i have this on a 45…
over fish the area so you both starve. try fish farming on land and avoid th expesne and danger of boats (and weather)
agreed
text only because I'm lazee
A judge Tuesday rebuffed criminal investigators looking at sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s cushy treatment by South Florida authorities over a dozen years ago.
It happened when special prosecutors appointed by the governor came to the Palm Beach County Courthouse seeking records from a 2006 grand jury that indicted Epstein on a single felony prostitution count.
They said they’d like to know whether the grand jurors ever heard that police had evidence that several minor girls were molested by the financier at his Palm Beach estate.
Not so fast, ruled Chief Circuit Judge Krista Marx, refusing to order the release of the grand jury tapes at this time.
Marx pointed to well-established Florida law that the closed-door grand jury proceedings can be unsealed only as a “last resort,” and when it is clear that doing so will lead to a discovery of wrongdoing.
This March 28, 2017, file photo, provided by the New York State Sex Offender Registry, shows Jeffrey Epstein.
This March 28, 2017, file photo, provided by the New York State Sex Offender Registry, shows Jeffrey Epstein. (AP)
It’s clear, however, that the Epstein saga remains unending even after his death last summer in a New York City jail cell. Officials said he committed suicide by hanging, rather than face prosecution on new sex trafficking charges.
Epstein’s former attorney Jack Goldberger attended Tuesday’s hearing but did not participate.
Judge Marx told investigators they first need to try other ways of getting the grand jury information, such as asking some of Epstein’s victims if they were asked to testify.
And Marx told prosecutors they have to make more than just a “bare-bones” claim that it is in the “furtherance of justice” to release the grand jury records to them.
“It sounds like a fishing expedition to me,” Marx told Assistant State Attorney M. Levering Evans, of Fort Pierce. She added, “I’m not understanding how it will be helpful and to what end.”
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Evans explained that investigators want to figure out how the grand jury — convened by then-State Attorney Barry Krischer’s office — settled on the solicitation of prostitution charge. Was information kept from the panel, and if so, why?
“We are charged with looking simply for crimes,” Evans said of the work being done alongside agents from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
He said the grand jury records could lead to a search for financial documents and the possibility of corruption.
Matt Weissing, an attorney for a Fort Lauderdale-based law firm representing 10 Epstein victims, testified in support of the investigators. He said Epstein’s teenage victims were not paid prostitutes.
“What we’re looking at here is, was there corruption here?” Weissing said of the presentation to the grand jury. “These were schoolchildren who were drawn into this behavior by this billionaire and they were victimized by him over a long period of time.”
Judge Marx, a former prosecutor first elected to the bench in 1998, said there has not been indication of any fraud that would justify the release of the grand jury materials.
“There has not been a scintilla of evidence to suggest corruption,” she said.
The scope of the criminal investigation ordered by Gov. Ron DeSantis goes beyond the original state prosecution and the grand jury.
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It also involves checking out “irregularities” concerning Epstein’s deal with federal prosecutors, when he was given immunity from charges concerning attacks on dozens of minor girls, some as young as 14.
In 2008, Epstein pleaded guilty to two state prostitution charges and agreed to an 18-month jail sentence, registered as a sex offender, and promised to reach financial settlements with dozens of victims.
Epstein wound up serving only 13 months at Palm Beach County Jail, with the majority of that time spent in a work-release program.
Records show Epstein was given many special privileges, from an unlocked cell in a special wing of the stockade, to a schedule of six days a week, up to 12 hours per day, at a West Palm Beach office building.
Sheriff Ric Bradshaw, responding to allegations last July that Epstein had sexual relations during his work release, started a criminal investigation. But he then agreed it was best for the state’s law enforcement branch to take control of it.
“Floridians expect and deserve a full and fair investigation,” DeSantis said at the time.
In the past six months, numerous women who say they were victims have filed lawsuits against Epstein’s estate, valued at more than half a billion dollars.