A West Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Deputy on Friday divulged first-hand information relating to Jeffrey Epstein’s controversial work-release program. The deputy, who spoke to WPTV on the condition of anonymity, is the first PBSO deputy to speak about the office’s special treatment of the now-deceased Epstein.
”When you go against the grain, if you rock the boat, if you raise your voice about something that you don’t think is on the up-and-up, the Sheriff’s Office is very vindictive,” the deputy told Contact 5.
The deputy then described Epstein’s 2008-2009 work-release program — a privilege he was able to attain despite pleading guilty to soliciting prostitution from a minor — as being in clear violation of protocol, which called for deputies to have eyes on Epstein at all times.
“For starters, when you signed up for that detail, it was a plain clothes detail, and that almost never, ever happens,” the deputy said. “We were told to follow his vehicle in our own sheriff’s issued vehicle. I was told, when he went to his house, to stay in the driveway. I do not know what happened behind closed doors when he went in his house and allegedly had lunch. You know? He could have been doing anything during that time frame…That is one of the reasons I stopped working the detail.”
When asked who Epstein consorted with while working, the deputy said the majority of the people he remembered seeing were “20-year-old females” in “well-dressed business attire.”
“I thought that it was strange that, besides me, myself and Mr. Epstein, we were the only males in the office [suite]. I remember I took note of it mentally,” the deputy said. “What else was unusual about it, was the fact that he was allowed to leave the office and go to his residence to have lunch. I’ve never, ever been to a detail where that was allowed to happen.”
Multiple women have filed lawsuits alleging that they were flown from New York to Palm Beach and forced to have sex with Epstein during his work-release hours.
The deputy further told Contact 5 he and others were mainly supposed to sit in front of Epstein’s property and just log the names of any person who came or left the office. However, when Contact 5 requested a copy of the logs kept by deputies guarding Epstein, PBSO spokeswoman Teri Barbera confirmed that the records were destroyed according to their public records schedule.
“That sounds like the smoking gun right there,” said the deputy about the destruction of the records. “That is highly suspect, especially with the sheriff’s office, where they keep records of everything.”
In an email to the news outlet, Barbera said any such allegations were false.
The allegations you are depicting below are factually untrue and/or inaccurate. Due to the ongoing criminal investigation that is being completed by FDLE, no other response regarding these allegations will be given by the Sheriff or PBSO. Further, your email will be forward to FDLE for further investigation into the deputy’s allegations.
[image via U.S. Marshals Service]
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
Follow Law&Crime:
