EFTA00141258.pdf

Notes from interview on 9/29/21 Page 10 - first time hearing that the recorders stopped working on July 29, 2019. Page 11— On August 9, 2019, half the camera recorders were working, and have the camera recorders were not working. One half was on DVR 1 and the other half was on DVR 2. I don't know when they stopped working. Page 12 — I first found out that the recorders were not working on Friday, August 9th. I was told I couldn't stay because 11M" had to leave. Page 13: Couldn't stay because didn't have key. It's the SIS property room. I have spoken with Lt. and numerous other people about my need for access to that room. I should have access. Page 14: Don't remember speaking with Lt or AW on August 8. It doesn't make sense that the cameras stopped recording on July 29th, because he would have heard of it. He didn't believe that was accurate. Page 15: Believed it stopped recording due to age and wear and tear. Page 16: Probably spoke with Lt and/or AW about the camera systems problem separately, but not together, prior to Epstein's death. Page 17: Believed he spoke with them about the problem and that he was working on fixing it. Had to install new hard drives per SigNet. Also spoke with the MCC computer services manager, or CSM, Page 18: was the previous com tech before He knew more about computers than Page 20: Had spoken with about the hard drive issues for probably months prior to Epstein's death because the hard drives kept failing. Page 21: First learned the recorders were not working on either August 8th or 9th. Page 22: Spoke with about the issue in general. Not necessarily a conversation on the 8th or 9th. Page 23: Had to speak with because he had to purchase the parts to make the repairs/switch the hard drives. He knew that there were overall system failures leading up to August 10th. Page 24: Knew there was a probably because there was no recorded video. Didn't specifically know what the problem was. Page 25: Did not check on the system every day. Nothing said he was supposed to. Said SIS was supposed to tell him when there were problems. EFTA00141258 Page 26: He would have checked on the system based upon someone asking him to look at it. Page 27: Before Epstein's death, they were in the middle of a camera project. People were TDY to the MCC to help out. He was the lead, trying to tell everyone what needed to be done. Page 28: BOP electrician was with him on August 81h. Page 29: was with him all day because they were doing the piping and trying to put the rack in for the new camera system. That's where the power supply/switch would go. Everything would go on the rack. It had to do with upgrading to the new camera system. Nothing they were doing would have caused the cameras to stop recording. Page 30: Didn't know when he last checked on the camera system. Could have been weeks. Not months. Because he had to order the parts. Page 31: They weren't working before, so he had to rebuild the drives. He had to change one of the drives out. Decides to order a bunch of drives to replace all of the drives together, at once. There would be a purchase order. Page 32: I had fixed the problem before, but knew it would happen again. The best thig to do was replace all the drives. I knew there would be the same problem again through speaking with the vendor and The system was also 15 years old, and on 365 days per year, 24 hours per day. Page 33: I was in the middle of the camera project to replace everything. Mostly spoke with from SigNet prior to Epstein's death. He was the primary point of contact. the guy that came after Epstein. was Page 34: We weren't really a priority on the list until Epstein's death. That's when SigNet came the next day and put the new recorders in. Page 35: They had a raid array camera system. It was not so bad if one drive went bad. But if two drives went bad, all of the cameras would stop recording, because it was a redundant system. Page 36: There were 16 drives in DVR 1 and 16 drives in DVR 2. His understanding is that two of the 16 drives went bad sometime prior to August 10 on one of the DVRs, which caused the DVR to stop recording. Page 39: Until you physically look at the drives, you would think that everything was recording. He said he never looked at the camera system application called supervision. He had access to look at it, but he was never trained on it, so he never utilized it. He would just go into the regular Nice Vision and look at the cameras that way. EFTA00141259 Page 40: Confirmed that Supervision would have told him that the cameras were down but again said he didn't have any training on the application. He was the only one with access. No one else had access to Supervision. Page 41: If someone had access to Supervision, they could have taken the cameras offline. But no one had access. Page 42: SigNet would have even been able to access Supervision. Page 43: SigNet could only obtain access if he granted them access by putting a cable in. He was the only person with remote access. Page 44: Didn't know when he last accessed the Supervision application. Could potentially find out if computer serves were able to determine his keystrokes on his computer. There is nothing else that would say when he last logged in. Page 45: He was showed how to do some stuff on supervision, but at the time he didn't remember. Said he was the only one with Supervision and he did not take the computers offline from that application. Page 46: He would have only logged on to supervision to see what was going on, who's logging on, or if something looked funky or didn't feel right. He remembered logging onto supervision one time prior