Two Epstein jail guards charged

NEW YORK • Two jail officers falsified records to cover up their failure to check in on financier Jeffrey Epstein in the hours before he killed himself, U.S. prosecutors said on Tuesday.

According to an indictment, Tova Noel and Michael Thomas fell asleep and surfed the Internet instead of monitoring Epstein, who was found unresponsive on Aug. 10 in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in downtown Manhattan. An autopsy concluded that Epstein hanged himself.

Epstein’s suicide, at age 66, came a little over a month after the well-connected money manager was arrested and charged with trafficking dozens of underage girls as young as 14 from at least 2002 to 2005. He had pleaded not guilty.

Lawyers for Noel and Thomas could not immediately be located.

The defendants were the first to be criminally charged in connection with Epstein’s death, which embarrassed federal officials because the case had an unusually high profile.

Attorney General William Barr said in August he had been “appalled” to learn of Epstein’s death. Prosecutors are also examining the activities of people who Epstein’s accusers say helped the financier engage in sex trafficking.

No one checked on Epstein in the eight hours before he was found unresponsive in his cell, according to the indictment.

Prosecutors said Noel and Thomas, the only correctional officers on duty in Epstein’s unit, appeared to have fallen asleep for two hours during their shift.

Noel spent some of her waking hours surfing the Internet for furniture sales and benefit websites, they said, while Thomas looked up websites for motorcycle sales and sports news.

Noel had been an MCC correctional officer since 2016, and Thomas since 2007, prosecutors said.

According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, which runs the MCC, the last inmate suicide at the facility was in 2006.

Epstein had been taken off suicide watch shortly before his death.

Noel, 31, was charged with five counts of falsifying records about how Epstein was monitored, while Thomas, 41, was charged with three counts. Both also face a conspiracy charge.

Each count carries a maximum five-year prison term.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Justice’s Office of Inspector General are investigating the circumstances of Epstein’s death.

Epstein’s estate, worth an estimated US$577 million, is now the target of civil lawsuits by more than a dozen of his accusers.