Guards asleep at the switch
Epstein jail duo dozed and surfed Web as he killed himself: fed rap
Two bumbling prison guards snoozed and surfed the Internet just 15 feet from the cell where Jeffrey Epstein killed himself — failing to check on the rich-and-connected pedophile all night as he hanged himself with a bedsheet, the feds alleged Tuesday.
Tova Noel, 31, and Michael Thomas, 41, are accused of failing to check on Epstein and other inmates every 30 minutes as required, and of falsifying reports in which the guards claimed they had conducted crucial prisoner counts in the Special Housing Unit of the federal Metropolitan Correctional Center in lower Manhattan.
The guards allegedly confessed their negligence to a supervisor who responded to an alarm triggered by their discovery of Epstein’s body when they brought him breakfast at 6:30 a.m. on
Aug. 10. “Noel told [the supervisor] ‘We did not complete the 3 a.m. nor 5 a.m. rounds,’ ” the 19-page indictment alleges.
“Thomas stated, ‘We messed up,’ and ‘I messed up. She’s not to blame. We didn’t do any rounds.’ ”
Epstein was arrested July 6 on child sex-trafficking charges and was being held without bail on the order of a judge who said the sicko’s sexual urges appeared “uncontrollable.”
Following an apparent attempt to hang himself on July 23, Epstein was placed on suicide watch in the prison’s hospital wing for about 24 hours and then kept under “psychological observation” there until July 30, the indictment says.
The multimillionaire financier was then returned to the SHU and placed in the cell closest to the guards’ desk in the common area.
On Aug. 9, Noel and another, unidentified officer put Epstein in his cell at 7:49 p.m. after an attorney visit, court papers say.
A directive from the MCC’s psychological staff said he was supposed to have a cellmate, but that inmate was transferred out of the prison earlier in the day.
By 10 p.m., “all inmates in the MCC were locked in their cells for the night” — and while Noel and another, unidentified guard were supposed to conduct an inmate count at that time, surveillance video shows they didn’t do it, according to the indictment.
At 10: 30 p.m., video allegedly shows Noel “briefly walked up to, then walked back from, the door to the tier in which Epstein was housed.”
“As confirmed by the video obtained from the MCC’s internal video system, this was the last time anyone, includ
ing any correctional officer, walked up to, let alone entered, the only entrance to the tier” until Epstein was found hanging eight hours later, the indictment says. Noel, who began working a double shift at 4 p.m., and Thomas, who began working an overtime shift aat midnight, were allegedly caught on surveillance video seated aat their desk for about two hours “without moving,” with court papers saying they “appeared to have been asleep.”
“Noel used the computer periodically throughout the night, including to search the Internet for furniture sales and benefit Web sites,” the indictment says.
“Thomas used the computer briefly around 1 a.m., 4 a.m. and 6 a.m. to search for motorcycle sales and sports news.”
Two other, unidentified guards who were assigned to the SHU in the hours leading to midnight also falsified prisonercount reports, but neither was charged Tuesday. The Manhattan US Attorney’s Office declined to say why.
Noel and Thomas are charged with conspiracy and multiple counts of filing false reports.
Noel is accused of falsifying reports for five prisoner counts at 4 p.m., 10 p.m. and midnight on Aug. 9, and at 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. on Aug. 10. Thomas is accused of falsifying reports for midnight, 3 a.m. and 5 a.m.
Each charge carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, meaning that Noel, who began working at the MCC in 2016, faces 30 years while Thomas, who has worked there since 2007, faces 20 years.
They both pleaded “not guilty” in loud, clear voices during their Tuesday-afternoon arraignments before a courtroom gallery packed with supporters.
They were released on $100,000 bond each after being ordered to surrender their passports, and Noel was also told she’d have to turn over a personal firearm. Judge Sarah Netburn also ordered Thomas to refrain from “excessive use of alcohol,” but it was unclear why. She and Thomas are due back in court Monday.
The news came as federal Bureau of Prisons director Kathleen Hawk Sawyer testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee that she believed the FBI was investigating whether Epstein’s death was tied to a “criminal enterprise” operating in the MCC.
Asked by Sen. Lindsey Graham whether the FBI was looking into “a criminal enterprise,” she responded, “If the FBI is involved, then they are looking at criminal enterprise, yes.”