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FBI VOL00009
EFTA00792811
187 sivua
Sivu 141 / 187
141 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 information that was relied on and decide if that was enough. You may agree it is, you may agree it is not, Judge. It's going to be your call. THE COURT: Let's go back to the Fifth Amendment issues and deal with those now. You have gotten my global rulings on the issues. I am going to review the individual questions that are intended to be reasked or to be published by the counter-plaintiff Edwards at trial as it relates to Mr. Epstein's invocation of the Fifth Amendment and the related privileges that he is claiming. I don't want to be hamstrung by this record as only dealing with Fifth Amendment. Anything that's in his deposition that has been objected to on privilege grounds. MR. LINK: Thank you, Your Honor. We appreciate it. THE COURT: Thanks. What I would like to then get into next are some of these exhibits. If we can deal with those now, let's go ahead and do that. We will use the next hour or to take care of DRAFT ONLY !!!! NOT PROOFREAD EFTA00792951
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142 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 those please. MS. ROCKENBACH: May I approach the bench, Your Honor? THE COURT: Sure. MS. ROCKENBACH: I have a copy of Mr. Edwards' amended exhibit list. And those items that are highlighted -- some of which Your Honor has already mentioned -- this would be related to paragraph B -- or item B in the revised omnibus motion in limine on page 22. Mr. Epstein has raised both and asserted both relevance, 90.401 and the gatekeeper function of the Court, probative value, prejudicial effect of 90.403. Some of the examples that Your Honor had mentioned, I think, was a massage table, which was number 59. But if we start at the front, there is an order confirmation from Amazon for the purchase of a book entitled "Slave Craft: Workbook for Erotic Slaves and their Owners." Completely irrelevant, prejudicial, has zero probative value whatsoever to do with the malicious prosecution action. DRAFT ONLY !!!! NOT PROOFREAD EFTA00792952
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143 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 The same is true -- and I have highlighted all of these -- they are really grouped, Your Honor. Some of them are just so outrageous when you read them, such as the erotic book, sex offender registrations, massage table, school records and year books of Jane Doe and -- unidentified year books just of Royal Palm Beach. Flight logs, evidence of contributions to Palm Beach Gardens Police Department. And there are some articles, which leads me very quickly -- and I think we can probably -- I hate to jump, but I think, based on Your Honor's ruling, it's possible that Mr. Scarola will agree to item C in the motion in limine, which relates to derogative adjectives when referencing my client. Based on the rulings that you have made this morning, I believe that Mr. Scarola probably would agree not to refer to Mr. Epstein as convicted child molester, billionaire pedophile or the like. THE COURT: Well, billionaire pedophile, I agree is subject to argument. DRAFT ONLY !!!! NOT PROOFREAD EFTA00792953
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144 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 But convicted child molester, Mr. Scarola. MR. SCAROLA: That is an accurate description of Mr. Epstein. It is a description, which I believe appears in some of the newspaper articles that Mr. Epstein alleges he relied upon to form a reasonable belief that Bradley Edwards was a participant in these -- in this Ponzi scheme. THE COURT: Did he take a plea of guilty? MR. SCAROLA: Yes. He entered a plea of guilty to two felonies. He is a registered sex offender here in -- THE COURT: I just want to make sure it was a guilty plea, as opposed to a nolo or -- MR. SCAROLA: No. It was a guilty plea, Your Honor. Under the non-prosecution agreement with the federal government, he was required to plead guilty to two state court felonies. THE COURT: Mr. Goldberger, did you want to comment on that? MR. GOLDBERGER: Thank you, Your Honor. DRAFT ONLY !!!! NOT PROOFREAD EFTA00792954
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145 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Just for a point of clarification, neither of the counts that Mr. Epstein pled guilty to are, quote, those that suggest that he's a child molester. It was procuring an underaged for prostitution. That's the count. So the suggestion by counsel for the counter-plaintiff that he is somehow a child molester, there's just no basis in the guilty plea that he entered. Now, he is a registered sex offender subject to a 403 analysis. Perhaps counsel will be able to go there. But there's no evidence to support, based on the documents and on the guilty plea that he's a child molester. He simply didn't plea guilty to anything factually related to that. THE COURT: Tell me exactly what he pled guilty to. MR. GOLDBERGER: Let me get the document, if I can -- THE COURT: Sure. MR. GOLDBERGER: -- Your Honor, so there's no mistake. Solicitation for prostitution, procuring someone under the DRAFT ONLY !!!! NOT PROOFREAD EFTA00792955
