Jeffrey Epstein secret transcripts: Victim was asked, Do you know 'you committed a crime?'
The Jeffrey Epstein saga began — and could have ended — in Palm Beach County in 2006. The Palm Beach Post sued in 2019 to find out why it didn't. Now, secret documents detailing what happened 18 years ago when Epstein was indicted on only a single prostitution charge are public.
When presenting her case against Jeffrey Epstein to a 2006 grand jury, a Palm Beach County prosecutor asked one of two teenage victims testifying whether she was aware she "committed a crime,” according to secret transcripts published Monday in a Palm Beach Post lawsuit.
Members of the grand jury echoed the accusatory tones of assistant state attorneys Lanna Belohlavek and Mary Ann Duggan, posing questions that sounded more like condemnation.
One juror asked the girl: “Do you have any idea, deep down inside of you, that you — what you’re doing is wrong?”Victim: “Yeah. I did.”
Juror: “Have you set the goals to not do it anymore?”
Victim: “Yes.”
Juror: “And you’re well aware that — what you’re doing to your own reputation?”
Victim: “Yes. I do.”
Belohlavek: “You’re aware that you committed a crime?”
Victim: “Now I am.”
The Post sued for the release of the materials after it found in its 2019 investigation that then-Palm Beach County State Attorney Barry Krischer undermined his own case against Epstein in 2006. His office never spoke with any of the victims, according to state attorney documents, and once Epstein's famous defense attorneys came to town, his office quit communicating regularly with police.
No longer secret: Jeffrey Epstein 2006 grand jury documents are public. Read for yourself what happened
Read The Post's 2019 investigation: How Jeffrey Epstein's first prosecutors failed his victims, seeing them as prostitutes
In a highly unusual move, Krischer convened a grand jury to consider criminal charges against Epstein. During the proceeding, sources told The Post, prosecutor Belohlavek questioned only two victims. Belohlavek then undermined her own witnesses.
Those victims, one a 14-year-old girl, stood up to a man who hobnobbed with the likes of former Presidents Donald Trump and Bill Clinton.
POST EXCLUSIVE: Never-before-seen Jeffrey Epstein biography surfaces
The grand jury indicted Epstein on only one charge — felony solicitation of prostitution, what a "john" would face propositioning an adult sex worker. The mysterious outcome did not address the fact that police say they found multiple incidents of sexual abuse of about two dozen young women and underage girls.
Palm Beach police thought the crimes were more extensive. They'd found five minors who were victims and whose accusations could prompt criminal charges, according to the law at the time. Seventeen witnesses, many of whom were 16 or 17 when Epstein abused them, could have backed up their stories, which were strikingly similar.
This survivor wanted documents released: Jeffrey Epstein victim goes public: ’I want to know why’
Charges recommended by police could have put Epstein in prison for decades. He ended up spending 13 months in jail and left six days a week, 12 hours a day, on work release.
The outcome of the grand jury proceeding and another prostitution charge that Epstein pleaded guilty to allowed him to traffic, rape and molest underage girls for 11 more years after he pleaded guilty. One victim's attorney estimates Epstein abused at least 500 victims.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Epstein victim was asked, You know 'you committed a crime'?
