The New York Police Department let convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein skip mandatory in-person check-ins even though he’s registered as the most severe kind of sex offender, according to sources in a New York Post report. They allegedly did this despite a judge’s 2011 order that the defendant adhere to state law. Epstein was supposed to do it 34 times at a monitoring unit station in a Manhattan criminal courthouse, but allegedly never did, even though violation of the statute would leave him open to at four years in prison for just a first offense.
He was convicted in 2008 on a single count in Florida state court, and got a 13 month sentence. Epstein had residences nationwide wide in places like New Mexico and Florida. He had to register as a sex offender in New York, where he has a home Manhattan’s Upper East Side. His primary residence, however, was in the U.S. Virgin Islands, so he wasn’t often in town.
A source reportedly said that the NYPD officer assigned to Epstein had complained about the non-compliance to the Sex Crimes Unit under Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance. Prosecutors allegedly advised him to just send the defendant a letter, telling him that he had to check-in.
Vance spokesman Danny Frost denied the allegation, saying that the NYPD repeatedly told them Epstein was in full compliance.
“Our office vigorously prosecutes all failure-to-verify cases,” he said. “Our prosecutors did not and would not discourage the NYPD from making an arrest.”
NYPD spokesman Phillip Walzak also insisted they kept an eye on Epstein “while his reporting address was in New York City.”
The agency reportedly said that Epstein didn’t have to check in because his primary residence was in the Virgin Islands, but State Supreme Court Justice Ruth Pickholz ruled that the defendant had to check-in anyway.
Epstein was arrested Saturday on sex trafficking charges in the abuse of dozens of underage girls, prosecutors said. He and some of his employees recruited them for illicit act, then then some of the victims find more targets, authorities said.
New York records show that Epstein’s current primary address is the Metropolitan Correction Center, a federal detention facility in Manhattan.
[Mugshot via New York Sex Offender Registry]