Prince Andrew stonewalling Epstein probe, feds allege
At a highly unusual news conference, the U.S. attorney for Manhattan accused Prince Andrew of refusing to cooperate with the ongoing investigation into Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking.
WASHINGTON
Buckingham Palace and the Trump administration were silent about explosive new accusations Monday from a top U.S. Justice Department official that Britain’s Prince Andrew has provided “zero cooperation” to an ongoing investigation into the late accused sex trafficker Jeffrey E. Epstein.
Although Epstein was found dead in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan last Aug. 10, U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman, the top prosecutor for the Southern District of New York, continues to investigate the disgraced financier with an eye toward bringing charges against his enablers and possible coconspirators.
“Ordinarily our office doesn’t comment on whether an individual cooperates or doesn’t cooperate with our investigation. However, in Prince Andrew’s case, he publicly offered, indeed in a press release offered to cooperate with law enforcement investigating the crimes committed by Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirators,” Berman explained to reporters gathered outside Epstein’s Manhattan mansion on Monday.
Given the prince’s public
internal affairs investigators in sworn interviews. She even said they were having sex in his patrol truck before early-morning physical drills, one trainee said.
Her classmates told her she had to inform the college of the pregnancy. Doing the intense workouts that were part of their coursework during the summer of 2017 could damage the baby’s health.
On a Friday afternoon, the woman approached another training adviser and told him what had happened. But over the weekend Menocal repeatedly texted the pregnant student, telling her to withdraw her claim, according to two sources familiar with their relationship. Menocal also told the student that he would refuse to help anyone who spoke to investigators if they applied for a job with Hialeah police, said one of those sources, who asked for anonymity to discuss private conversations.
The pressure tactics seemed to work.
On Monday, Aug. 21, 2017, when the woman met with School of Justice Director Paul Kiley and Rene Revilla — the training adviser she told about the pregnancy three days earlier — she claimed she had made the whole thing up.
“You are lying to Mr. Kiley because that’s not what you told me Friday afternoon,” Revilla recounted telling the woman, according to an audio recording of his interview with Hialeah police investigators.
In the end, the School of Justice undertook no formal investigation. The woman left the law enforcement academy immediately after the incident. It is unclear if she had to withdraw because she was pregnant or because she was dismissed for lying. Menocal was removed from his role training and recruiting cadets — but Kiley, a former Fort Lauderdale police major, would bring him back to instruct certified law enforcement officers, male and female, in SWAT tactics, according to Menocal’s contracts with the academy.
Kiley hung up the phone when contacted for this story.
Menocal, a married father of two, was dismissed in November 2019 only after the Miami Herald informed college officials it was preparing to publish an investigation into long-standing allegations of sexual assault that had been lodged against him in 2015. A month after the Herald’s story, Menocal, 32, was indicted by federal prosecutors who said he used his badge to pressure two civilian women he had encountered, one a minor, for sex. A new alleged victim has since come forward.
While Hialeah Police Chief Sergio Velázquez says the academy cadet “fabricated” her story about the pregnancy, the Herald found significant evidence that Menocal did in fact have a sexual relationship with the student and then lied about it. Reporters reviewed audio recordings of detailed sworn testimony that three cadets and one instructor gave to Hialeah police internal affairs investigators and interviewed four sources with knowledge of the case.
At the time Menocal was serving as an instructor at the college, the FBI was investigating him for the alleged sexual assaults he committed while on duty in 2015. Velázquez has said he was aware of that FBI investigation and that Hialeah police cooperated with it.
The chief has not explained why he allowed Menocal to continue working on patrol or as an instructor who held sway over the futures of young female cadets at the police academy. Menocal began teaching at the college in 2013, working on a contract basis, according to his personnel file.
“I guarantee you that we did our due diligence and completely investigated,” Velázquez said at a November press conference addressing the Herald’s initial story. “Not only us but the Miami Dade [College] School of Justice.
“We don’t cover up,” he said.
The chief also said he provided the college with a “memo” discussing the incident. The city has not yet provided that memo, which would be a public record, despite multiple requests. The college said it did not receive any such memo from Hialeah police.
Juan Mendieta, a spokesman for Miami Dade College, said the college played no role in the investigation of the pregnancy and was unaware the student had come forward.
“It is important to note the Hialeah Police Department never informed the college of any concerns nor issues,” Mendieta said. “We have no record of any cadet raising concerns about him to college officials.
“There was no student complaint nor investigation,” Mendieta added when asked why Menocal was allowed to continue working at the academy after the pregnancy scandal.
Mendieta said an internal review of how the school handled the case found
“the correct processes were followed in having Mr. Menocal removed from any recruitment role.” The review was initiated in November after questions from the Herald.
