Failed twice: Jeffrey Epstein victim's statutory rape case dropped by early prosecutor Barry Krischer
The first-ever prosecutor of Jeffrey Epstein failed to pursue a statutory rape case reported by a girl who would become one of Epstein’s victims a year later despite the adult admitting they had sex.
The 14-year-old told police in 1998 that two male teenagers, ages 17 and 18, had raped her in an area known as the “Woodsies” in Loxahatchee, according to a police report recently released amid Epstein-related court documents. All three told police they had had sex.
It’s illegal for an 18-year-old to have sex with a 14-year-old whether it was consensual or not, according to Florida law. Then-Palm Beach County State Attorney Barry Krischer’s office dropped sexual battery charges against both defendants, including the adult, however, citing the girl’s “lack of credibility,” the report says.
More: If your 16-year-old is molested, no sex crime applies
“Her credibility at the time was irrelevant,” said Spencer Kuvin, an attorney who has represented Epstein victims. If the 18-year-old said the two had sex, “that’s an admission of guilt and statutory rape,” he added.
Under the law, children under 18 cannot consent, with an exception for 16- and 17-year-olds having sex with someone younger than 24.
It is statutory rape for an adult age 18 or older to have sex with a person who is 15 or younger. Consent isn't a defense in statutory rape cases.
So why didn't Krischer's prosecutors pursue it when all three said they'd had intercourse?
That case was “absolutely prosecutable,” Kuvin said.
Palm Beach Post investigation: Jeffrey Epstein Case - The First Failure
State Attorney Barry Krischer torpedoed his own case against Jeffrey Epstein
The decision by Krischer's office to drop charges was no surprise.
He had a pattern of not prosecuting or under-prosecuting sex-crime cases involving teenagers as he did in the Epstein case, The Post found in a 2019 analysis of his sex-crime cases.
A 2006 grand jury presented with the Epstein case by Krischer’s prosecutor came up with only one solicitation of prostitution charge, despite the fact that Palm Beach police had found nearly two dozen girls or young women who told similar stories of abuse at Epstein's Palm Beach mansion.
Grand jurors heard from only one victim whom the prosecutor undermined with her MySpace pages, sources told The Palm Beach Post in a 2019 investigation. The social-media posts had been supplied to the state attorney’s office by Epstein’s lawyers.
The Post sued in 2019 so the public and especially victims could find out what exactly happened during what are normally highly secretive proceedings. In May, a panel of the Fourth District Court of Appeal ordered the trial court judge to review the transcripts, redact them and release them to the public under a '"furtherance of justice" provision of Florida law.
In July, Judge Luis Delgado received the transcriptions of the audiotapes from the Palm Beach County Clerk's Office where they had been stored under seal. He has not released the transcriptions to the public.
More: The Palm Beach Post sued to find out why Jeffrey Epstein wasn't stopped 15 years ago
50% of rape survivors are assaulted again
The girl who said that she was raped met Epstein the next year.
Nearly 50% of survivors of sexual abuse are assaulted again in the following years, according to the World Health Organization. The reason is not scientifically established. But in a cruel irony, multiple reports of rape can make law enforcement and others doubt the victims’ stories.
In February 1998, the 14-year-old had joined the male teens to go out drinking. She said she was drunk, according to the report by a Palm Beach County sheriff's detective. When the three arrived at the "Woodsies," she passed out, she said. When she awoke, the 18-year-old was on top of her, forcing sex, the report stated. At that point, she said she told him no, but the other teen assaulted her as well after that. She added that the 18-year-old assaulted her again later at his home.
More: Man, woman plead guilty to sex trafficking of girls found at Lake Worth Beach motel
Both males told the detective that they had had sex with her but never heard her say, "No." According to the 18-year-old, she told them she was going to sleep and said something about whether they were going to do something about it.
A victim's inebriation could actually increase the penalty for sexual battery on a minor under Florida law. A person who assaults a victim who is “physically helpless” could face a first-degree felony, punishable by a life sentence. Physically helpless means "unconscious, asleep, or for any other reason physically unable to communicate unwillingness to an act," according to Florida statutes.
Statutory rape is a second-degree felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
How Krischer's lack of zeal on teen sex-crime cases led to ghastly acts
It wasn't the first case involving a teen victim that Krischer's office dismissed, only to see more horrific acts by the suspect.
Krischer was lauded as a champion for children in the community.
He worked to keep sexually violent child predators locked up beyond their prison sentences under the Jimmy Ryce Act. Before he became state attorney, Krischer served as the attorney for the Child Protection Team in Palm Beach County from 1983 to 1992. Once in office, he added three prosecutors to the Crimes Against Children Unit, assigning his most talented prosecutors there.
But when it came to teen victims, it was another story.
And their social media, like in the Epstein case, appeared to do them in.
Former high school softball star Amanda Buckley met a horrific end after Krischer ignored earlier sex-assault case
Two teens, ages 18 and 19, told investigators from their hospital beds in November 2006 that Jason Shenfeld had bound them with duct tape and threatened them with a knife and with his pit bull if they didn't perform sex acts. Krischer didn't charge Shenfeld.
Eight months later, Amanda Buckley, an 18-year-old Palm Beach Gardens High softball star, was found raped and strangled to death in Shenfeld's closet. Duct tape was in her hair.
During the investigation of the two teens' case, Shenfeld's attorney supplied their MySpace pages to prosecutors. The teens later said prosecutors focused on inconsistencies in their stories, not similarities. But one teen's "account of the incident and the order of occurrence were very consistent with the interview of (the other teen) without any indication of being exact or scripted," a sheriff's detective wrote.
Shenfeld's attorney also planned to bring up Buckley's MySpace pages in the murder case, but Shenfeld pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, kidnapping and sexual battery. He was sentenced to life.
The case of McKenley 'Daddy' Desir: 'They drugged me, sold my body and beat me'
Krischer did not prosecute McKenley "Daddy" Desir after he was arrested in December 2007 on charges of aggravated child abuse and procuring a person under age 18 for prostitution, among other serious felonies.
Desir would take young runaways hostage, give them drugs and turn them into prostitutes, according to police and court documents. Two aggravated assault and battery cases involving young women were dropped in 2009.
The FBI investigated him five years later and charged him with sex trafficking by force. B.V., a 17-year-old from Palm Beach County, was one of the two main victims. She didn't provide a victim-impact statement but the other young woman, C.J., whom Desir had picked up after she got out of a Boca Raton treatment center, did.
"They took me and shut me in a room where I was isolated; they drugged me, sold my body and beat me," C.J. said.
Desir is serving three life terms in prison.
Not the only case Krischer didn't prosecute involving teens
All of these defendants pleaded guilty to lesser charges. None got more than a year’s probation.
William Chadroff, 44, arrested on charges of molesting a child or young teen under 16, at the Mall at Wellington Green.
Steven F. Collins, 39, charged with lewd molestation involving a 14-year-old girl.
Thomas E. Martin III, 26, charged with impregnating his neighbor, a high school student.
Todd C. Corzine, 41, charged with sexual battery and lewd and/or lascivious battery involving a teen girl over a period of years.
Holly Baltz is the investigations editor at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at hbaltz@pbpost.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Jeffrey Epstein victim failed twice by early prosecutor Barry Krischer
