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Michael Reiter was a popular small-town police chief oe Leaned on: Police chief Michael Reiter with a lifetime’s experience in finding the balance between patrolling the millionaire’s playground of Palm Beach, Florida, and its blue-collar neighbour West Palm Beach, home to unglamorous social housing projects and trailer parks. Throughout his 28-year career, he prided himself that his force treated the wealthy on his patch just the same as the very poorest. But his investigation into the lifestyle of predatory paedophile Jeffrey Epstein exploded his illusion that law enforcement could ever be impartial. He soon discovered at first hand that a man such as Epstein, with almost unlimited wealth and influential friends including former President Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew and Israeli defence minister Ehud Barak, can effectively bend the law to his whim. The 53-year-old police chief, who retired in 2009, was so furious at what he believed was obstruction by state prosecutors, who he felt had downplayed charges against Epstein, that he outlined his frustrations in an extraordinary letter to Florida state attorney Barry Krischer in May 2006. He wrote: ‘I must urge you to examine the unusual course that your office’s handling of this matter has taken and consider if good and sufficient reason exists to require your disqualification from the prosecution of these cases.’ After failing to get a satisfactory response from prosecutors he believed had been ‘got at’ by Epstein, he referred the case to the FBI. He wrote to one of Epstein’s victims, saying: ‘I do not feel that justice has been sufficiently served by the indictment that has been issued.’ Epstein’s conviction for solicitation of prostitution came after an unprecedented plea bargain designed to protect him from future charges. Mr Reiter later complained in sworn testimony connected to civil actions brought against Epstein that prominent politicians had repeatedly leaned on him to downplay the allegations against the financier. Mike Fisten, an ex-FBI taskforce superviser who has led the campaign for the Epstein case to be reopened, said: ‘Reiter went up against the entire town of Palm Beach to do what was right but he is not chief any more because of this. ‘And eventually Epstein was given an immunity from prosecution deal the like of which I have never seen in my entire career.’ Share or comment on this article HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_022976