Sex offender Epstein found injured in jail
NEW YORK – Wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein, awaiting trial on charges of sex trafficking with girls as young as 14, was found injured in his jail cell this week and received medical treatment.
It wasn’t clear whether bruising on the 66-year-old’s neck was self-inflicted or from an assault. Epstein was treated Tuesday and remains in custody at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City.
“As with all inmates, for privacy and security reasons, we do not share information on an inmate’s medical status or their conditions of confinement,” the U.S. Bureau of Prisons said in an emailed statement Thursday.
Officials at the MCC did not respond to USA TODAY requests for information on the injury. Epstein lawyers Martin Weinberg, Reid Weingarten and Marc Fernich did not immediately return phone messages seeking comment.
The MCC is in lower Manhattan, between two federal courthouses for the Southern District of New York. Along with Epstein, criminal defendants held there included convicted Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.
Lisa Bloom, an attorney who represents some of Epstein’s accusers, tweeted Thursday that her clients want the financier “to stay alive to face the justice and accountability which is so long overdue. And it’s coming.”
Epstein, indicted this month on charges of sex trafficking and sex-trafficking conspiracy, pleaded not guilty. The indictment alleges that he “sexually exploited and abused dozens of minor girls at his homes” in Manhattan and Palm Beach, Florida, along with other locations from 2002-2005.