to August 9th when Signet showed him things with regard to the drives. Page 47: Believed that Supervision kept a record of when people logged in and out of the application. But would no longer have the ability to go back to the old system. But SigNet may/should have the ability to determine when people logged in and out of Supervision. Page 49: If the cameras stopped recording on July 291h, that would be a long time for him not to have noticed or have been told. Page 50: Someone told him about the drives and the cameras not working properly on either August 8th or 9th. He believed it was SIS, and thought it was probably LT Page 51: He was not told to fix it immediately or that they were informing the captain. Page 54: Told the said she told him about the issue on the 8th, and she asked him on the 100 why it wasn't fixed. She said he had come in to fix the issue on the 10th. He said that sounded accurate. Page 55: Confirmed he was interviewed by the FBI on March 12, 2020. Was read the report. Page 58-59: On July 29, 2019, he replaced the motherboard on DVR 2. He had a call with M, took the computer apart, and replaced the motherboard. Said he got the DVR 2 to start working. He believed they probably got the July 29, 2019, information from speaking with SigNet. He confirmed a system EFTA00141260 failure would have stopped the cameras from recording. Believed the cameras were recording from that point on. Page 60: You would know that the cameras weren't working if when you logged onto Nice Vision, you were unable to rewind and play back video. Page 61: Only recalled checking on the camera system on July 29th. Said it was working after he fixed it. Didn't go back later to verify. Someone would have told him if it wasn't working. Page 62: Then said that he replaced the motherboard on August 8, 2019. Things started getting confusing. So read the SigNet report. Page 63 — 66: Confirmed that what the SigNet report said about August 8 -10 sounded accurate. Page 67-68: Said that someone told him there was a problem with the cameras on Aug 8. LT and SIS Teech were the only two who worked for SIS at the time. It would have been one of them. Page 69: Doing a million things at the time so very hard to recall specifics. Page 71: On the 80, he went to look for the drives. Came back on the 90, to replace them, but couldn't access the room. Obtained access to the room on the 101h. He was going to be working overtime on the 101" anyway, so that's why he was going to do it on the 10th. He had TDY people there to do the camera project. Page 73: Asked why he went into detail with the SAs during his last interview about obtained overtime approval to work on the 100. Said he was already working on the camera project and this fell into that scope. Page 74: He was going to gain access to the SIS room on the 10th because someone would have been in the room to let him in. Page 75: monitored the SIS telephones and believed he was going to grant him access. had a key for the room. Page 76-77: The roster said the was listed as working Outside Perimeter on August 10th. Said he would have had a key and would have been able to grant him access. On the 9'h, was leaving for the day and said that he couldn't have access to the room. said he'd let him in the next day. Page 78: Roster showed that was list as phone monitor on August 9. Page 79: It would take 24 hours for the drives to rebuild. Page 81: Probably tried to access the SIS room later in the day on August 9, 2019. EFTA00141261 Page 81-82: Told him that per LT she said she told him it was a very urgent matter and to have it taken care of immediately. She said she wrote a memo for the captain. He responded, "That sounds like a lot of B.S." "Because this thing happened so many times, as I've been there. Like, why would this day be different from the months leading up to it, where this kept happening? Like, why would — I know Epstein happened. Everybody is trying to say okay, this is what happened, but before that, nobody even cared. To be honest with you. I'm just going to be honest. Noboday cared that the drives were bad, or the recordings aren't working. Oh, those recorders weren't working. Okay. Fix it, . And then, we will go from there. But nobody, before Epstein. This was, like, a known thing. Like, the drives would go bad. There would be no video. It was no big deal to anybody in that building." Page 82-83: Said the camera's going down was a very bid deal and he wouldn't have been allowed to leave at any other BOP institution. If it was a big deal, they would have given me access and I would have stayed in the building. I would never get to go home. And that's what I've done before in my other institution. Any time anything fails, or if there is a big failure, you stay until it's fixed. He said he couldn't have fixed the issue in just a day. He said it takes a couple of days because he had to rebuild the drives. And after he rebuilt the drives, there would be no video from the days prior. Page 85-86: There was a pattern. They would say it's a priority, but it wasn't a priority. He wanted to know if someone wrote a memo to the captain, then why didn't they write memos to the captain when it happened in the past. "I would not say that that's accurate. I'm not trying to through anybody under the bus, but to say, like, this, this day, like, it's bigger than any other time it happened, like, come on, this has been happening for months now." "It's been happening since I got in that building." "Everyone is trying to cover their tracks. No. This is not the case. I could honestly say this is not the case. And it has never been previous practice