Jeffrey Epstein accuser sues financier's estate as prison officials investigate suicide

[webfact]

Jeffrey Epstein accuser sues financier's estate as prison officials investigate suicide

By Karen Freifeld, Nathan Layne, Sarah N. Lynch and Jonathan Stempel

 

Security personnel and people are seen at the entrance of the Metropolitan Correctional Center jail where financier Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., August 12, 2019. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz

 

NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A New York woman who said she was sexually abused by Jeffrey Epstein at the age of 14 sued the disgraced financier's estate and a former associate on Wednesday, as officials began a review of how Epstein died in an apparent suicide in his jail cell.

 

In the first of an expected wave of civil lawsuits, Jennifer Araoz, 32, said she had just entered high school in 2001 when an Epstein associate brought her to the financier's mansion on Manhattan's Upper East Side, beginning a grooming process that led to months of sexual abuse including a "brutal rape."

 

The lawsuit in New York County Supreme Court is among the first of a series by women made possible by the state's Child Victims Act, which opened a one-year window to sue over alleged sexual abuse regardless of when it occurred.

 

A New York woman who said she was sexually assaulted by Jeffrey Epstein at the age of 14 sued the disgraced financier's estate and a former associate on Wednesday, in the start of an expected wave of lawsuits. Yahaira Jacquez reports.

 

Epstein, who once counted Republican President Donald Trump and Democratic former President Bill Clinton as friends, was found unresponsive in his cell on Saturday morning at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in lower Manhattan, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

 

A source said Epstein was found hanging by the neck. He was 66.

 

Psychologists began on Tuesday studying how the apparent suicide took place, according to a person familiar with the matter, reflecting the prisons bureau's policy calling for a "psychological reconstruction" following a suicide.

 

Another team at the jail on Wednesday began an "after action" review, which is normally triggered by significant events such as a prominent inmate's death, the person familiar with the matter said. That review will be headed by a prison bureau director from another region.

 

The reviews are separate from investigations by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. Department of Justice's inspector general.

 

U.S. Attorney General William Barr on Tuesday ordered the temporary transfer of Epstein's jail warden, after condemning "serious irregularities" at the facility. Two guards were placed on leave.

 

Reuters has reported that guards on duty had failed to do a required headcount of all inmates every 30 minutes.

 

Epstein pleaded not guilty in July to charges of sex trafficking involving dozens of underage girls between 2002 and 2005. Prosecutors said he recruited girls to give him massages, which became sexual in nature.

 

Barr said the criminal investigation into any possible co-conspirators would continue.

 

Trump, meanwhile, has also called for an investigation into Epstein's death.

 

ACCUSER'S ANGER

In her lawsuit, Araoz accused former Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell of facilitating Epstein's abuses by "ensuring that approximately three girls a day were made available to him for his sexual pleasure."

 

A lawyer who has represented Epstein did not respond to requests for comment. Lawyers for Maxwell did not respond to similar requests.

 

The other defendants in Araoz's lawsuit are all women who were not identified. The lawsuit said they worked for Epstein in New York, including a maid, a secretary, and a "recruiter" who helped procure underage girls for him.

 

Araoz told reporters on a conference call she was angry that Epstein's death meant he would never face her in court but wanted to exercise her legal rights in civil court.

 

"Today is my first step toward reclaiming my power Jeffrey Epstein and his enablers stole from me," she said. "They robbed me of my youth, my identity, my innocence and my self-worth."

 

The complaint described Epstein's massage room as having a ceiling painted as a blue sky with clouds and angels, "to give the appearance that you were in heaven."

 

It also detailed other allegations of misconduct by Epstein, including what she called an insinuation that she owed him because of the money he paid her.

 

"I take care of you, you take care of me," the complaint quoted Epstein as saying.

 

Araoz also accused Epstein of having failed to use a condom during the alleged rape, which she said led her to suffer a "panic disorder" that was exacerbated by her father's recent death from AIDS.

 

Dan Kaiser, a lawyer for Araoz, said on the conference call that holding Epstein's "adult enablers" responsible was "a very large part of this story."

He called Maxwell a key figure in maintaining and concealing Epstein's conduct, although Araoz never met her.

 

"She is absolutely culpable for the injuries that these girls sustained," Kaiser said of Maxwell.

 

LENIENT 2008 SETTLEMENT

The civil lawsuits against Epstein's estate are expected to seek money damages.