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146 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 age of 18 for prostitution. MR. SCAROLA: Three someones, which made it a felony, correct? MR. GOLDBERGER: Yeah. Solicitation of prosecution requires three individuals before it goes from a misdemeanor to a felony. THE COURT: Even if it's under the age -- alleged victim is under the age of 18? MR. GOLDBERGER: That's the other count that he pled guilty to. Solicitation of prostitution of someone under the age of 18. The solicitation for prostitution, in order to make that a felony it requires three separate incidents. But none of those success factually in any way the facts that he was a child molester. That's the point that I think my co-counsel is trying to make. THE COURT: Convicted child molester is the term that was used. MR. GOLDBERGER: And that's simply not factually correct. THE COURT: Anything else, Mr. Scarola? MR. SCAROLA: Since we are dealing with DRAFT ONLY !!!! NOT PROOFREAD EFTA00792956
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147 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 this in the context of Fifth Amendment assertions -- THE COURT: No, we are dealing with this as a matter of a portion of the omnibus motion in limine. MR. SCAROLA: Then I don't have any further comment. THE COURT: The objection is sustained. The motion is granted. As I understand it in reviewing the case law recently, the guilty plea would be admissible. The registration of sex offender, I am going to need some additional briefing on. MS. ROCKENBACH: And believe me, I've done that, Your Honor. I'm not sure we can take it up today. But Mr. Edwards asked this Court to take judicial notice of it and we have supplied a response. THE COURT: I can only go through so much material within the time -- MS. ROCKENBACH: I know. I think we only addressed part C of the motion in limine. I hoped it would be quick, that's why I brought it up. DRAFT ONLY !!!! NOT PROOFREAD EFTA00792957
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148 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 THE COURT: Off the record. (A discussion was held off the record.) MR. SCAROLA: Getting back to the ruling Your Honor just made, I certainly have no intention of referring to Jeffrey Epstein as a convicted child molester when his convictions did not expressly relate to child molestation. It was solicitation of prostitution, multiple solicitations for prostitution. I will be sure that I accurately refer to those things when I make reference to them. THE COURT: Of a minor? MR. SCAROLA: Of minors. THE COURT: My understanding of the case law it's clear that the plea is admissible. MS. ROCKENBACH: Your Honor, maybe we should take that up. And I guess we are going to skip exhibits for a minute, because this is too important to just gloss over. THE COURT: I don't know if it has been briefed, at least in the briefs that -- MS. ROCKENBACH: Probably not the way we would like, but we don't want to paper DRAFT ONLY !!!! NOT PROOFREAD EFTA00792958
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149 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 the court. Pages 26 and 27 deal with the derogatory adjectives. That is somewhat along those lines. But where I think Mr. Scarola is going is 90.610 of the Florida Evidence Code, which indicates that when Mr. Epstein is on the stand he can be asked, Have you ever been convicted of a felony? The answer, Yes. But the identity of that felony is not admissible, and that is part of the evidence code. So I'm not sure -- Your Honor is correct, this has not been fully briefed, because all that I anticipated were these two very inflammatory terms. THE COURT: The distinction, though, Ms. Rockenbach, that I would respectfully make -- and I'm not going to suggest that I'm an authority on this particular area -- is that typically that question is asked for one of credibility. Meaning, have you ever convicted of a felony or a misdemeanor involving moral turpitude. MS. ROCKENBACH: Correct. THE COURT: If the answer is yes, the DRAFT ONLY !!!! NOT PROOFREAD EFTA00792959
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150 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 next question is how many times. If there is any falsity to any of those -- either of those responses, then the requesting party has the opportunity to provide the Court, and potentially the jury, with counter-evidence typically in the form of certified copies of convictions. MS. ROCKENBACH: That's correct. THE COURT: Now, that's a lot different than in this case, where we are not necessarily talking about merely credibility. What we're talking about what in essence -- if not the heart, certainly near the center of the entire case. In other words, but for the fact that -- at least, but for one of the facts that Mr. Epstein was convicted, the context of a malicious prosecution claim and the context of the contentions that would be made by Mr. Edwards relating to the malicious prosecution claim would be that his conviction and his legal peril were part of his reasons for bringing the case against Mr. Edwards. So this is not merely an issue of DRAFT ONLY !!!! NOT PROOFREAD EFTA00792960
