Trigger Warning: This article contains mention/talk of sexual abuse. If you believe that reading this article will do harm to your mental health, please don’t read.
In Digital Journalism, we were told to go outside of our comfort zones when it comes to our writing and explore an investigative journalism piece. I chose a topic that is very public and controversial in today’s world, regardless of what political stance you take; Jeffrey Epstein.
Jeffery Epstein’ s crimes have become more known in the past year than ever in the past 20 years. Brave women step forward everyday and share their story, knowing that there are people out there who will stand with Epstein and his crimes.
In 2005, Palm Beach police started investigating Jeffery Epstein after a 14-year old girl reported that she was molested in his mansion. From then on, multiple young women (high schoolers) would report the same thing happening to them. They claimed that Epstein would hire them to give sexual massages. A year later in 2006, the police department charged Epstein with multiple counts of “unlawful sex with a minor”. Oddly, the state attorney, Barry Krischer, sent the case to a grand jury. In 2009, Epstein was released from jail.
In 2011, The Daily Mail released an interview with Virginia Giuffre. She discusses traveling with Epstein to London and spending the night dancing with Prince Andrew. There was a picture attached to this interview, showing Prince Andrew with his arm around Giuffre, which then created a spiral with the royal family. Three years later, Virginia Giuffre’s lawyers filed court papers claiming she had ‘sexual encounters with Mountbetten-Windsor and other men, including ‘foreign presidents, a well known Prime Minister, and other world leaders.” In 2018, The Miami Herald revisited the Epstein case, but that didn’t result in any clear claims. Months later, FBI agents (as well as the U.S. attorney’s office) started a new investigation on Epstein. In 2019, Epstein was finally arrested based on new sex trafficking charges from prosecutors in New York. Only a couple months later, Jeffery Epstein was found dead in his prison cell.
Perversion of Justice by Julie K. Brown helped me understand the details of this case. I will say that reading this book was extremely mentally tolling. This book goes in depth about the heinous situations these women and girls were put through. I can not imagine the emotional damage those girls have and how they still are reminded everyday of what this man has done to them. I was truly taken aback when reading this because I was not aware of how grueling this file was and what it fully entailed.
With that being said, I feel that it was important that I read it. I appreciate being educated on current events and being able to have a better understanding of the world that we live in. I learned a lot about the legal proceedings of this case and while it was heartbreaking to read, I feel that everyone can learn something about power from this book, and not in a good way.
This case truly embodies the saying that there is “One law for the rich and another for the poor”. The actions Epstein got away with just because he had money and power is atrocious. He was a very wealthy man and was friends with many well known celebrities. Most of his victims were either teenagers or women in their early 20s. Almost all of them were average high school or college students with student debt, unable to truly fight for themselves in court.
In 2008, there was a federal prosecution against Epstein in which there was a potential life sentence for “32 counts of sexual misconduct” that was avoided “by pleading guilty to state-level soliciting charges.” The outcome of that court hearing was 13 months in a work release program. Following the hearing, there was an immunity deal in which “the NPA would shield Epstein from any federal sex trafficking charges in Florida.” This would also apply to his associates that worked on his private island, knowing what was going on behind closed doors.
I want to close out this article by expressing how important it is to educate yourself about current events. It is incredibly important to know what is happening in the world you live in and be able to create an opinion about very impactful events in not only the United States, but the world. Regardless if you are not usually one to read the news, reading one article can take you so far.
