Warden removed after Epstein death
Prison guards on leave as officials investigate
New York — Two guards assigned to watch Jeffrey Epstein the night he apparently killed himself in jail have been placed on leave and the warden removed as federal authorities investigate the financier’s death, the Justice Department said Tuesday.
The announcement came amid mounting evidence that the chronically understaffed Metropolitan Correctional Center may have bungled its responsibility to keep the 66-year-old Epstein from harming himself while he awaited trial on charges of sexually abusing teenage girls, which could have put him in prison for 45 years.
Epstein had been placed on suicide watch after he was found on the floor of his cell with bruises on his neck, but was taken off suicide watch last month for reasons that have not been explained, and was supposed to have been checked on by a guard every 30 minutes. Investigators learned those checks weren’t done for several hours before he was found Saturday morning, according to a person familiar with the case. That person was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
While the exact manner of Epstein’s death has not been officially announced, a second person familiar with operations at the jail said the financier was discovered in his cell with a bedsheet around his neck. That person also spoke on condition of anonymity.
Under the jail’s protocol, Epstein would not have been given a bedsheet had he been on suicide watch.
The FBI and the Justice Department’s inspector general are investigating. The Justice Department did not immediately identify the guards placed on leave or the warden who was transferred. Eric Young, president of the union council that represents prison guards, said that such reassignments are routinely done to “protect the integrity of investigations until any formal action, if any, is warranted.”
One of Epstein’s guards the night he took his life was not a regular correctional officer, one of those familiar with the case said. Union local President Serene Gregg told The Washington Post that one guard was a fill-in who had been pressed into service because of staffing shortages.
Federal prosecutors in N.Y. are pursuing a parallel investigation into whether any of Epstein’s associates will face charges for assisting him in what authorities say was rampant sexual abuse of girls as young as 14.
While the exact manner of Epstein’s death has not been officially announced, a second person familiar with operations at the jail said the financier was discovered in his cell with a bedsheet around his neck.