Jeffrey Epstein’s prison guards to avoid jail sentence in agreement with prosecutors
Two Manhattan prison guards who were on duty the night Jeffrey Epstein killed himself admitted to falsifying records but would avoid prison under an agreement with US prosecutors to resolve criminal charges.
Tova Noel and Michael Thomas had been accused of falling
asleep and surfing the internet when they should have been monitoring Epstein
on August 10, 2019, when the financier and registered sex offender was found
hanging in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Centre in downtown
Manhattan.
Under a deferred prosecution agreement disclosed late on
Friday, Noel and Thomas admitted to having “wilfully and knowingly” filled out
documents claiming they had conducted regular checks in the housing unit where
Epstein was being held.
Both would serve six months of supervised release, complete
100 hours of community service, and cooperate with an investigation by the US
Department of Justice’s inspector general, including the circumstances
surrounding Epstein’s death.
Prosecutors said “the interests of justice will be best
served” by the agreement, which requires a judge’s approval, perhaps as soon as
May 25.
Lawyers for Noel and Thomas did not immediately respond on
Saturday to requests for comment. Both defendants were charged in November 2019
and have been free on bail.
Epstein’s death at age 66 was called a suicide by New York
City’s top medical examiner.
It angered then-Attorney General William Barr, and prompted
a management overhaul at the Manhattan prison.
Prosecutors have said that during Epstein’s final hours,
Noel shopped online for furniture, Thomas looked up sports news and motorcycle
sales, and both appeared to have taken naps.
Senator Ben Sasse, a Nebraska Republican on the Senate
Judiciary Committee and critic of the government’s handling of the Epstein
case, said the public deserves an accounting of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’
failures.
“Epstein’s victims have been failed at every single turn,”
Sasse said in a statement. “One hundred hours of community service is a joke –
this isn’t traffic court.”
Before his death, Epstein had pleaded not guilty to sex
trafficking charges.
The British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, a long-time Epstein
associate, has pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking and other charges that she
procured underage girls for Epstein to sexually abuse.
Her trial is scheduled to begin in November. Maxwell’s
lawyers have complained that guards in her Brooklyn prison regularly shine
flashlights into her cell at night, ostensibly to ensure her safety. The
lawyers have said Maxwell is not a suicide risk and wants her day in court.
Comments
Post a Comment