Sex-Crimes Prosecutor's Repeated Pleas for Epstein's Arrest Were Denied
A federal prosecutor was ready to charge Jeffrey Epstein with 60 counts of sex trafficking and other crimes in 2007. Her bosses’ reaction: What’s the rush?
Illustration 731; Source: Getty Images (2), Palm Beach County Sheriff's Department
Marie Villafaña, a federal sex-crimes prosecutor in South Florida, had spent a year listening to teen girls detail how Jeffrey Epstein had recruited and paid them for sex acts at his Palm Beach mansion. He was a danger to children, she told her bosses in May 2007, and begged them to urgently seek his arrest by the FBI.
She proposed a 60-count indictment that charged Epstein and some of his assistants with sex trafficking and other crimes. Her supervisors — Alex Acosta, the US Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and his criminal chief, Matthew Menchel — didn’t act.