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Case 1:20-cr-00330-PAE Document 293-1 Filed 05/25/21 Page 143 of 349
Florida law treated work release as part of confinement; and the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s
Office had discretion to grant work release to any inmate. Black also claimed that Acosta
“recognized that Mr. Epstein might serve a portion of his sentence through the Work Release
Program” and pointed out that the December 6, 2007 draft victim notification letter sent to
Lefkowitz for review specifically referred to the victim’s right to be notified “if [Epstein] is
allowed to participate in a work release program.”
On December 3, 2008, in advance of a scheduled meeting with Black, Villafafia sent
Sloman and Criminal Division Chief Senior an email about Epstein’s participation in the work
release program:
It appears that, since Day 1, Goldberger and Krisher [sic] . . . have
been scheming to get Epstein out on work release. For example, the
indictment incorrectly charges Epstein for an offense that would
have made him ineligible for work release if it had been charged
correctly. (Remember that Krisher [sic] also went along with letting
us believe that Epstein was pleading to a registrable offense when
Epstein’s folks and Krisher [sic] believed that . . . the offense was
not registrable.) Krisher [sic] and Goldberger also told us that
Epstein would be housed at the Palm [Beach County] Jail, not the
Stockade, but he would not have been eligible for work release if at
the jail. ...
As part of his work release, Epstein has hired off-duty Sheriff's
deputies to provide him with “protection.” It appears that he is
paying between $3000 and $4100 per week for this service, despite
the work release rules barring anyone from the Sheriff's Office (and
the Sheriffs Office itself) from having “any business transactions
with inmates . . . while they are in the custody or supervision of the
Sheriff... .”
Villafafia added that she and her immediate supervisor believed that the USAO “should not budge
on the 24-hour-a-day incarceration” requirement. Referring to the CVRA litigation, Villafafia also
pointed out that two victims had brought suit against the USAO “for failing to keep them informed
about the investigation,” and the office had “an obligation to inform all of the victims upon
Epstein’s release.”
On December 11, 2008, Villafafia wrote to the Corrections Division of the Palm Beach
County Sheriff’s Office to express the USAO’s view that Epstein was not eligible for work release
and to alert the Sheriffs Office that Epstein’s work release application contained several
inaccuracies and omitted relevant information. Villafafia pointed out that Epstein’s application
identified his place of employment as the “Florida Science Foundation,” and the telephone number
listed in the application for the “Florida Science Foundation” was the telephone number to the law
firm of Epstein’s attorney Jack Goldberger. Villafafia also noted that the individual identified in
the work release file as Epstein’s “supervisor” at the “Florida Science Foundation” had submitted
publicly available sworn filings to the Internal Revenue Service indicating that Epstein worked
only one hour per week and earned no compensation, but that same individual had represented to
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Document Details
| Filename | DOJ-OGR-00004440.jpg |
| File Size | 1034.6 KB |
| OCR Confidence | 93.6% |
| Has Readable Text | Yes |
| Text Length | 3,272 characters |
| Indexed | 2026-02-03 16:48:24.210991 |