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Case 22-1426, Document 77, 06/29/2023, 3536038, Page32 of 258
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Case 1:20-cr-00330-AJN Document 204-3 Filed 04/16/21 Page 30 of 348

B. The State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies

Florida state criminal prosecutions are primarily managed by an Office of State Attorney in each of the state’s 20 judicial circuits, headed by a State Attorney who is elected to a four-year term. Palm Beach County constitutes the 15th Judicial Circuit. Barry Krischer was the elected State Attorney for that circuit from 1992 until January 2009. During the period relevant to this Report, the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office, based in the City of West Palm Beach, had more than 100 attorneys and several investigators, and a Crimes Against Children Unit headed by Assistant State Attorney Lanna Belohlavek.

The incorporated Town of Palm Beach occupies the coastal barrier island off the city of West Palm Beach. Its law enforcement agency is the Palm Beach Police Department (PBPD). Michael Reiter, who joined the PBPD in 1981, served as PBPD Chief from 2001 to February 2009.

The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office (PBSO), based in the City of West Palm Beach, is the largest law enforcement agency in the county. Through its Department of Corrections, the PBSO operates the Main Detention Center and, during the period relevant to this Report, housed minimum-security detainees, including those on work release, at its Stockade facility. The current Sheriff has served continuously since January 2005.

II. THE SUBJECT ATTORNEYS AND THEIR ROLES IN THE EPSTEIN CASE

R. Alexander Acosta was appointed Interim U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida in June 2005, at age 36. In June 2006, President George W. Bush formally nominated Acosta, and after Senate confirmation, Acosta was sworn in as the U.S. Attorney in October 2006.

After graduating from law school, Acosta served a federal appellate clerkship; an 18-month term as an associate at the firm of Kirkland & Ellis in Washington, D.C.; approximately four years as a policy fellow and law school lecturer; and nearly two years as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Department’s Civil Rights Division. He was presidentially appointed in 2002 as a member of the National Labor Relations Board, and in 2003 as Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Department’s Civil Rights Division, where he served from August 2003 until his appointment as Interim U.S. Attorney, and where he oversaw, among other things, the prosecution of human trafficking and child sex-trafficking cases. As U.S. Attorney, Acosta’s office was in the USAO’s Miami headquarters, although he traveled to the USAO’s branch offices.

During Acosta’s tenure as U.S. Attorney, the USAO initiated the federal investigation of Epstein, engaged in plea discussions with Epstein’s counsel, and negotiated the federal non-prosecution agreement (NPA) that is the subject of this Report. Acosta made the decision to resolve the federal investigation into Epstein’s conduct by allowing Epstein to enter a state plea. Acosta was personally involved in the negotiations that led to the NPA, reviewed various iterations of the agreement, and approved the final agreement signed by the USAO. Acosta continued to provide supervisory oversight and to have meetings and other communications with Epstein’s attorneys during the nine-month period between the signing of the NPA on September 24, 2007, and Epstein’s entry of guilty pleas in state court pursuant to the terms of the agreement, on June 30, 2008. On December 8, 2008, after the presidential election and while Epstein was serving his state prison sentence, Acosta was formally recused from all matters involving the law firm of

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