In December, Menocal was arrested by the FBI and charged with two civilrights violations stemming from those alleged 2015 sexual assaults. One of the victims cited in the indictment was 17 years old. Menocal was fired from the department that same day and has pleaded not guilty.
His defense attorney, Michael Grieco, declined to comment for this story.
Maria Haberfeld, a professor of police science at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City, said academy officials should have filed a complaint as soon as the female cadet told an instructor that Menocal impregnated her.
“He was under investigation [for sexual assault allegations] over a long period of time and did not belong in a position of instructional responsibility,” said Haberfeld, author of “Critical Issues in Police Training,” who since 2001 has been involved in a special educational program for the New York City Police Department. “These are very serious charges. He was lucky not to be suspended without pay. Leaving him at the academy was, to me, negligence.
“He should have been reassigned to a desk job, dealing with paperwork,” she said. “No interactions with the community and no interactions with cadets.”
A ‘FABRICATED’ INCIDENT
In the weeks before the cadet revealed her pregnancy, she had shown her classmates flirty text messages she said she exchanged with Menocal.
“He wanted to meet up during the weekend to f--k,” one trainee told Hialeah police internal affairs investigators.
If she ever needed to miss early morning training sessions, all she had to do was text Menocal, she told another trainee. No one else got that kind of special treatment, the trainee said.
On Friday, Aug. 18, 2017, at the urging of her classmates, the pregnant cadet approached training adviser Rene Revilla, a Miami police officer, and told him she was carrying Menocal’s child, according to sworn testimony Revilla gave the next week to Hialeah internal affairs.
“She did make it a point to tell me ... that wherever this went and led to, she did not want to be in the same room or be seen [by Menocal]
because she felt uncomfortable or intimidated,” he said.
Soon after Revilla’s meeting with the cadet, Menocal rang her cellphone. Revilla, still standing nearby, told her not to pick up. She ignored the call.
Menocal had already telephoned Revilla, saying he was hearing chatter from students about the scandal. “It’s all B.S.,” he said, according to Revilla’s testimony.
“I believe you need to fasten your seat belt,” Revilla replied. “There’s a roller coast ride coming.”
But on the following Monday, when the woman met with Revilla, Kiley, the school’s director, and another training adviser, she claimed she had made up the affair and the baby’s paternity.
“Nothing happened between me and Sgt. Menocal,” she said, according to Revilla’s audio statement. “It’s all been fabricated. It’s a lie.”
Revilla pushed back but the cadet stuck to her revised story.
Hialeah police investigated the pregnancy allegations after receiving a complaint from someone at the academy, according to sources familiar with the department’s probe.
Internal affairs investigators took statements from the four police academy witnesses, including Revilla, but the female cadet at the center of the alleged pregnancy did not want to give a statement. An IA report was written summarizing the witnesses’ audio statements and other evidence. However, because the cadet did not want to be interviewed by Hialeah investigators and cooperate with their probe, the report did not recommend any disciplinary action for Menocal. The report was then turned over to the police chief, who allowed Menocal to continue as an instructor at the police academy on the Miami Dade College campus in North Miami.
It wasn’t the first scandal Menocal had survived. He was still teaching at the academy in 2017 even though four women, two of them minors, had told Hialeah police two years earlier that he sexually assaulted and harassed them. But state prosecutors decided not to charge him. And Velázquez, the chief, allowed Menocal to resume his career, giving him a merit raise, moving him back to the SWAT team and allowing him to resume working at the academy.
The School of Justice also took no action in 2015, although the case received significant public attention after one alleged victim gave interviews to local television news stations. During the pregnancy scandal in 2017, students at the school were familiar with the assault allegations against Menocal and questioned why he was working as an instructor, according to a former student.
The School of Justice trains more than 12,000 students every year, providing “state-certified training to private and public sector public safety professionals,” according to its promotional materials. It is an academic division of Miami Dade College. Students do not need to be assigned to the academy by a police department, although law enforcement agencies can contract with the school for training programs.
Hialeah Mayor Carlos Hernández has called the Herald “racist” and “antiCuban” for its coverage of the police department and Menocal.
A Hialeah police spokesman said Velázquez stood by his earlier comments that the cadet had fabricated the story.
“He further states that any insinuation to the contrary would be another example of a misdirected attack by the Herald concerning Hialeah,” said Lt. Eddie Rodriguez.
Despite requests dating back to November, the city has still not released the final report that internal affairs detectives compiled on the pregnancy matter.
Nicholas Nehamas: 305-376-3745, @NickNehamas
Jay Weaver: 305-376-3446, @jayhweaver
Daniel Chang: 305-376-2012, @dchangmiami
Miami Herald writer Tess Riski contributed to this report.