Jeffrey Epstein suicide blamed on jail guard negligence and misconduct: Justice Department watchdog

WASHINGTON (AP) – The Justice Department’s watchdog stated Tuesday {that a} “combination of negligence and misconduct” enabled financier Jeffrey Epstein to take his personal life at a federal jail in New York City whereas he was awaiting trial on intercourse trafficking prices.

Inspector General Michael Horowitz cited the federal Bureau of Prisons’ failure to assign Epstein a cellmate after his earlier one left and issues with surveillance cameras as components in Epstein’s dying.

Horowitz additionally stated that Epstein was left in his cell with too many mattress linens, that are a safety problem and had been utilized in his suicide.

The inspector basic issued a report detailing findings of his investigation into Epstein’s August 2019 dying, the final of a number of official inquiries into the matter. He reiterated the findings of different investigations that there was no indication of foul play, rebutting conspiracy theories surrounding the high-profile dying.

Horowitz echoed earlier findings that some members of the jail employees concerned in guarding Epstein had been overworked. He recognized 13 workers with poor efficiency and beneficial prices towards six employees. Only the 2 employees tasked with guarding Epstein had been charged, avoiding jail time in a plea deal after admitting to falsifying logs.

The report comes greater than 4 years after Epstein took his personal life on the Metropolitan Correctional Center whereas awaiting trial on intercourse trafficking and conspiracy prices.

It additionally comes weeks after The Associated Press obtained 1000’s of pages of information detailing Epstein’s detention and dying and its chaotic aftermath.

The employees assigned to protect Epstein had been sleeping and buying on-line as an alternative of checking on him each half-hour as required, prosecutors stated.

Nova Noel and Michael Thomas admitted mendacity on jail information to make it appear as if they’d made the checks however prevented jail time beneath a cope with prosecutors. They left the Bureau of Prisons in April 2022, company spokesperson Benjamin O’Cone stated.

It’s the second time in six months that Horowitz has blamed a high-profile inmate’s dying on the Bureau of Prisons’ failings. In December, the inspector basic discovered that administration failures, flawed insurance policies and widespread incompetence had been components in infamous gangster James “Whitey” Bulger’s 2018 beating dying at a troubled West Virginia jail.

The AP obtained greater than 4,000 pages of paperwork associated to Epstein’s dying from the federal Bureau of Prisons beneath the Freedom of Information Act. The paperwork, together with a reconstruction of occasions resulting in Epstein’s suicide, inner experiences, emails, memos and different information, underscored how brief staffing and corner-cutting contributed to Epstein’s dying.

Epstein spent 36 days on the now-shuttered Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan. Two weeks earlier than his dying, he was positioned on suicide look ahead to 31 hours after what jail officers stated was a suicide try that left his neck bruised and scraped.

The employees tasked with guarding Epstein the evening he died had been working time beyond regulation. One of them, not usually assigned to protect prisoners, was working a fifth straight day of time beyond regulation. The different was working necessary time beyond regulation, which meant a second eight-hour shift in sooner or later.

In addition, Epstein’s cellmate didn’t return after a courtroom listening to the day earlier than, and jail officers didn’t pair one other prisoner with him, leaving him alone.

___