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W S C
THE PALM BEACH POST
WEDNESDAY, JULY 26, 2006
5B
Police kept watch on home, airport, sifted through trash

► 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
matter has taken and consider
ood 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-
dence from a "one-sided per-
spective," 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 because 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
said.
According to police docu-
ments:
■ 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 a massage 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 Palm Beach Police
Chief Michael Reiter wrote to
State Attorney Barry Krischer
on the Epstein case.
PalmBeachPost.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 Ol-
ive Garden restaurant in
Wellington and said she was a
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,
7½-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 a mural of a naked woman,
several photographs of naked
women on a shelf, a hot pink
and green sofa and a massage
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 Marra
and Tim O'Meilia and staff re-
searcher Angelica Cortez con-
tributed to this story.
larry_keller@pbpost.com

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