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Subject: SF SUN SENTINEL: Some of Jeffrey Epstein's victims don't want new charges in South Florida Date: Tue, 30 Jul 2019 20:20:48 +0000

## Some ofJeffrey Epstein's victims don't want new charges in South Florida

By Marc Freeman

SOUTH FLORIDA SUN SENTINEL |

JUL 30. 2019 1 2:34 PM

After the recent arrest of financier JeffreyEpstein in New York on federal sex trafficking charges, a number of his victims want more. They want him to be prosecuted in South Florida as well.

But according to federal prosecutors, some of the minor girls he abused at his Palm Beach mansion before 2008 do not want to see him face new criminal counts here. And those government lawyers say they fully support that position.

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The debate about prosecuting Epstein in South Florida will be resolved soon enough. A federal judge in West Palm Beach is considering whether to strike down parts of Epstein's controversial 2007 deal that gave him and unnamed co-conspirators immunity from federal charges.

U.S. District Judge Kenneth Marra ruled in February that Epstein's non-prosecution agreement violated the federal Crime Victims' Rights Act. Dozens of victims were improperly kept in the dark about it until after it had been finalized.

Marra ust decide how to rectify this violation 12 years later, after receiving arguments from lawyers for two of Epstein's victims, prosecutors and Epstein.

The victims in the case, cited as Jane Does, say the necessary remedy is for Epstein to face what they say are long overdue charges in Florida.

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"To be sure, Jane Doe 1 and 2 very much appreciate the laudable efforts of the diligent prosecutors in New York," their lawyers wrote. "But those New York charges, important though they are, still leave Epstein's crimes in Florida uncharged and all of his co-conspirators at large."

Attorney Spencer Kuvin of West Palm Beach said he represents one victim who met with the U.S. Attorney's Office in April.

"She said she'd like to see him prosecuted and put in jail," Kuvin said. "She said, `I don't know if that's a realistic possibility, but that's what I want.'"

He said it's not surprising that other victims are less inclined to participate.

"When you have so many victims, you're going to have just as many different opinions as to how it should be handled," Kuvin said. "But that shouldn't stop the prosecution of a predator. One victim that wants to come forward ... is enough to put him away."

The federal prosecutors explained that while some victims "would like to see Epstein prosecuted for his crimes, they valued anonymity above all and were not willing to speak with law enforcement or otherwise participate in any criminal or civil litigation due to the risk that their involvement may become known to family, friends, or the public."

This is not to say there aren't many victims who are eager to see Epstein face new charges in South Florida, wrote Byung J. Pak, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, and Jill E. Steinberg and Nathan P. Kitchens, special attorneys for the Southern District of Florida.

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But they conclude that reopening their cases against Epstein in South Florida still "exacerbates the harm to victims who have attempted to readjust their lives in the interim."

Kuvin said he agrees, "It's a valid concern for some of the victims."

Attorneys for two victims in the pending Crime Victims' Right Act litigation blasted the government's reasoning to leave Epstein's non-prosecution agreement in place.

Lawyers Bradley Edwards, Paul Cassell and Jack Scarola say any South Florida victims who are not willing to prosecute Epstein because of privacy concerns can simply decline to do so and remain anonymous. The lawyers say there's no way that prosecuting Epstein for some victims would harm other victims unless the prosecutors somehow disclose their identities in the process.

"The Government's argument thus boils down to a stop-us-before-we-do-something-bad claim that deserves no credence from the Court," wrote Edwards and his co-counsel on behalf of the two women, identified as Jane Doe I and Jane Doe 2.

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They also pointed out that the prosecutors weren't asserting the alleged "risk" to some victims outweighs obtaining justice for their clients.

"But in any event, on closer examination, the Government's argument turns out to be vaporous," they wrote this month.

Epstein's lawyers told the judge they support the South Florida prosecutors' arguments that the once-secret deal shouldn't be blown up to allow new charges.

Public Affairs

United States Department of Justice

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