THE PALM BEACH POST • MONDAY. JUNE 15.2009
THE PALM BEACH POST • MONDAY. JUNE 15.2009
Epstein The Palm Beach Post ALEX TAYLOR Publisher
TIM BURKE, Executive Editor RANDY SCHULTZ, Editor elite Editorial Page
Unseal the Epstein deal
A rich, middle-aged Palm Beacher
who preyed on girls almost 40 years
younger already has received too
many breaks from the system. He
doesn't deserve another.
In July 2008, at the age of 55 and
after paying the equiva-
lent of a small country's
gross domestic product
in legal fees, Jeffrey
Epstein escaped federal
charges and pleaded
guilty in state court to
a pair of charges related
to his luring five girls
— ages 14 to 17 — to
his house. The girls undressed and
massaged him in return for $200 to
S300. He's serving only 18 months
in the Palm Beach County Jail, and
he's serving only nights. And now he
wants just one more favor
When Epstein entered his state
plea, the terms of his federal deal
were sealed from the public. That
violated normal procedures. Attor-
neys for some of the victims, who
have filed civil lawsuits, want that
plea deal unsealed, probably because
the details would help their cases.
But given the nature of this case,
there's also a public interest. One con-
dition of the federal plea, for example,
was that he take the state deal. That's
why The Post also is seeking to have
the file unsealed. Epstein's lawyers, Palm Beach sex offender
deserves no more breaks.
of course, want it kept secret. Last
week, a Palm Beach County judge
set a hearing for June 25.
Epstein attorney Jack Goldberger
claims that the file should stay sealed
to protect the "orderly administration
of Justice" and "protect a compelling
government interest." Oh, and third
parties might get hurt. The compel-
ling interest is Epstein%, and there
is no privacy issue since the victims
themselves are making the request.
Palm Beach police spent 11
months investigating Epstein, only
to see then-State Attorney Barry
Krischer kick the case to a grand
jury. Mr. Krischer backed off when
one of Epstein's gold-plated attor-
neys, Alan Dershowitz, announced
that some of the victims had posted
MySpace comments about their alco-
hol and marijuana use.
Epstein's "best" defense has been
that he didn't know the girls were
underage. "How he verified that,"
Mr. Goldberger said. "I don't know."
Investigators found a high school
transcript in Epstein's house. He
didn't know? The public should know
what Jeffrey Epstein did, and what
the system did for him.
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