Jeffrey Epstein accuser Alicia Arden demands investigation into her 1997 report of sexual battery
Days after the arrest of Ghislaine Maxwell, actress Alicia
Arden is asking police in California why they seemingly ignored her claims of
sexual battery at the hands of Jeffrey Epstein in 1997.
Arden has previously claimed that she met the late disgraced
financier at Shutters on the Beach, a hotel in Santa Monica, for what she
believed to be a business meeting about becoming a Victoria’s Secret model.
However, upon arrival at the hotel, she found Epstein underdressed for the
business meeting and was more interested in groping her than improving her
career.
During a press conference Monday, Arden reiterated her
experience. According to People, she noted that Epstein said to her, “Let me
manhandle you for a second” before forcefully pulling up her shirt and pulling
her skirt down to grab at her buttocks.
When Epstein was distracted by a phone call, she says she
managed to slip away and headed for the door. She alleged that the
now-convicted sex offender, who died by suicide in a Manhattan jail last
August, offered her a $100 bill.
"I told him, 'Jeffrey, I'm not a prostitute,'" she
recalled. "'I want to be in the Victoria's Secrets catalogue.'"
Arden says she filed a police report about the incident days
later but says she was never contacted by detectives with the Santa Monica
Police Department. Now, with the help of her attorney, Gloria Allred, she’s
looking for answers.
“We'd like to know, first, what happened. Was there an
investigation? Was there not an investigation," Allred told reporters (via
USA Today). "I don't think Alicia should have to live with the unanswered
question... Why was it apparently disregarded? Did they interview Mr. Epstein?
Did he decline to be interviewed? Did they take his words against hers? Or did
they not do anything?"
In 2019, the Associated Press reported that notes from a
detective working the case stated that Arden did not want to press charges
against Epstein, but merely wanted him warned by authorities about his
behavior. However, she strongly denies saying anything of the sort.
Police also alleged that Epstein was interviewed about the
incident and that his account differed from Arden’s. However, police declined
to tell the Associated Press at the time how the accounts differed.
If the victim tells the detective they do not wish to
prosecute, then the detective will close the case,” a statement from the police
said at the time. “In this case, the victim advised the detective she did not
wish to prosecute so there was no point in presenting it to the City Attorney
for review.”
Arden’s acting credits include TV’s “Baywatch,” “General
Hospital” and “Red Shoe Diaries.” She’s also appeared in multiple movies
throughout her career. She has been speaking out about her 1997 experience
since news of Epstein’s crimes became the subject of intense public scrutiny.
Epstein died at age 66 while in lockup awaiting trial for sex trafficking
charges.
Maxwell, the daughter of late British media magnate Robert
Maxwell, was indicted on multiple charges in connection to an alleged
sex-trafficking operation that brought girls – some as young as 14 – to
Epstein's Manhattan home.
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