Donor Charged With Soliciting Sex from Women

Billionaire money manager Jeffrey E. Epstein, who donated $30 million to Harvard in 2003, has been charged with soliciting sex from prostitutes in his Palm Beach, Florida mansion.

And though Epstein’s case was originally to be presented to a grand jury in February, it was postponed after Frankfurter Professor of Law Alan M. Dershowitz, a longtime friend of Epstein, produced information weakening some the accusers’ credibility, according to the Palm Beach Post.

New York State Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Eliot L. Spitzer and New York attorney general candidate Mark A. Green have both returned gifts of $50,000 and $10,000 from Epstein, respectively, according to the New York Daily News.

University President Derek C. Bok did not respond to requests for comment this week, and it is unclear what, if any, action will be taken against Epstein’s $30 million, which was given in February 2003 to fund the research of mathematical biologist Martin A. Nowak.

According to an indictment that was unsealed last week, Epstein allegedly solicited sex at least three times between Aug. 1 and Oct. 31 of last year.

Epstein’s charges stem from alleged sexual encounters with of-age women.

The Palm Beach Police Department believed it had probable cause to charge Epstein with four counts of unlawful sexual activity with a minor and of lewd and lascivious molestation, according to an affidavit.

But a grand jury found the witnesses in the affidavit released by the police department not credible, according to Epstein ‘s defense attorney, Jack A. Goldberger.

In an attempt to discredit the reliability of the girls’ testimony, Dershowitz gave the police copies of two myspace.com profiles of girls who testified in the affidavit against Epstein, according to a Palm Beach Police report,

One girl’s profile showed messages from her friends that “contain some profanity,” according to the report. The report further says that the other girl’s profile “states that her interests include music, theater and weed (Marijuana).”

Dershowitz declined to comment on this issue through an assistant.

When asked whether Dershowitz was hired by Epstein or was working for him pro bono, Goldberger declined comment, and said only that Dershowitz and Epstein have been friends “for many years.”

In April, then-Epstein lawyer Guy Fronstin accepted a plea deal that would have the billionaire plead guilty to one count of aggravated assault with intent to commit a felony, and would give him five years’ probation but no criminal record, according to the Post. That deal was to only apply to charges from one of the five alleged victims.

Fronstin has since been fired, and Goldberger said that no such plea deal was made by any of Epstein’s attorneys, according to the Post.

“It was absolutely clear to both the state attorney and grand jury that Epstein had no knowledge that any girl that came to his house was underaged,” Goldberger told The Crimson Wednesday. “He passed a polygraph examination on that very issue.”

According to the probable cause affidavit released by the Palm Beach Police Department, one of the girls Epstein solicited was a 16-year-old girl who performed sexual acts for him in his bedroom on several occasions over a span of two years.

The woman, whose name was blotted from the affidavit, told the police that she would completely remove her clothes and begin massaging Epstein’s back, while he lay on a massage table, wearing only a towel. She would then massage his chest, and Epstein would begin to masturbate both himself and the woman.

But “the woman referred to in the police report wasn’t in the country at the time,” Lefcourt said Wednesday, referring to the affidavit. “I do know that it was impossible to have happened the way it did.”

Prosecutor Lanna Belohlavek could not be reached for comment this week.

Epstein, who in 2003 was named one of New York’s most eligible bachelors by the New York Post, achieved fame after he took President Clinton, Chris Tucker, and Kevin Spacey on an African AIDS awareness tour via his personal jet in 2002.

In a 2002 New York Magazine article, Donald Trump described long-time friend Epstein as “a lot of fun to be with.”

“It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it—Jeffrey enjoys his social life,” Trump said.

—Material from the Associated Press was used in the reporting of this article.
—Staff writer Katherine M. Gray can be reached at kmgray@fas.harvard.edu.