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151 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 testing credibility of any given witness. As I understand it, just about any witness can be asked those questions. This is more of an issue of a fact central to the presentation of the case. MS. ROCKENBACH: Your Honor, Mr. Epstein's guilty plea was June 30th, 2008. His lawsuit against Mr. Edwards was December 7th, 2009. So the guilty plea was entered at least a year and a half before he sued Mr. Edwards. And my concern with this under the impeachment part of the Florida Evidence Code 610.5 -- I am going to quote from Ehrhardt, 2016 version, "When a witness who testifies as a criminal defendant there is a danger" -- we are not even a criminal defendant. We are not even trying the criminal case -- "but there's danger that the jury will consider the convictions, which are admitted only to impeach as evidence the defendant is a bad person. The concern is greater when there are number of prior convictions." There's on one. But the point is, this is bad character DRAFT ONLY !!!! NOT PROOFREAD EFTA00792961
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152 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 evidence under 90.404. It's improper impeachment under 90.610. And we absolutely oppose and object to the guilty plea coming into evidence. It has no relevance to the issue of why my client filed a malicious prosecution action a year and a half after he pled guilty. THE COURT: Mr. Scarola. MR. SCAROLA: Ms. Rockenbach is incorrect that we would seek to admit this evidence solely under 90.610. Because under that provision of the evidence code, we would be restricted to, Have you ever been convicted of a crime? How many times? I understand that entirely. And that's strictly a matter of credibility. However, the issue that we have the burden of proving is an issue of probable cause. And that involves, as we have explained in great detail, an analysis of what Mr. Epstein knew. Part of what Mr. Epstein knew when he sued Bradley Edwards is that he was guilty of multiple crimes involving sexual activity with minors. That's part of what he knew. He DRAFT ONLY !!!! NOT PROOFREAD EFTA00792962
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153 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 pled guilty to that. Now, he was asked in deposition, Who are the minors that you pled guilty to? Objection. Fifth Amendment. I refuse to answer on the ground that it may tend to incriminate me. those people. Well, we can draw an adverse inference He refused to identify from that. And the adverse inference we draw is that the three people were L.M., E.W. and Jane Doe. Now, he can get up and try to rebut that adverse inference through something other than his own testimony, because through his own testimony he has foreclosed any further evidence coming from him. But if there's some independent source where he can suggest to the jury that this is not a proper inference to draw. He wasn't pleading guilty to crimes committed against these three young women -- these three children at the time -- then he can do that. But it is relevant and material to the issue of probable cause because he admitted sexual offenses relating to children and refuses to can DRAFT ONLY !!!! NOT PROOFREAD EFTA00792963
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154 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 identify in the context of this case who those children are. So this isn't just propensity. This isn't bad character. This is evidence that is directly material to an element of this case that we are obliged to prove. So your Honor's reaction was absolutely correct. There are other reasons why this comes in in the context of this case. Thank you, sir. MS. ROCKENBACH: Your Honor, may I reply? THE COURT: Sure. MS. ROCKENBACH: In Mr. Epstein's deposition March 17th, 2010 on page 103, Mr. Scarola asked him, line 23, "Who is the minor that you procured for prostitution? And the answer is, "I do not know." Let's get back to the probable cause issue. MR. SCAROLA: I'm sorry. I do stand corrected. I am remembering now that that was his response. It wasn't the Fifth Amendment assertion. It changes none of the arguments I've just made. DRAFT ONLY !!!! NOT PROOFREAD EFTA00792964
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155 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 THE COURT: I understand. MS. ROCKENBACH: Your Honor, the issue of whether my client pled guilty to prostitution with one minor or not is not relevant to what facts and circumstances. And that's the phrase of all the cases reported. What facts and circumstances were known to Mr. Epstein when he filed his malicious prosecution. And the Wright versus Yorco (phonetic) case. We haven't talking about it, but -- THE COURT: I'm familiar with it. MS. ROCKENBACH: I'm sure, Your Honor. -- both sides cited it. And it talks about what constitutes that probable cause. The public record. The public record. So my client can rely on two parts. Rely on firsthand knowledge or trustworthy information provided to him. That's the Razorback lawsuit. That's Mr. Bill Scherer, the Fort Lauderdale attorney being quoted by the newspaper as saying that Epstein -- Rothstein didn't act alone. It's the head of the South Florida FBI saying this was not a one-man show. DRAFT ONLY !!!! NOT PROOFREAD EFTA00792965
