New documents obtained by The Wall Street Journal showcase attempts made by accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein’s lawyers to get local Manhattan prosecutors on their side in 2010 in attempts to lower Epstein’s New York sex offender status.
A state panel of experts initially classified Epstein as the highest level offender who is most likely to commit another offense, and the New York judge overseeing his classification ultimately agreed, determining that Epstein had to be listed on the New York sex offender registry and check in with the New York Police Department every 90 days.
But Epstein’s lawyers with the New York-based law firm Kirkland & Ellis LLP recruited a former Florida state prosecutor who oversaw the investigation into Epstein’s solicitation of minors for prostitution, theoriginal charges he was convicted of in Palm Beach, to convinceManhattan prosecutors otherwise.
Epstein’s lawyers told assistant district attorneys in Manhattan that the accusations filed in Palm Beach police reports were “unreliable” and “inflammatory,” and suggested that Epstein’s unusual life as a wealthy financier was “not in any way a typical sex offender,” which led local prosecutors to argue for a lesser sex offender status in front of a New York judge.
That judge ultimately sided with the New York Board of Examiners of Sex Offenders, who reviewed police reports of Epstein’s victims describing how the convicted sex offender would recruit them for massages that then turned sexual. – READ MORE