Sex offender Epstein settles suit, averting victim testimony
Immunity granted a decade ago may now be unraveled
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A lastminute settlement was reached Tuesday in a long-running Florida lawsuit involving a politically connected financier accused of sexually abusing dozens of teenage girls, clearing the way for the victims’ lawyers to unravel an agreement that prevented federal criminal prosecution of the financier.
The non-prosecution agreement protecting Jeffrey Epstein was negotiated a decade ago by prosecutors in the South Florida U.S. attorney’s office, then run by current Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta. It is the subject of a separate federal lawsuit in Florida filed by victims who say the deal trampled their rights.
“That injustice … will be addressed,” said attorney Jack Scarola, who represents fellow lawyer Bradley Edwards in the lawsuit settled Tuesday. “There is no justification for the broad scope of immunity that was granted.”
Epstein, 65, pleaded guilty in 2008 to two state charges after reaching the non-prosecution deal with Acosta’s office while under investigation. He served 13 months in jail, was required to reach financial settlements with many of the victims and registered as a convicted sex offender.
But Epstein could have faced a life sentence if federal prosecutors had pursued a draft 57-page indictment that was never filed. Now, Scarola and Edwards say that possibility still exists, and the victims — some of whom were only 13 or 14 when they were molested — may yet get their day in federal court.