U.S. prosecutors determined to finish their prison case towards two Manhattan jail guards who admitted to falsifying information on the night time the financier Jeffrey Epstein killed himself on their watch.
In a Thursday submitting in Manhattan federal court docket, prosecutors requested a decide to dismiss claims towards Tova Noel and Michael Thomas, after each complied with the six-month deferred prosecution agreements they agreed to in Might.
Epstein was discovered hanging in his cell on the Metropolitan Correctional Middle on Aug. 10, 2019, whereas awaiting trial for intercourse trafficking, in what New York Metropolis’s medical expert known as a suicide.
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Noel and Thomas had been accused of falling asleep and browsing the web that night time fairly than checking on Epstein each half-hour.
Each admitted to having “willfully and knowingly” falsified information to make it appear they had been monitoring Epstein correctly.
Their deferred prosecution agreements required that they every carry out 100 hours of neighborhood service and cooperate with a federal probe arising from Epstein’s dying.
William Barr, the U.S. legal professional normal on the time, had been angered that such a high-profile inmate was capable of kill himself whereas in federal custody.
Epstein had been on suicide watch the month earlier than died.
Thomas’ lawyer Montell Figgins mentioned his shopper was pleased with the dismissal and regarded ahead to placing the matter behind him. Noel’s attorneys didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
Epstein’s longtime affiliate, British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, was convicted on Wednesday of serving to recruit and groom underage ladies for Epstein to abuse over a minimum of a decade.
Maxwell is anticipated to attraction her conviction.
The case is U.S. v. Noel et al, U.S. District Courtroom, Southern District of New York, No. 19-cr-00830.
— Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York
