Epstein accuser sues as questions swirl about his death
NEW YORK — Jail guards on duty the night Jeffrey Epstein apparently killed himself are suspected of falsifying log entries to show they were checking on inmates every half-hour as required, according to a person familiar with the investigation into the financier’s death.
Surveillance video shows guards never made some of the checks noted in the log, said the person, who was not authorized to discuss the case and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Tuesday. Federal investigators are looking into whether guards were sleeping on the job.
In the days since the financier’s death, a picture has emerged of the Metropolitan Correctional Institution in New York as a chronically understaffed jail, with guards working overtime and other employees pressed into service as correctional officers.
Meanwhile, the fight over Epstein’s estate began taking shape, with a woman filing a lawsuit Wednesday claiming he raped her when she was a teenager in 2002.
Jennifer Araoz sued Epstein’s former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell and three unnamed members of his staff — the first of many lawsuits expected to be filed by Epstein’s accusers.
“Today is my first step toward reclaiming my power Jeffrey Epstein and his enablers stole from me,” Araoz said. The AP names alleged victims of sexual offenses only if they consent to being identified, as Araoz has done.
The lawsuit accuses Maxwell of helping Epstein recruit teenage girls and providing “organizational support to Epstein’s sex trafficking ring.”
Maxwell’s publicist and lawyers did not respond to emails seeking comment.
N.Y. starts taking old cases
Also, on Wednesday, the Roman Catholic Church, the Boy Scouts, schools and hospitals and Epstein were some of the targets named in a flurry of sex abuse lawsuits filed in New York as the state began accepting cases once blocked by the statute of limitations.
Hundreds of lawsuits were filed as plaintiffs rushed to take advantage of the oneyear litigation window, created by state lawmakers this year to give people who say they were victims a second chance to sue over abuse that, in many cases, allegedly happened decades ago.