Records detail Epstein’s lockup in Palm Beach

Financier bought women’s panties, book while in jail

From a jailhouse panties purchase to a contraband facial exercise book, new details are surfacing about financier Jeffery Epstein’s unusual time in Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw’s custody more than a decade ago.

The convicted sex offender spent 13 months in the county’s stockade, receiving a generous workrelease agreement that at one point in 2009 allowed him to leave the jail for up to 16 hours a day, seven days a week.

The Palm Beach County Sheriff ’s Office released an expanded case file Friday in response to public records requests filed by the South Florida Sun Sentinel and other media outlets. The documents provide new details on what Epstein’s life was like at the jail.

■ While in lockup, Epstein purchased two pairs of size 5 women’s panties from the commissary on April 21, 2009, when he had about three months remaining at the jail. Epstein wore medium-size men’s underwear, the commissary records show. He also purchased extra large sweatshirts, T-shirts

and size 12 shoes.

A Sheriff ’s Office spokeswoman didn’t immediately respond Monday to questions, including an inquiry into whether officials knew why Epstein bought women’s underwear and whether it was allowed under jail rules. The jail population includes men and women, and the commissary list offers clothing for both genders.

Junk food and coffee comprised much of his other purchases. He bought Hershey’s chocolate bars, Oreo cookies, BBQ pork skins, Pop Tarts, Almond Joy candy bars, Jolly Ranchers and Peanut M&M’s.

In total, Epstein made more than $2,500 in purchases from the jail commissary.

Guards confiscated contraband that was given to Epstein by a paralegal. Among the items were books titled “Face Exercises That Prevent Premature Aging” and “Meditation Techniques of the Buddhist and Taoist Masters.”

Jail officials worried Epstein could be victimized while in jail. He was assigned to a special unit with an unlocked cell door and given “liberal access” to a room with a television. A jail administrator wrote that decision was made to shield Epstein from “incidents of extortion and manipulation by other inmates.” Epstein didn’t want to see a rabbi who visited him in jail. A jail administrator wrote in an email “Epstein wants nothing to do with him and feels his sudden interest in PBSO Corrections stems only from his being here and his financial status,” adding that the rabbi “shook him down for $ at their first and only visit.”

■ Sheriff’s officials installed a hot-water dispenser on a water fountain in Epstein’s unit, which “should have been there all along,” a jail administrator wrote in an email.

■ Epstein received a letter in December 2008 from prosecutors in New York informing him that he had been a victim of identity theft. A man had opened a debit card account using Epstein’s name and date of birth.

■ Epstein had toiletries taken away because they were not purchased from the canteen. Jail officials called the items contraband in a disciplinary report.

Despite his death by suicide in a federal jail cell in New York, Epstein’s incarceration a decade ago in Palm Beach County is under renewed scrutiny. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating allegations that, while in jail, Epstein continued having sexual relations with women.

Bradshaw, who has led the agency since 2004, also has ordered an internal affairs investigation into the matter.

The records released Friday show that a federal prosecutor disagreed strongly that Epstein should be granted work-release privileges. Not only did sheriff’s officials approve the agreement over the prosecutor’s objections but the privileges grew more lenient the longer Epstein was in jail.

In a July 2008 memo, A. Marie Villafaña, who was assistant U.S. attorney at the time, noted that Epstein had made false statements about The Florida Science Foundation, the nonprofit organization he supposedly worked for. The foundation was incorporated in November 2007, not a “couple of years ago” as Epstein had said. The nonprofit’s downtown West Palm Beach office was a suite that belonged to Epstein’s attorney, and the foundation was not listed in the building’s directory.

“[S]itting in his attorney’s office suite making telephone calls, web-surfing, and having food delivered to him is probably not in accordance with the objectives of imprisonment,” Villafaña wrote to Chief Deputy Mike Gauger.

Federal prosecutors had signed off on a plea deal that allowed Epstein to avoid serious prison time, despite allegations of sexual abuse from dozens of teenage girls. Epstein agreed to plead guilty to state prostitution charges, serve 18 months in the county jail, register as a sex offender and pay settlements to victims. He ended up serving 13 months of his 18-month sentence.

Despite initial reservations, the Sheriff’s Office authorized Epstein’s work release about 3½ months into his sentence, allowing him to spend up to 12 hours a day, six days a week working out of the office. The initial agreement stipulated that Epstein leave the stockade only to work in his office or visit the doctor. He wasn’t allowed to leave for lunch.

A private driver ferried Epstein to his office. Epstein paid the Sheriff’s Office more than $128,000 for offduty deputies wearing business suits to guard him. In reports, deputies referred to Epstein as the client.

Epstein received increasing freedom the longer he was in jail.

The work-release agreement was subsequently revised to allow him to venture elsewhere if authorized by the Alternative Custody Unit.

Toward the end of his time at the jail, he was authorized to spend up to 16 hours a day, seven days a week, including up to two hours at his Palm Beach home where he had been accused of molesting girls. He also was granted permission to search for a new office location when he was on work release.

Gauger, the chief deputy, said he didn’t see any evidence of special treatment in his reading of the Epstein case file.

“He was made to jump through extra hoops and meet additional requirements because of his wealth that others are not mandated to do during their work release,” Gauger said in an April video interview released by the Sheriff ’s Office.