A Florida appeals court has opened the door for the possible release of transcripts of the 2006 grand jury investigation into notorious sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Prosecutors in that case negotiated a plea deal that critics have called too lenient.
By TERRY SPENCERFILE - This March 28, 2017, photo provided by the New York State Sex Offender Registry shows Jeffrey Epstein. Transcripts of the Florida grand jury that investigated notorious sex trafficker Epstein nearly 20 years ago may soon be made public. A Florida appeals court ruled on Wednesday, May 10, 2023, that a trial court judge erred when he said he had no authority to release the records.
Florida’s Fourth District Court of Appeals unanimously agreed that Circuit Judge Donald W. Hafele had erred when he ruled he had no authority to release the normally secret transcripts of the 2006 Palm Beach County proceedings. The court cited a state law provision that says grand jury records can be made public if that is a “furtherance of justice.”
The Palm Beach Post had sued for the transcripts’ release, but Hafele did not believe that the “furtherance of justice” provision applied to any party not directly involved in the Epstein case. Even then, he believed those parties needed to have an open criminal or civil case and would be limited in what they, in turn, could make public.
Epstein was 66 when he killed himself in a New York City federal jail cell in August 2019 as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges. Federal prosecutors had accused him of paying underage girls hundreds of dollars for massages at his homes in Florida and New York, where he then molested them. While in Palm Beach sheriff’s custody, Epstein was allowed to stay in an isolated cell at the county’s minimum-security stockade, where he roamed freely and watched television. State investigators said in a 2021 report that isolating him was a prudent decision, saying it was made to protect Epstein from other inmates and to prevent him from using his wealth to become “king of the dorms.”
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