USA TODAY International Edition
New accuser says Epstein ‘forcibly raped me’ at age 15
A new accuser says she was raped at age 15 by Jeffrey Epstein, the jet-setting financier now awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
Jennifer Araoz, in an explosive interview with NBC News, says she was a 14-year-old student in 2001 when a young woman approached her outside her Manhattan high school and later lured her to Epstein’s nearby mansion.
That began a series of meetings that abruptly ended after Epstein sexually assaulted her, Araoz said.
“He raped me, forcibly raped me, knew exactly what he was doing,” said Araoz, 32, in an interview that aired Wednesday. “What hurts even more so is that if I wasn’t afraid to come forward sooner then maybe he wouldn’t have done it to other girls.
“I feel really guilty. To this day I feel really guilty.”
Epstein lawyer Reid Weingarten did not immediately respond to a request for comment from USA TODAY.
A federal indictment unsealed Monday charged that Epstein “sexually exploited and abused dozens of minor girls.” Epstein denies the charges and has pleaded not guilty.
Araoz, a makeup artist living in Queens, was not among the victims involved in those cases. She kept quiet until now, she said, and still grapples with the damage from the encounters. Her lawyers have filed papers in New York state ahead of a possible lawsuit.
The woman who recruited her, Araoz said, chatted with her and told her there was a nice man who lived nearby who might help her with her dreams of acting on Broadway. The first few times she met Epstein they just talked – and each time he gave her $300 when she left with the woman, she said.
“I thought it was maybe a little odd because I didn’t know what he necessarily was getting out of it,” said Araoz, who told NBC she could not recall the woman’s name. But the first time she went alone, Araoz said, Epstein showed her his massage room, and a series of visits took place during which she said he manipulated her into stripping to her panties and massaging him.
After a few visits, he began masturbating before giving her the money, she said. But one day, in her sophomore year in high school, Epstein demanded more, she said. He sexually assaulted her, then she left and never went back, Araoz said. She ignored efforts by his associates to contact her, she added. She said she never told authorities because she was afraid.
“I was really frightened of Epstein,” she told NBC. “He knew a lot of powerful people, and I didn’t know what he could do to me, and I wasn’t sure that anyone could protect me.”