It was toward the end of the second victim's testimony about her interactions with Jeffrey Epstein that a member of the 2006 grand jury convened to consider his crimes finally asked a question about what he had done to her.
“Do you feel it’s wrong of him to take advantage of your youth?
“Yes I do,” responded the witness, who was 16 years old when she met the middle-aged Palm Beacher.
"And did he take away from your person, your being, your spirit?”
“Yes.”
The exchange, captured in grand jury transcripts The Palm Beach Post sued to make public, gives just a glimpse of why Epstein's crimes would leave lasting damage to the girls he exploited.
Jeffrey Epstein:2006 grand jury documents are public. Read for yourself what happened
Jeffrey Epstein's sexual abuse fit the definition of sex trafficking
Epstein had established a system to have female high school students brought to his island home with a promise of quick cash in exchange for giving him a massage. The deal could include, the teenagers discovered, stripping, watching him masturbate and being sexually assaulted by him.
All of this met the federal legal definition of sex trafficking: “obtaining, patronizing or soliciting of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act . . . induced by force, fraud or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age … ."
But unlike responses to sex-trafficking victims today, the needs of the nearly two dozen young women and girls Palm Beach police found that Epstein had abused were barely recognized then.
The needs victims of sex trafficking are left with can spring from their memories of unwanted sexual encounters, humiliation from having been exploited and shame after being blamed for their own assault, said Jannifer Diaz, therapy coordinator of Palm Beach County Victim Services.
Help combatting shame part of help sex-crime victims need
Young victims may also need help to learn how to protect themselves, recognize threats and trust their own perceptions.
Diaz links sex-crime victims to immediate and intensive trauma therapy, counseling to help them cope with stigma and blame, and guidance for survivors to rebuild their lives and form supportive relationships. Family therapy can be necessary for sex-crime victims under 18. Those who need it can get long-term therapy through the county program, she said.
Palm Beach County Victim Services also provides guidance for victims navigating intimidating and embarrassing encounters with police, prosecutors and the courts that can add to the trauma victims have already experienced.
The recently released transcripts highlight the need that two of Epstein's young victims had for all of that support, as they testified in front of the grand jury convened by then-State Attorney Barry Krischer.
Jeffrey Epstein secret transcripts:Victim was asked, Do you know 'you committed a crime?'
'I thought like it was going to be a massage . . . you keep your clothing on.'
The first victim to testify about what Epstein had done to her was the one whose encounter had brought his crimes to police attention.
She was 14 when a classmate accused her of trading sex for money and school officials found $300 in cash in her purse.
She had been brought to Epstein’s mansion days earlier by an acquaintance who had told her she could make $200 just for giving an aging rich man a back massage, she testified. She described being led to a room and shown the bottles of lotion she could use.
“And then — and then she told me to get un — well, not undressed, but like put — keep your bra and panties on,” the girl continued, “And I was like okay.”
Had the acquaintance told her about that part before she got there? prosecutor Lanna Belohlavek asked.
“No,” the girl responded. “I thought, like it was going to be a massage, like, you keep your clothing on.”
“Were you uncomfortable getting down to your bra and underwear?” Belohlavek asked.
“Uh-huh. Like, at — I was kind of hesitant,” the victim said. “I was like, sitting in the room for — until Jeffrey came in, like, thinking like to myself, we, like what’s going on?”
She learned that she would be asked to do more and that if she did as she was told, she would be paid more.
Following that testimony, the police detective who had led the investigation explained Epstein’s pay scale to the grand jury as he described the experiences of another young victim:
“The day that he forcibly entered himself into her, he paid her a thousand dollars.”
Jeffrey Epstein, the first failure:Why The Post sued to make grand jury transcripts public
Trauma can haunt victims for the rest of their lives
The outcome of the grand jury hearing in which these details unfolded led to a single charge of soliciting prostitution. It was a charge that allowed Epstein to return to hunting young girls and that further clouded the lives of his victims.
Why prosecutors chose to further shame the victims, asking one to describe her underwear, defend her social-media use and acknowledge that she had “committed a crime,” remains unclear.
In the years that followed, the crime of “child prostitution” was removed from Florida statutes.
The importance of providing support and counseling for sex trafficking victims who are minors was enshrined in Florida law under the state’s Safe Harbor Act of 2012.
It was also in 2012 that Palm Beach County’s Sexual Assault Response Team launched to meet the needs of all county sex crime victims.
For some of Epstein’s victims, who turned to sex work, committed petty crimes and went to prison, those changes came late. At least two of Epstein’s victims died of drug overdoses, leaving young children behind.
“I think now that whole situation would be treated very differently,” Palm Beach County Victim Services Program Manager Rene Boone said in the week following the release of the 2006 grand jury transcripts. “And I think that’s a good thing.”
If you or someone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, the Palm Beach County Victim Services and Rape Crisis Center can help. Reach their helpline at 561-833-7273, or toll-free at 866-891-7273.
Antigone Barton is a reporter with The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at avbarton@gannett.com. Help support our work: Subscribe today.
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