CAUGHT WITH THEIR GUARDS DOWN!
Feds charge 2 MCC jailers for neglect of duty in Ep’s suicide
Two Manhattan correction officers ignored their duties and instead snoozed and surfed the internet, allowing Jeffrey Epstein to commit suicide in his cell only 15 feet away, prosecutors charged in an indictment Tuesday that gave a detailed timeline of the multimillionaire sex offender’s final hours.
Metropolitan Correctional Center guards Tova Noel and Michael Thomas pleaded not guilty in Manhattan Federal Court to charges they filed false paperwork documenting inmate headcounts in the Special Housing Unit of the federal lockup. A false records charge carries a maximum sentence of five years.
Epstein was found dead on Aug. 10. The 66-year-old pervert was awaiting trial for sex trafficking of underage girls after having dodged serious jail time for more than a decade.
“As alleged, the defendants had a duty to ensure the safety and security of federal inmates in their care at the Metropolitan Correctional
Center. Instead, they repeatedly failed to conduct checks on inmates, and lied on official forms to hide their dereliction,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said.
Noel’s attorney Jason Foy said she hoped to “reach a reasonable agreement” with prosecutors to resolve the case. Thomas, a single father of three, was “dismayed,” his lawyer Montell Figgins said.
“We had hoped the U.S. attorney’s office would try to address the systemic failures at the Bureau of Prisons,” Figgins said. “This case is going to ruin his life.”
Both correction officers left the courthouse on $100,000 bond, surrounded by colleagues from MCC who did not comment.
“These staff were placed in an assignment where the tools and resources needed to be successful were not available,” said Tyrone Covington, president of Council of Prisons Local 3148.
“While the indictment indicates these staff did not conduct 30-minute rounds, it is a fact that even had they conducted the 30-minute rounds, Mr. Epstein still would’ve had 29 minutes to take his own life.”
Epstein’s cell in the unit for inmates separated from the general population was only 15 feet away from Noel and Thomas’ desks, according to the indictment. Noel filed the first false paperwork at 4 p.m. on Aug. 9, prosecutors charged. Cameras captured her escorting Epstein to his cell for the last time at 7:49 p.m. By 10 p.m., all inmates in the 750-bed jail were in their cells for the night. Noel, 31, and a correction officer who was not identified in the indictment filed another false “count slip,” the indictment says.
At 10:30 p.m. Noel strolled to a door to the tier where Epstein was housed. It was the last time anyone, including a correction officer, walked to the only entrance leading to Epstein’s cell, prosecutors note in the indictment, providing details from surveillance footage that dispels conspiracy theories that the fiendish financier with famous friends was murdered.
Starting at midnight on Aug. 10, Noel and Thomas were the only officers on duty in that wing of the MCC. The officers allegedly kicked back and took it easy. They are accused of filing three more false documents certifying headcounts, as well as additional false certifications claiming they’d performed mandatory rounds every 30 minutes.
For a period of two hours, Noel and Thomas, 41, sat at their desks without moving and “appeared to have been asleep,” prosecutors said. They also used their computers. Noel searched for furniture sales and benefit sites, according to the indictment. Thomas checked out motorcycle sales and sports sites, prosecutors said.
At 6:33 a.m. the two guards entered Epstein’s tier and an alarm was sounded.
“Epstein was alone in his cell and not responsive, with a noose around his neck,” the indictment reads.
Noel and Thomas immediately fessed up to a supervisor, prosecutors said. “We did not complete the 3 a.m. nor 5 a.m. rounds,” Noel allegedly said.
“I messed up, she’s not to blame, we didn’t do any rounds,” Thomas said, according to the indictment.