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156 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 The issue of my client's plea of guilty, has nothing to do with his probable cause of whether he believed Mr. Edwards was in connection with Mr. Rothstein in puffing up the claims. THE COURT: One thing I appreciate the appellate courts doing recently is writing, somewhat extensively, on the fluidity of motions in limine, and the fact that until the Court can digest at trial all of the facts that are being presented in putting these things into context, it makes it somewhat difficult, and recognizes the trial court's difficulty in dealing with some of these motions and some of these issues without context. But, in my respectful view, the flaw of the argument from its inception -- again, I'm not trying to be disrespectful -- but the flaw in the argument is what I perceive to be a lack of recognition of, not only Mr. Epstein's rationale for filing his suit, but the focus, or lack thereof, on Mr. Edwards' responsibility and burden a strict one, and a strong one according to DRAFT ONLY !!!! NOT PROOFREAD EFTA00792966
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157 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 onerous -- used by one of the cases in being able to prove probable cause here. And Mr. Scarola has used in his briefing this building blocks approach. And I think the same type of analogy or picture can be utilized here when speaking about the motive. What was the probable cause in actuality from the counter-plaintiff Edwards' standpoint for Epstein doing what he did. As I indicated before, but didn't use the analogy, what you and Mr. Link provided to the Court provides, not only building blocks for potentially Mr. Epstein's probable cause, but likewise provides building blocks for Mr. Edwards' proving that he did not have probable cause. And as far as the Court is concerned, if the guilty plea came after he filed suit, then there might be some reasonable argument to separate it out and say, Judge, he hadn't even filed suit -- the suit was filed -- strike that. He hadn't pled guilty. The guilty plea came three years after he filed this suit DRAFT ONLY !!!! NOT PROOFREAD EFTA00792967
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158 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 for malicious prosecution, then it would probably be a relevancy argument that may or may not win the day. But when looking at it from a building block type of analysis, as I have in the most simplest terms, in looking at it from both sides, which I am incumbent to do, as Mr. Scarola alluded to, this is but one item that could be argued to have fueled Mr. Epstein to have filed this lawsuit, thus making it relevant. Now, the fluidity issue that I spoke about is, I'm willing to look at it, again, if there's a case on point that specifically says otherwise. But for purposes of this particular matter, the Court would find absent the production of a case that would say otherwise, that Mr. Epstein's guilty pleas -- I understand it's combined, so I'm not suggesting there were more than one combined plea -- would be relevant, that it would be relevant to the issue of probable cause, and it would be relevant, potentially, to the issue of malice. And that, again -- with the Court DRAFT ONLY !!!! NOT PROOFREAD EFTA00792968
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159 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 looking at it from both sides, and analyzing it from both sides, it could be used by Mr. Epstein. It could be used by Mr. Edwards. But it provides, at least, some relevancy, defined again as proving or tending to prove or disprove a material fact. The material fact is the element of probable cause and perhaps malice. So again, I am going to rule that they would be admissible. Next issue, please. But again, we are going to completely and entirely stay away from any type of pejorative comment. I understand that sometimes things are said in the heat of deposition that would never be repeated at trial. Again, I'm certainly ordering that that not take place. All right. We want to go back to some of these -- in the time that we have left, let's go back to some of these exhibits and see if we can work through them. MS. ROCKENBACH: Thank you, Your Honor. We had identified and have highlighted, starting with number three, photographs and DRAFT ONLY !!!! NOT PROOFREAD EFTA00792969
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160 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 information of Mr. Epstein's homes, planes automobiles. I'm not sure what relevance that would have as to why he filed a malicious prosecution action. THE COURT: Let's take them one at a time. Mr. Scarola, what's your position? MR. SCAROLA: His homes and his automobiles are evidence with respect to his pecuniary circumstances. Obviously a relevant matter when we are talking about a punitive damage claim. THE COURT: Typically, though, net worth is what is considered, not necessarily -- unless it's impeachment, i.e., you'll have a picture of a home that he owns in the US Virgin Islands -- I think that he has some connection with one of those islands -- and I'm not trying to suggest anything as far as anything inappropriate -- but I can conceive of this situation that if Mr. Epstein testifies that his net worth is X comprised of A, B and C in large part, but you find an asset that he has not taken into account that's worth DRAFT ONLY !!!! NOT PROOFREAD EFTA00792970