NEW YORK — The alleged sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein was allowed to skip legally mandated check-ins with the NYPD after he registered as a sex offender, news reports say.
The Police Department has not required Epstein, whom federal prosecutors accused this week of sexually abusing dozens of girls, to verify his address in the years since he registered as a sex offender, the New York Post reported Wednesday.
The NYPD maintains Epstein did not have to check in because his so-called primary residence is in the Virgin Islands, the Post reported. But that explanation reportedly had some current and former police officials scratching their heads.
“It makes no sense,” one unnamed source told the Post.
Epstein has been designated a level 3 sex offender in New York since 2011, a status that should have forced him to report to the NYPD in person every 90 days to verify his address, according to the Post.
The wealthy financier was forced to register as a sex offender after he pleaded guilty to a pair of Florida prostitution charges in 2008 in a deal that has been criticized for its lenience.
One of Epstein’s defense lawyers tried to convince a New York judge in 2011 that her high-power client shouldn’t have to check in with New York authorities because he lives primarily on Little St. James, his private isle in the Virgin Islands, the Post reported. Epstein also has a sprawling mansion on East 71st Street where federal authorities allegedly found a trove of lewd photos of underage girls.
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State Supreme Court Judge Ruth Pickholz rejected his lawyer’s 2011 argument, saying, “He can give up his New York home if he does not want to come every 90 days,” according to news reports.
The NYPD nevertheless told The Washington Post in March that Epstein did not have to touch base with cops because he claimed the Caribbean island as his primary residence. Epstein had not checked in since 2010, before his hearing with Pickholz, the paper reported.
An NYPD spokesperson reportedly said the department’s Sex Offender Monitoring Unit kept an eye on Epstein when his “reporting address” was in the city.
“The NYPD is proud of its hard work alongside our federal partners to make the case against Epstein that lead to his arrest for his vile crimes, and that will ultimately bring justice for his victims,” the spokesperson, Phil Walzak, told the New York Post.