The two prison guards in charge of monitoring financier Jeffrey Epstein in his cell the night of his death were charged on Tuesday accused of falsifying documents certifying that they had completed their rounds when this was not the case.
The end of de facto prosecutions
Death on 10 August in a federal prison in New York Jeffrey Epstein, a jet set figure, had effectively ended the prosecution for sexually exploiting underage girls. This disappearance deprived the alleged victims of a trial that was announced to be resounding. According to the Manhattan federal prosecutor, the two guards, Tova Noel, 31, and Michael Thomas, 41, have "not done the rounds" of surveillance that they were supposed to do in the night of August 9 to 10.
"They stayed at their desk, surfed the net, and wandered around the common areas of their unit," the prosecutor said in a statement. "To conceal their shortcomings, Tova Noel and Michael Thomas have signed false certificates attesting to have made several rounds of counting prisoners, which was not the case," said the prosecutor. No round was conducted between 10:30 pm on August 9 and 6:30 am on August 10, when Epstein's body was found in his cell, according to the prosecutor.
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A few days after the tragedy, US Justice Minister William Barr lamented "serious" dysfunctions in this prison deemed particularly safe. The director of the institution, the Metropolitan Correctional Center, had been transferred and the two guards suspended. The autopsy concluded that the 66-year-old had committed suicide by hanging, although an expert commissioned by Jeffrey Epstein's brother recently challenged this finding, finding that the evidence was "more of a homicide than a suicide".
A scandalous death
The death of the millionaire in the address book provided a lot of scandal and fueled a torrent of speculation: some argued that several famous people who frequented Epstein had any interest in seeing him dead. The financier counted among his acquaintances as well Prince Andrew, son of Queen Elizabeth II, as the former President Bill Clinton or other American politicians.
If the proceedings against Jeffrey Epstein ended de facto, the prosecutor in Manhattan continues to investigate his possible accomplices.
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An investigation was also opened in France, where the American financier had an apartment, with call for witnesses to the international. In Britain, the case made the headlines since Prince Andrew gave Saturday to the BBC a very controversial interview about his relationship with the financier.