U.S. prosecutors have decided to dismiss the criminal case against two Manhattan jail guards who admitted to falsifying records on the night the financier Jeffrey Epstein killed himself on their watch.
The multimillionaire was awaiting trial on federal charges accusing him of operating a sex trafficking ring from 2002 to 2005 at his Manhattan mansion and his Palm Beach estate, and allegedly paying girls as young as 14 for sex. He had pleaded not guilty.
Who were Jeffrey Epstein’s prison guards?
Officers Tova Noel and Michael Thomas, assigned to Epstein’s special housing unit at the Metropolitan Correctional Center during the August 2019 overnight shift, admitted that they “willfully and knowingly” falsified documents showing that they had conducted required cell patrols, according to court documents.
At the time they should have been patrolling cell corridors, prosecutors had asserted that the officers appeared to be sleeping, lingering in an office common area or browsing the Internet.
