The prison workers who were tasked with guarding Jeffrey Epstein when he committed suicide admitted to falsifying records but they will avoid jail because of the deal they struck with federal prosecutors.
Authorities said Friday that Tova Noel and Michael Thomas struck a deferred prosecution agreement with prosecutors after being charged with lying on prison records.
Epstein was awaiting trial at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City when he was found unresponsive in his cell in August 2019. He was under suicide watch and was supposed to be closely monitored to prevent the possibility of his taking his own life.
Under the agreement with the Justice Department, Noel and Thomas will be subject to a supervised release, will complete 100 hours of community service, and have to cooperate fully with a continuing investigation.
The letter from federal prosecutors said the two “admitted that they ‘willfully and knowingly completed materially false count and round slips regarding required counts and rounds'” related to Epstein’s detention.
The indictment against Noel and Thomas said they fell asleep and shopped online for furniture and motorcycles instead of checking on Epstein every 30 minutes.
The incident was blamed on a persistent problem of staffing shortages at the Bureau of Prisons.
The bizarre circumstances surrounding his suicide have led to a plethora of conspiracy theories. Even Epstein’s brother Mark Epstein has said publicly that he doesn’t believe the official suicide story.
“Jeffrey knew a lot of stuff about a lot of people,” he said.
Very soon after the death of Epstein, former President Donald Trump retweeted a claim that Hillary Clinton had the child molester murdered in order to protect her husband, former President Bill Clinton.
Here’s more about the charges against the Epstein guards:
AP: Epstein jail guards reject deal to admit to falsifying records
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