A Florida prosecutor painted two of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims as prostitutes, drug addicts and liars before a grand jury, shocking new court documents reveal.
The files against the pedophile financier were unsealed this week by a Palm Beach judge, releasing a cache of documents related to a 2006 case against Epstein.
Epstein infamously walked away from that case with a favorable plea deal that saw him serve just 15 months in a low-security prison in 2008, while avoiding federal prosecution for his sickening crimes.
He would later be charged with a series of sexual crimes more than a decade later, before committing suicide inside a Manhattan jail while awaiting trial in August 2019.
The release of the documents came after evidence was presented by the The Miami Herald suggesting that Epstein used his wealth and influence to sway a Florida state prosecutor, who then discredited Epstein’s young victims.
Jeffrey Epstein has emerged from a 2006 investigation with a scandalous plea deal after allegedly influencing Florida prosecutors, with new documents showing how he targeted his young victims before a grand jury.
The newly revealed documents focus on crimes Epstein committed at his Palm Beach, Florida, mansion (pictured), where he attacked hundreds of girls over more than a decade.
Although grand jury records are normally kept secret, mounting pressure prompted Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to approve the release of the files this week.
DeSantis referenced the suspect nature of the grand jury’s claims against Epstein’s victims, saying they may explain how he was able to “engineer an outcome that the average citizen probably never would have been able to” achieve.
Among the 200 pages of documents released is the horrific testimony of two girls who were attacked by Epstein inside his Palm Beach mansion.
Her accusations against him included one that said the paedophile pleasured himself in front of her in the massage room at his mansion and also forcibly used a sex toy on her.
One said he raped her when she was a minor and she “screamed no” before offering him $1,000 as an apology.
But even as courts heard sickening allegations, Epstein evaded serious charges at the time, with critics pointing to Palm Beach District Attorney Barry Krischer when he decided not to pursue felony sexual assault charges and opted for lesser charges instead.
The documents also led to scrutiny of the lead prosecutor in the case, Lanna Belohlavek, who was the one who allegedly criticized the two young victims before the grand jury.
The documents were made public under pressure from Florida legal circles, with many of them pointing to Palm Beach State Attorney Barry Krischer’s (pictured) decision to file lesser charges against Epstein in 2006.
The lead prosecutor in the case, Lanna Belohlavek, is accused of disparaging Epstein’s young victims and painting them as prostitutes when they appeared before a grand jury.
Krischer’s decision not to pursue more serious charges sparked fury in Florida legal circles, reasoning that the girls were believed to be “prostitutes” and so juries were less likely to side with them.
The move was fiercely resisted by Palm Beach Police Chief Michael Reiter and the lead detective on the case, Joe Recarey, who protested the fact that some of the victims were as young as 14, the Miami Herald reports.
Spencer Kuvin, the attorney representing one of the girls who testified before the grand jury, told the outlet that the shocking way the cases were handled was indicative of the influence exerted on prosecutors.
“There was no reason to bring this case to a grand jury in the first place,” he said.
“They had evidence from numerous victims that showed he was a serial sexual predator. The only reason they gave it to the grand jury was to taint their own case and have an excuse not to prosecute him.”
According to the statement, Belohlavek rushed to the destroyed homes of the two victims to discredit their testimonies.
Epstein walked away from the case on lesser charges, despite the victims’ lawyer claiming there was “evidence from numerous victims showing he was a serial sexual predator.”
On the one hand, he explained that the victim and her sister attended a school for troubled youth while their parents exchanged custody of them on numerous occasions.
The victim joined a group of older boys, one of whom took her to Epstein’s mansion, leading to a terrifying encounter with the notorious predator when she was just 14 years old.
She claimed in the grand jury presentation that she was quickly taken to a large bedroom and told to strip to her underwear, before reluctantly complying with Epstein’s sexual demands in a haze of confusion.
After abusing her, Epstein paid the teenager $200.
But Belohlavek was unsympathetic before the jury, asking the victim: “Are you aware that you have committed a crime?”
“Now I do. I didn’t know it was a crime when I was doing it,” she said. “I don’t know. I guess it was prostitution or something.”
An 18-year-old victim testified that she was around 16 when she first went to Epstein’s home after being told there was a “man in Palm Beach and he was looking for girls.” He is seen in Palm Beach at 200 with Maxwell and former President Donald Trump and Melania
Another victim, who was 18 when she testified, said she was drawn into Epstein’s circle when she was 16, after being told there was a “man in Palm Beach and he was looking for girls.”
The friend who lured her there told her to dress “very feminine” and said that on more than 10 visits she was paid $200 a time and Epstein asked her to be “completely naked.”
In her testimony, the girl said that Epstein asked her to touch her, but she said no so he could masturbate.
But the last time she visited him, the day before her 18th birthday, he had sex with her.
The girl said: “He told me to lie down because he was going to crack my back, which he had done before. And he just did it.”
Epstein paid her $300 for sex and stopped calling her after that last visit, she testified.
