Far Too Many Breaks
Is there a break that Jeffrey Epstein didn’t get? The long list of ways the criminal-justice system went easy on the confessed sex criminal just boggles the mind. We’ll grant that public opinion has shifted rapidly in the years since he swung his first plea deal, making it easier now to hit such pervs hard. And he may have benefited from legal points that laymen don’t understand. But, still. Time after time after time? Start with the 2008 plea: The then-US Attorney in Miami met personally in a hotel with Epstein’s lawyer to settle the deal. Who gets that treatment?
And the deal reeks: Rather than face the claims of 30-plus victims and a possible life sentence, Epstein pleaded to just two charges of prostitution and did just 13 months of jail time.
One victim covered in the plea was a minor, yet there was no sex-trafficking charge.
Indeed, the deal immunized Epstein to federal sex-trafficking charges, effectively barring an FBI probe and leaving dozens of other victims voiceless. (The deal also ignored the Crime Victims’ Rights Act, which requires prosecutors to inform victims of a
non-prosecution offer.)
Epstein served his time — but got a work release (for which sex offenders aren’t eligible!) that let him head out 12 hours a day, six days a week, to his “office.” To which, The Post reports, he flew in young women, possibly underage, for sexual favors.
When he returned to New York, the Manhattan DA’s office argued in court for him to be downgraded to a Level One offender, leaving the judge “flabbergasted” as she kept his Level Three status, marking a dangerous criminal with high risk of re-offense.
Yet the NYPD then failed to enforce the 90-day check-ins required of all Level Three sex offenders. And its excuse — that Epstein had changed his permanent address to the Virgin Islands — is absurd, since the judge specifically rejected that exemption.
Now facing federal charges for creating a nationwide network of sex slaves, Epstein is finally not catching one break: Bail has so far been denied since he’s a huge flight risk. The diamonds, cash, fake passport and child porn found in his safe don’t help.
At last, no special treatment. But it took far too long.