USA TODAY International Edition
Inside mansion: ‘Trove’ of photos, a life-size doll
Nude pics were labeled, documents show
Federal agents who searched the East Side Manhattan mansion of wealthy sex offender Jeffrey Epstein turned up a “vast trove of lewd photographs” of young-looking girls, including hundreds of meticulously labeled nude pictures locked in a safe, according to federal court documents.
The description, laid out in a memo by prosecutors from the Southern District of New York, was aimed at convincing a federal judge that Epstein, who was arrested July 6 upon return from Paris on his private jet, should not be freed pending trial on charges of sex trafficking.
Agents used crowbars to force open the front door of the seven-story Upper East Side mansion.
The memo said the search turned up not only evidence supporting its sex trafficking allegations against Esptein but also “hundreds – and perhaps thousands – of sexually suggestive photographs of fully – or partially – nude females.”
While investigators were still reviewing the material, the memo said one of the girls, according to her attorney, “was underage at the time the relevant photographs were taken.”
It noted that other photographs were found in a locked safe that included CDs with handwritten labels including the descriptions “Young (Name) + (Name),” “Misc nudes 1,” and “Girl pics nude.”
In calling for Epstein to remain in jail, the memo noted that he is a registered sex offender after a 2008 conviction in Florida and “is not reformed, he is not chastened, he is not repentant, rather he is a continuing danger to the community and an individual who faces devastating evidence supporting deeply serious charges.”
Epstein, 66, has pleaded not guilty to one federal count of sex trafficking and one count of sex trafficking conspiracy for allegedly sexually exploiting minor girls at his homes in Manhattan, Palm Beach, Florida, and other locations, according to the federal indictment.
In a report on the mansion, valued at more than $55 million, The New York Times noted that its artwork includes a commissioned mural of a “photorealistic prison scene that included barbed wire, corrections officers and a guard station, with Mr. Epstein portrayed in the middle.”
The Times quotes R. Couri Hay, a public relations specialist who recently met with Epstein at his home, as saying, “(Epstein) said, ‘That’s me, and I had this painted because there is always the possibility that could be me again.’ ”
The home also includes such oddities as a hallway covered with artificial eyeballs originally made for wounded soldiers, a life-size female doll hanging from a chandelier, and a chess board with custom figures, many dressed suggestively and modeled after one of Epstein’s staffers, The Times reported.
Federal prosecutors said in the indictment that they were moving to seize the mansion as part of the proceedings against Epstein.