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THE PALM BEACH POST 
• 
MONDAY. JUNE 15.2009 
Epstein 
The Palm Beach Post 
ALEX TAYLOR Publisher 
TIM BURKE, Executive Editor 
RANDY SCHULTZ, Editor elite Editorial Page 
Unseal the Epstein deal 
A rich, middle-aged Palm Beacher 
who preyed on girls almost 40 years 
younger already has received too 
many breaks from the system. He 
doesn't deserve another. 
In July 2008, at the age of 55 and 
after paying the equiva-
lent of a small country's 
gross domestic product 
in legal fees, Jeffrey 
Epstein escaped federal 
charges and pleaded 
guilty in state court to 
a pair of charges related 
to his luring five girls 
— ages 14 to 17 — to 
his house. The girls undressed and 
massaged him in return for $200 to 
S300. He's serving only 18 months 
in the Palm Beach County Jail, and 
he's serving only nights. And now he 
wants just one more favor 
When Epstein entered his state 
plea, the terms of his federal deal 
were sealed from the public. That 
violated normal procedures. Attor-
neys for some of the victims, who 
have filed civil lawsuits, want that 
plea deal unsealed, probably because 
the details would help their cases. 
But given the nature of this case, 
there's also a public interest. One con-
dition of the federal plea, for example, 
was that he take the state deal. That's 
why The Post also is seeking to have 
the file unsealed. Epstein's lawyers, 
Palm Beach sex offender 
deserves no more breaks. 
of course, want it kept secret. Last 
week, a Palm Beach County judge 
set a hearing for June 25. 
Epstein attorney Jack Goldberger 
claims that the file should stay sealed 
to protect the "orderly administration 
of Justice" and "protect a compelling 
government interest." Oh, and third 
parties might get hurt. The compel-
ling interest is Epstein%, and there 
is no privacy issue since the victims 
themselves are making the request. 
Palm Beach police spent 11 
months investigating Epstein, only 
to see then-State Attorney Barry 
Krischer kick the case to a grand 
jury. Mr. Krischer backed off when 
one of Epstein's gold-plated attor-
neys, Alan Dershowitz, announced 
that some of the victims had posted 
MySpace comments about their alco-
hol and marijuana use. 
Epstein's "best" defense has been 
that he didn't know the girls were 
underage. "How he verified that," 
Mr. Goldberger said. "I don't know." 
Investigators found a high school 
transcript in Epstein's house. He 
didn't know? The public should know 
what Jeffrey Epstein did, and what 
the system did for him. 
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