 

It is not known if Epstein had a will. His lawyers last month said Epstein had about $559 million of assets, including two private islands and four homes, and that the Manhattan mansion was worth about $77 million.

 

Epstein had previously pleaded guilty in Florida to state prostitution charges, as part of a non-prosecution agreement with federal prosecutors now widely seen as too lenient.

 

The U.S. Attorney in Miami at the time, Alexander Acosta, resigned as U.S. labor secretary in July as that agreement came under fresh scrutiny following Epstein's latest arrest.

 

On Monday, two of Epstein's accusers asked a federal judge in West Palm Beach, Florida to scrap portions of the 2008 non-prosecution agreement, including provisions that they said immunized Epstein's co-conspirators from criminal charges.

 

But lawyers who had represented Epstein said in a court filing on Wednesday that his death mooted the case, and that ending immunity for any purported co-conspirators required first giving them a chance to oppose it in court.

 

(Reporting by Gabriella Borter, Karen Freifeld, Nathan Layne, Brendan Pierson and Jonathan Stempel in New York, and Sarah N. Lynch in Washington, D.C.; Editing by Noeleen Walder, Bill Trott and Grant McCool)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-08-15

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[giddyup]

Not justifying his actions, but after reading the book Filthy Rich it appears these girls were queuing up to be his "masseur" for big cash payments, and they knew exactly what was expected of them.

[Isaan sailor]

I’ll bet Bill Clinton is getting nervous...

[from the home of CC]

2 hours ago, Isaan sailor said:

I’ll bet Bill Clinton is getting nervous...

that Maxwell pimp is the one who should be nervous, hasn't been seen for a while maybe she offed herself too..

[canuckamuck]

3 hours ago, giddyup said:

Not justifying his actions, but after reading the book Filthy Rich it appears these girls were queuing up to be his "masseur" for big cash payments, and they knew exactly what was expected of them.

It doesn't matter to the law what the girls were thinking.

[Chomper Higgot]

4 hours ago, giddyup said:

Not justifying his actions, but after reading the book Filthy Rich it appears these girls were queuing up to be his "masseur" for big cash payments, and they knew exactly what was expected of them.

The girls were legally minors.

 

They are not old enough to give consent, sex with minors is always rape.

[from the home of CC]

1 hour ago, from the home of CC said:

that Maxwell pimp is the one who should be nervous, hasn't been seen for a while maybe she offed herself too..

just read she's laying low in the US, no worries for extradition then..

[candide]

5 hours ago, Isaan sailor said:

I’ll bet Bill Clinton is getting nervous...

Why that? Has he been co-accused with Epstein in a lawsuit about the rape of an underaged girl? Has he employed Acosta in his government? Has Alexandra Guiffre been recruited by Maxwell in his Mar a Lago property?

 

He is worried enough to feel that he needs to accuse other people in order to distract attention from himself?

[sammieuk1]

This will rumble along for years until his video stash comes to light hopefully uncovered by the Sun/Mirror and Star for maximum squirming ????

[surangw]

that didn't take long 

[Scott]

Off-topic post and replies removed.

 

[Yinn]

Thai news talk about Epstein try to get the Thai children also.

 

In 2000, the prince is reported to have shared a holiday with Epstein on his yacht in Thailand.

 

 

Maxwell gave Giuffre plane tickets to Thailand, where she was instructed to meet a young girl and “bring her back to the U.S. for Epstein and [her]” — a claim in part corroborated by records of Giuffre’s hotel stay, which she produced.

 

 

[beautifulthailand99]

6 hours ago, from the home of CC said:

that Maxwell pimp is the one who should be nervous, hasn't been seen for a while maybe she offed herself too..

 Probably on her way to Israel as we speak to pay her respects to daddy's grave on the Mount of Olives. Israel looks after it's friends. 

 

 

[The Old Bull]

14 hours ago, Chomper Higgot said:

The girls were legally minors.

 

They are not old enough to give consent, sex with minors is always rape.

It's an American thing ,in most places girls are in charge of their own skin at a much earlier age.

[from the home of CC]

13 hours ago, beautifulthailand99 said:

 Probably on her way to Israel as we speak to pay her respects to daddy's grave on the Mount of Olives. Israel looks after it's friends. 

 

 

She was spotted at an In n out burger in L.A. yesterday, I'm sure she's being clocked. The statement that's attributed to her basically stating these girls were disposable and worth nothing maybe will be written on her grave..