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Attorneys want Jeffrey Epstein agreement thrown out
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Attorneys want Jeffrey Epstein agreement thrown out
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By MICHELE DARGAN DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Updated: 9:41 a.m. Wednesday, March 23, 2011 Posted: 7:21 p.m. Monday, March 21, 2011
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Court papers filed Monday say the U.S. Attorney’s Office violated the Crime Victims’ Rights Act by signing a nonprosecution agreement with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein without notifying his victims.
Attorneys Brad Edwards and Paul Cassell, representing Jane Doe #1 and Jane Doe #2, want a court hearing, where they will ask that the agreement be invalidated because, they say, the victims’ rights were violated. If that happens, it could open up the 58-year-old Palm Beach billionaire to a slew of federal charges involving sex crimes with minors that were set aside by the agreement.
The motion, filed Monday in federal court in West Palm Beach, accuses the U.S. Attorney’s Office of deliberately misleading the victims by telling them the investigation was ongoing, while concealing they had already signed a deal with Epstein.
According to the motion, the U.S. Attorney’s Office sent “false notification” letters in January 2008 and May 2008 to the victims saying “(t)his case is currently under investigation” after the government had signed the agreement with Epstein in September 2007.
“The only reason that the (U.S. Attorney's Office) concealed the existence of the non-prosecution agreement from the victims was not to comply with some legal restriction, but rather to avoid a firestorm of public controversy that would have erupted if the sweetheart plea deal with a politically connected billionaire had been revealed,” the motion says.
If Epstein were found guilty on federal charges, statutory penalties ranged from 10 years to life.
Instead, the sealed pact was part and parcel of Epstein’s acceptance of a state plea deal, where he received an 18-month sentence for soliciting a minor for prostitution and soliciting prostitution. He served 13 months segregated in a vacant wing of the county stockade and was let out on work release six days a week for up to 16 hours a day.
Edwards and other attorneys fought in court for a year before successfully getting the agreement unsealed in September 2009. More than 30 minor girls were identified as Epstein’s victims in the pact.
http://www.palmbeachdailynews.com/news /attorneys—-want-jeffrey-epstein-agreement-thrown-out-1338111.html
4/7/11 1:37 PM
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