before." Page 87: Spoke about how it was at previous institution compared to the MCC and how he wouldn't have been able to leave verse them telling him to go home and fix it the following day. Said the captain should have been notified because the cameras are his equipment. Page 88-89: He remembered speaking with someone from SIS on the 8'h, but didn't remember speaking with LT on the 101h. But SIS would be the people he would have spoken with about the video, so he probably did. Page 90: Confirmed that he found out on the 8th, couldn't gain access on the 9'h, and planned to start rebuilding the drives on the 10'h Page 92: Didn't believe he provided the FBI with the information they wrote in their 302 with regard to his interview. Page 93: Believed the FBI confirmed the dates on their own and added them to his interview report. They probably obtained the dates from SigNet. There was not way he had, or remembered, those dates. Also believed the motherboard issue would have been something the FBI obtained from SigNet. EFTA00141262 Page 94: Believed the information in the FBI 302 was accurate. He just didn't provide them with the information. Page 95: By installing two new drives on August 10, 2019, all prior data would be lost. All old video. Page 97: They wanted him to replace the drives because they didn't want any more lapses in video. They wanted the cameras to start recording ASAP. Page 98: They wanted the cameras to start recording, and they wanted video of the incident. But there was no video on DVR 2. Page 99: He is the one who removed the two bad drives and rebuilt the system. Then the FBI came and stopped him in the middle of the rebuild. Page 100: The FBI pulled two of the drives. "I was going to start rebuilding the drives, so I labeled everything." "So, everything stopped working. I go in the room, you've got to get the recorder working. Well, I got to pull the drives out to get the recorder working. So, the two drives that I pulled out. And so, they two old drives, and the two new drives, I labeled them, because I knew that it was going to be a big thing. So, I got to pay attention to what I'm doing. And then, in the midst of all that, that when they took the drives, and said, hey, we need to stop doing everything." Page 101: "I pulled the bad drives out to replace them with the good drives." And then put the two new drives in. The FBI pulled all of the drives. Page 102: DVR 2 was the bad drive. DVR 1 had recordings on it. Page 103: DVR 2 consisted of 16 drives along with the brain, or motherboard. Page 104: The FBI took all of the drives for both DVR 1 and 2 on August 11, 2019. When two hard drives are replaced, everything that was saved is wiped and cannot be recovered. He didn't know how far back the recordings would have gone back. Page 105: Before he started rebuilding, some video from prior dates could have been recovered. But he was told to rebuild the drives so the cameras would get back up and running/recording. So that's what he did. Page 106: Confirmed that DVR 2 was the bad drive and that's the drive that was rebuilt/wiped. Video could have been obtained, but not on August 9/10, because the video wasn't recording on those dates. Page 107: Then said that it was "possible" to obtain video from August 9/10, but not likely, prior to pulling the two drives on August 10. Page 109-110: His only course of action was to replace the two bad drives. Didn't tell anyone before pulling the two drives that it was possible that video could have been obtained. Believed that was EFTA00141263 something he found out later. Said that's not something he would have known prior to Epstein, because it was something they spoke about the days after Epstein. Page 111: His understanding at the time that he pulled the two drives was that there was no video of August 9/10. He didn't know that there could have been some "background" video that may have been able to have been recovered. Page 112: Once the drives were pulled, recovering any video because impossible. Page 115: I probably went looking for new drives on the 8'h, and obtained them on either the 8th or 91h, to replace the bad drives. I obtained them from the CSM (). I go old drives from him before, and knew we had ordered drives. Page 116-117: The CSM kept the drives in the computer server room, which was located downstairs on the first floor. Page 118: Said he called SigNet on Thursday, August 8, around 3:38 pm, to help fix the camera issue, and make sure he's doing everything correctly. Page 120-121: He would have received the instructions listed on the SigNet work order on Aug 8. But he didn't start the rebuild on the 8th because he didn't have the drives. He obtained the drives on the 9th, but later in the day. Then told him he could not work on the system because he was leaving for the day, and he was the only one with the key. He said it was the SIS evidence room, so he wasn't able to be in there. Page 122-123: "That's the biggest problem that I had with this whole thing, was that at other institution, when you have a video room, you just have a video room. There is nothing else in there. There's just the com techs. You go in, you do whatever you got to do, you come out. There should not be anything else mixed with the room. And up to this day, there is still evidence and garbage in that room." Page 124: His shift was from 6 am to 2 pm and shift was until either 3 pm or 4 pm. Said he didn't have access to the room after 3 pm. But he was doing overtime, so he was working 12 to 16 hour days. Page 125: He didn't fix it on August 9'" between 6 am and 2 pm because he was doing other things. "this was a priority, but, and