Jeffrey Epstein document dump: Prosecutors told financier raped girls as young as 14, cut deal anyway
Florida prosecutors heard testimony that disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein raped teenage girls, but cut a plea deal with him in 2008 anyway, according to newly released court transcripts.
The 150-page transcript of the 2006 grand jury investigation reveals that the court heard testimony about Epstein sexually assaulting girls as young as 14 inside his Palm Beach mansion.
The victims also testified and told detectives that they were paid to find Epstein more girls to assault in a harrowing case that ended with the pedophile sentenced to less than two years in prison after taking a plea deal.
Florida Circuit Judge Luis Delgado, who released the pages on Monday, warned that the transcript would likely outrage anyone who read them.
“The details in the record will be outrageous to decent people,” Delgado wrote in his order.
“The testimony taken by the Grand Jury concerns activity ranging from grossly unacceptable to rape — all of the conduct at issue is sexually deviant, disgusting and criminal.”
The transcripts show that Palm Beach Police Detective Joe Recarey began the investigation against Epstein in March 2005, when a woman reported that her stepdaughter had received $300 in exchange for “sexual activity with a man in Palm Beach.”
Another teenager then told detectives that when she was 17 years old, a friend told her she could make $200 by providing a massage at Esptein’s home.
When the teen got to Epstein’s home, she told investigators that Esptein demanded she remove her clothes and massage him, according to Recarey’s testimony.
When he tried touching her, the teenager told him she was uncomfortable.
Epstein then told the girl he would pay her if she brought other “girls” to his home, stressing that they be young.
“And he told her, ‘The younger, the better,’” Recarey said.
Over time, the teenager told detectives she brought six friends from her high school to Epstein’s home, including a 14-year-old girl.
She added that when she brought over a 23-year-old friend, Epstein refused and told her that the woman was too old.
The teen allegedly received $200 every time she brought a friend over, as well as a rental car paid by Epstein.
“The more you did, the more money you made,” Recarey testified. “She explained that there was going to be a massage or some possible touching, and you would have to provide the massage either topless or naked.”
Recarey noted that the 17-year-old who recruited girls for Esptein likened herself to “Hollywood Madame” Heidi Fleiss, who ran a notorious prostitution ring in Los Angeles in the 1990s.
The disturbing testimony has put a renewed spotlight on the 2008 deal federal prosecutors cut with Epstein that has been widely slammed as being too lenient.
The deal allowed Esptein to escape severe federal charges by pleading guilty to state charges of procuring a person under 18 for prostitution and solicitation of prostitution.
For a decade afterwards, Epstein would go on to create more victims before he was charged with federal sex trafficking crimes in New York in 2018.
Epstein, 66, was found dead inside a New York City jail cell in August 2019. His death was ruled a suicide.
Delgado, who had previously set up a hearing to discuss how and when to release the transcripts next week, decided to release the papers on Monday, the earliest date allowed following Gov. Ron DeSantis’ order in February.
He described Esptein as “the most infamous pedophile in American history.”
“For almost 20 years, the story of how Jeffrey Epstein victimized some of Palm Beach County’s most vulnerable has been the subject of much anger and has at times diminished the public’s perception of the criminal justice system,” Delgado wrote.
“Epstein is indeed notorious and infamous and is widely reported to have flaunted his wealth while cavorting with politicians, billionaires, and even British Royalty,” the judge added.
“It is understandable that given those reports the public has a great curiosity about what was widely reported by news (agencies) as ‘special treatment’ regarding his prosecution.”
With Post wires
