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Case 1:20-cr-00330-PAE Document 204-3 Filed 04/16/21 Page 139 of 348

Dershowitz, Lefkowitz and Starr.”177 In that same later public statement, Acosta noted that he received communications from Dershowitz, Starr, and Lefkowitz, who “all sought to make peace” with him; Acosta referred to it as “a proud moment.”

On July 7, 2008, an Epstein victim filed an emergency petition against the Department, in federal court in Miami, alleging violation of her rights under the CVRA; a second victim joined the petition soon thereafter. The history of the litigation and issues relating to it are discussed in Chapter Three of this Report.

B. Epstein Is Placed on Work Release

A few days after Epstein’s guilty plea, Villafaña reported to Sloman that Epstein was incarcerated at the low-security Stockade, rather than the Main Detention Center where county prisoners were usually housed. She also told Sloman that according to the Sheriff’s Office, Epstein was eligible for work release. Although the USAO had made clear that it expected Epstein to be incarcerated 24 hours a day, every day, the subject of work release had not been addressed explicitly during the NPA negotiations, and the NPA itself was silent on the issue. Epstein’s acceptance into the work release program as a convicted sexual offender was seen by many as another special benefit given to Epstein. Because the decision to allow Epstein into the work release program was made by the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office, OPR did not investigate whether any state, county, or Sheriff’s Office rules were violated. OPR did examine the USAO’s consideration of work release prior to signing the NPA and its subsequent unsuccessful efforts to ensure that Epstein remained incarcerated 24 hours a day.

The first specific reference to work release was made weeks after the NPA was signed, when Lefkowitz asserted, in his October 23, 2007 letter to Acosta, that, “so long as Mr. Epstein’s sentence does not explicitly violate the terms of the [NPA] he is entitled to any type of sentence available to him, including but not limited to gain time and work release.”

In November 2007, Sloman had an exchange of letters with Lefkowitz about the USAO’s understanding that Epstein had agreed to serve his full jail term in “continuous confinement,” pointing out that the NPA “clearly indicates that Mr. Epstein is to be incarcerated.” Sloman noted that Florida’s Department of Corrections’s rules did not allow individuals registered as sexual offenders to participate in work release, and thus Epstein would not be eligible for a work release program. Sloman concluded that the USAO “is putting you on notice that it intends to make certain that Mr. Epstein is ‘treated no better and no worse than anyone else’ convicted of the same offense,” and that if Epstein were to be granted work release, the USAO would “investigate the reasons why an exception was granted in Mr. Epstein’s case.”178

However, also in November, State Attorney Krischer told Sloman that Epstein was, in fact, eligible to petition for work release because his sexual offender registration would not take place

177 Letter from R. Alexander Acosta “To whom it may concern” (Mar. 20, 2011), published online in The Daily Beast. The FBI Special Agent in Charge told OPR that he had no recollection of such a call, but acknowledged that it could have occurred.

178 Sloman provided a draft of this letter to Acosta for his approval before the letter was sent to Lefkowitz.

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