A federal court judge in Florida denied the motion of two women to join the civil case against Florida billionaire Jeffrey Epstein. However, both women will be allowed to testify in the trial, and their testimony is what counts, not their status as parties.
The case concerns the application of the federal Crime Victims’ Rights Act (CVRA) and how the Act was interpreted in the criminal prosecution of Epstein in a Florida sex abuse case. The story is nowhere as boring as that sounds. Epstein was convicted in Florida state court in 2008 for soliciting an underage prostitute. But his conviction was the result of a sweetheart plea deal that got him out of a federal investigation that had him at the center of an international sex-trafficking operation with all the makings of a Hollywood blockbuster. News reports and Epstein’s flight manifests had him jet-setting with the likes of Prince Andrew, Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz, Chris Tucker, and Bill Clinton.
The current civil case involves four women who allege that they were child victims of sex-trafficking crimes committed by Epstein. The women argue that they had the right under the CVRA to confer with prosecutors and be heard at public proceedings regarding Epstein’s criminal plea and sentence. They allege that the government secretly negotiated an agreement that precluded any federal prosecution in the case and allowed Epstein to plead guilty in state court in Florida to two counts of solicitation of prostitution involving a minor. The women seek to have the plea deal rescinded so that Epstein can be criminally prosecuted in federal court for crimes they say he committed against them.
If these women are successful, Epstein could finally have to face the music in federal court.