A federal judge in New York dismissed charges against two guards at the US Bureau of Prisons who admitted to falsifying records of the night Jeffrey Epstein died of suicide in 2019, court documents show.
US District Court Judge Ana Torres ordered the charges against guards Tova Noel and Michael Thomas to be dropped after prosecutors said in an appeal last week that the guards completed deferred prosecution agreements signed in May.
They agreed to provide “true information relating to your employment with the Office of Prisons, including about the events and circumstances described in the indictment,” according to a letter from federal prosecutors included in the court’s files.
The guards had to complete 100 hours of community service and cooperate with a review by the Justice Department’s inspector general, officials said in May.
A CNN he contacted Noel and Thomas’ attorneys but received no immediate response.
Epstein was awaiting trial at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan, pleading not guilty to federal charges that he operated a sex trafficking scheme between 2002 and 2005 at his Manhattan mansion and on his Palm Beach estate, and allegedly paid girls as young as he was. 14 years for sex.
He was found dead in his cell on August 10, 2019. A medical examination confirmed the cause of death as a suicide by hanging.
Noel and Thomas were working as guards that night. According to the initial indictment in the case, the guards repeatedly failed to complete mandatory counts of detainees under their supervision at the specific unit where Epstein was housed.
In November 2019, Noel and Thomas pleaded not guilty to allegations of conspiracy and false filing.
According to the initial indictment, the two signed false certificates saying they had completed their duties.
On the night Epstein died, no officers completed any counts or rounds in the unit between 10:30 pm and 6:30 am, the time Noel and Thomas discovered Epstein’s body, the indictment says.
The ruling comes after Epstein’s life came under new scrutiny in the repercussions of the conviction of his longtime girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, on sex trafficking charges.
A jury in New York last week found her guilty on five of six counts related to her role in Epstein’s sexual abuse of underage girls between 1994 and 2004.
Maxwell now faces up to 65 years in prison, but some legal commentators believe she must cooperate with prosecutors in other cases before sentencing.
This content was originally created in English.
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Reference: CNN Brasil
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