the fact, like I said, this was not, like, the main priority in the building." "Now, after Epstein, like, oh, this is the main thing you have to focus on for the day." He didn't get to it on the 9'h until after he took care of other stuff. Page 126: He could have gained access to the room between 7 am and 3 pm, but he just didn't. Page 127: On Saturday, August 10, 2019, he primarily spoke with the warden and SIS about the camera issue. But "not too sure" who he told about pulling the drives and causing everything to be wiped, although it would have been either SIS or the warden. EFTA00141264 Page 128: Said he pulled the two drives on the 10th and started rebuilding. Then the FBI came in and took all of DVR 2 on the 101h. They came back on the 11th and took the rest (DVR 1). Page 133: "They are the experts. So, they would know that nothing recorded" after 7/29. This was the first time he had heard that news. It was not discussed during the FBI interview. Page 134: If he did a motherboard rebuild on July 29th, he would have verified that everything was recording when he was finished. Verified by: "The way I was taught to look at the system, was to look at the Nice Vision, and if I saw the red lights, like, the system is recording. But then, I found out later, the red lights on the system recording, the way I was looking at it, it doesn't mean that there was actual video recording. That's something that SigNet told me later." Page 135: "I would have looked to see if there was video, and then I would have looked to see that I got the red lights, that everything was recording. The initial thing to do is to look to see a red lights, that those are working. And then, the next thing was to do was to pull back to see if there was video. Now, SigNet told me later, after all of this happened, even on the new recorder that we have, the red lights that show, it don't mean that anything is recording. The system is not recording. You would have to go pull video from, like, a week before, or two weeks before, to see if there was a failure. But you would not know, like, looking at it, that there was a problem." Page 137: Possibly did not check the appropriate time period to see if it was back up and recording. May have reviewed video prior to when it stopped recording, rather than checking the video right after it was fixed to see if it started recording. Page 138: Not sure if he fixed the motherboard on July 291". That may have just been the day it failed. Page 139: Will provide emails concerning the issue. (He provided a work order at a later date that shows he replaced bad hard drives on 7/19/2021. His email says that two hard drives were replaced and the system was repaired. He used hard drives on hand.) Page 140-142: Reviewed a SigNet work order from Feb 2019 and said that was another instance when the drives when bad and he had to do a rebuild. He probably order the new drives after this instance that were on hand in August 2019. Page 143-144: After he learned of the issue on August 8, 2019, he did not notify anyone that he needed more than just August 8th to fix the issue. He went home on August 8 and 9, 2019, based upon past practice of not being told to stay and fix the issue, and that he could fix it the following day. No one actually told him to come in and fix it the next day. It was never made clear how important this incident was. Because it had happened numerous times in the past. Page 145: It couldn't be fixed in a day. It took a couple of days to fix. LT may not have known that it took a couple of days to fix. EFTA00141265 Page 146: They would just see me back there working. They wouldn't really know how intense, or what I was doing. I would have, and did, start working on the issue right away. Page 148: "How would I stay if I don't have access to the room? That's my question." Had room access problems on both August 8th and 9th. Page 150: if they wanted me to stay until it was fixed, my supervisor, or whomever was in charge, would have had to tell me that. Page 153: Acknowledged that when he was last interviewed he said that a supervisor authorized his overtime. Now he said that he probably had blanket overtime approval because he was in the middle of a project, so no one would have had to specifically authorize the overtime on August 10. Page 154: No one was really in charge of facilities on August 8 and 9, 2019, because was out of the office. The two people who were acting weren't really in charge, so he wouldn't have informed them. Page 156-163: Spoke about his email to on August 9th that did not include the camera issue. He first said that he didn't list it on the email because the camera issues were an ongoing issue, so he wouldn't have listed it. He then said it was a list of the work he completed for the week. Not the work he was working on. So the camera issue wouldn't have been listed on the email. 163: Didn't think he should have told because he was on leave, not in the building, and because SIS and AW I= knew about the issue. 