Our investigation had discovered at least
one of her websites and I am enclosing some
examples ... the site goes on to detail, includ
ing photos, her apparent fascination with
marijuana," Dershowitz wrote in an updated
letter to Recarey. He also disputed the claim
that one of the defense team's private investi
gators had misrepresented himself as a police
officer.
Recarey stood his ground.
"His attorney showed us a MySpace page
where one of the girls was holding a beer
in her hand, and they said, 'oh look, she is
underage drinking,'" Recarey recalled. "Well,
tell me what teenager doesn't? Does that
mean she isn't a victim because she drank
a beer? Basically, what you're telling me is
the only victim of a sexual battery could be a
nun."
Krischer and the lead state prosecutor on
the case, Assistant State Attorney Laura Bo
loblavick, began to dodge Recarey and Reiner's
phone calls and emails, and they dragged
their feet on approving subpoenas. Reiner and
Recarey said.
"Early on, it became clear that things had
changed. from Krischer saying, 'we'll just put
this guy away for life,' to 'these are all the reasons
why we aren't going to prosecute this,'"
Reiner said.
Krischer, who is now retired and in private
practice, did not respond to multiple requests
from the Herald for comment. Boloblavick
also did not respond to an email sent to her
office.
"It became apparent to me that some of
our evidence was being leaked to Epstein's
lawyers, who began to question everything
that we had in our probable cause affidavit,"
Reiner said.
Coming tomorrow: Searching Epstein's
mansion
HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_016508

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