"Perversion of Justice - The Jeffery Epstein Story" by Julie K. Brown

Above:  "Perversion of Justice - The Jeffery Epstein Story."   Julie K. Brown.  464 pages.

Fast read on a topical subject and a scary, sobering tutorial on how money can buy off American justice.

I completed reading this book today.

Miami Herald investigative reporter, Julie K. Brown, is well connected on the prison and police beats in South Florida.  She knows the cops and prosecutors responsible for doing the investigative work that led to a 2007 plea deal, brokered by South Florida US Attorney, Alexander Acosta, for Palm Beach resident, Jeffery Epstein.  Jeffery Epstein was convicted on charges of sex trafficking and served for only thirteen months, much of the sentence served from his own office.    In the view of Brown's law enforcement contacts, Jeffery Epstein got off easy relative to the severity of his crimes.  His wealth and high-level connections, they felt, insulated him from punishment that should have ordinarily been meted out for such crimes.  Here was just another example of unequal justice under the law.

Brown undertook a project to get to the truth about Epstein's crimes and to expose the prosecutors responsible for the leniency of Epstein's sentence. She talked to victims, now in their twenties, but at the time underage. Many of these victims didn't want to talk, but some did. Brown's Epstein story in the Miami Herald was enough to revive interest in Epstein's case and cause his arrest by federal authorities for sex trafficking in 2019. In the wake of Epstein's arrest in 2019, former US Attorney for South Florida, and then US Secretary of Labor, Alexander Acosta, the author of the 2007 lenient Epstein plea deal, was forced to resign his cabinet position.

The book describes the months of reporting and legwork Brown and her colleagues put into developing the story. It's an illuminating and harrowing read. There is much on the celebrity aspect... Prince Andrew, Bill Clinton, Donald Trump and Alan Dershowitz among many others. Brown travels to Epstein's island in the Bahamas where many of the trysts of Epstein and his friends with underaged girls were reported to have occurred. Socialite Gislaine Maxwell, a close friend of Epstein's, now on trial for sex trafficking herself, was allegedly a recruiter/facilitator of Epstein's rendezvous with young girls.

If you are looking for an example of two-tier justice, this story is a good one. Epstein could afford to hire the best lawyers, including the famed David Boies. Most of the girls came from down and out family situations, often involving drugs. Without skilled, concerned, and sensitive intervention by hard working cops and reporters, the victims had no recourse to avenge the wrongs perpetrated on them. In the end, justice caught up with Epstein. He died in prison in 2020. It took a dogged reporter, influenced by cop friends on the beat, to bring the true story to light. How many other perfidies get swept under the rug of otherwise corrupt, unequal justice?

It helped my understanding in reading the book to have lived twelve years in South Florida. I knew many of the places (if not the names!).

Fast read on a topical subject and a scary, sobering tutorial on how money can buy off American justice.