163-164: When asked why he didn't stay on August 9th, he said, "I would have to break glass, and write a memo, and all this other stuff. So, why I have to stay in the room? And it's the evidence room. So, I can't really just willy-nilly go in there by myself where I shouldn't be, you know?" "But I was coming back the next day. So, and I was probably working overtime all week. And it was just time for me to go. I've been doing some long hours." Said he made the decision to come back the next day due to past practice from what other supervisors had told him. Page 165: Acknowledged again that he could have broken the glass, wrote a memo, and stayed late. Also said he didn't ask for approval to stay or go. He made the decision independently because he was already coming back the next day. He said that the camera "recordings were down months at a time." Page 166: Asked for further clarification, and said that the cameras weren't recording for weeks at a time, but this was the first time that anyone cared about the problem. He said he feels like the fall guy. Page 167: "Well, when I fist got to the institution, that's why I started a project. I would look for video, and they would tell me there is a problem, and I'm, like, oh, you can't keep running the institution like this. If there is no video, you have to fix the system. You have to get the updates. I've called SigNet EFTA00141266 about the problem. And I informed everybody, hey, this is a problem. You can't have a jail where you can't find video whenever you need video. Or the recorder is always failing." Page 168: "And I'm, like, well, this is a jail, with funding and whatever else problems they had. Nobody considered anything here a priority or an emergency. So, after Epstein, that's when it was, like, oh, well, now you've got to stay, now you have to do everything. And I've been screaming at the hilltop when I got there. Like, hey, you have a problem, you've got to fix it. That's why I did the money for a project, hey, you need to get new recorders in, you've got to put the -. You've got to upgrades. Like, you haven't done anything at all. Like, you have to spend money. Like, this stuff is old." Page 169: Clarified that the camera recorders weren't down weeks at a time. But they would go down, and then a month or two later, they would go down again. They were only concerned with fixing the immediate problem, and not the overall problem. Page 170: It has been a problem since he arrived at the MCC. And was a constant reoccurring problem. He said they didn't make it a priority, because they believed there were other things to worry about. Page 173-178: On August 10, 2019, we already had a new camera system on site. We just hadn't installed it yet. We didn't install it because it wasn't a priority. It's wasn't his job to call SigNet and schedule them to install it. It would be done with upper management and SigNet. It was on site for a few months. It would typically be the facility manager's job, but had just arrived to the MCC. It was a big mess of confusion. Page 179: I'm just the maintainer of the system. I'm not the installer of the system. I maintained the system and fixed the problems per SigNet's directions. That's all I do. Page 180-181: The facility manager or general foreman would be responsible. Since those positions weren't filled, it would fall to the AW or whomever was in charge. It would have probably been AW or . Or AW M, who was here before AW "And from what I know, we weren't on the list to get anything installed." Page 182: We were able to install it with no problems immediately on August 11, 2019, because Epstein happened. He installed it wis Page 183: probably made the decision to get SigNet in on August 10, 2019. camera system was old and needed to be replaced. knew the Page 185: knew the significance of the problem, because that's why the camera project had started. This issue wasn't specific to the SHU. There were problems with the videos in the housing units as well. Page 188: The cameras are now checked every day. Before Epstein, the cameras were not checked on a daily basis. No one had that responsibility. But it should have been SIS's responsibility. They are the people who should be telling me when cameras were out. EFTA00141267 Page 192-193: Notified and sent emails to the first facilities manager, General Foremen and Engineering tech in the past about the need to fix the camera issue. Said he would provide any emails he could find. Page 194: Believed the FBI independently obtained the information within their 302 of which says, "There was a system failure of DVR-2 on July 29th, 2019, and a motherboard failed on DVR-2 on August 8th, 2019. The hard drive failure occurred on August 10th, 2019." Page 195: Read the SigNet report and findings. Agreed with everything written. Page 196-207: Spoke about him working on the camera issue in July and if he possibly caused the cameras to stop recording. Believed he fixed the issue. Said there could have been a power issue, or power failure, that caused a system failure. But he was just going off of what SigNet wrote in their report. He didn't know of anything specifically. This was the first he heard of the issue. Asked him to find out if they tested the MCC generator around July 29th. Recalled doing a "smell test" because it smelled like something on the motherboard burned. 208-210: He was asked if the recordings were wiped back to July 29th when the two drives were pulled. He didn't believe so, but he didn't seem to know. Page 211: SigNet employees and are the subject matter experts and can explain everything better than Page 212-213: Per the issues could have been caused by normal wear and tear and the age of the hard drives. Page 215-219: There were situation when the SIS employees left the keys with the Captain so he could work in the room while they were not there. He said he didn't believe the captain was there. We told him the captain was there. He reverted back to saying that everyone is looking to him as the fall guy and everyone all of a sudden wants to do their job, when he had been telling them about the problem for a long time leading up to the incident. Page 221-222: Added that he is just the guy that fixes things. Getting them replaced was managements job. EFTA00141268