According to Friday's NY Post Jeffrey Epstein returned to New York City "making wisecracks about his just-ended jail stint for having sex with an underage girl". "I'm not a sexual predator, I'm an 'offender,' " the Wall Street hedge fund manager told The Post. "It's the difference between a murderer and a person who steals a bagel," said Epstein.
Well that's not exactly the correct analogy...
Not only are Epstein's comments brazen, they are arrogant and self-implicating. By telling a reporter "I'm an offender", he seems to be admitting guilt.
Which brings me to the big question of the day. Why did Cyrus R. Vance Jr., the Manhattan D.A., allow a Level 3 sex offender (the most dangerous kind) to reside -- even for ten minutes -- in a house that is right next to Central Park and a school? Isn't that unlawful given the housing guidelines for sex offenders?
According to the NYPost, Epstein's Level 3 designation means that he is at "high risk" to repeat his offense and poses "a threat to public safety."
When I rang Vance (twice) to discuss Epstein's residential guidelines he did not take my calls.
According to a few of the attorneys who represented Epstein's victims in the civil cases, the financier never agreed to a psychological evaluation prior to or during his sentence, a requirement of all sexual predators.
While Epstein's self-incriminating statements are published (this week he told the Post "the crime that was supposedly committed in Florida is not a crime in New York" -- an interesting choice of words -- he continues to mock the law that applies to all other sex offenders who are found guilty of the same crime.
Epstein served 13 months in the West Palm Beach Stockade and 18 months under community control (a rather permissive version of house arrest), for 2 Counts of Solicitation of Prostitution with a Minor.
In August of 2010, immediately following his release from "community control", Epstein returned to his $50 million East 71st Street town house given to him by his former client and long time friend Leslie Wexner.
Just in the last few weeks he held a house warming dinner to celebrate his release from jail and reportedly invited television reporters Katie Couric, Charlie Rose, George Stephanopoulus and his close friend, HRH Prince Andrew, according to the NY Post.
You would think these professional television reporters would have done their homework prior to accepting his invitation no matter how desperate they were to rub elbows with Prince Andrew.
According to a 53-page sealed indictment Epstein was facing 10 years to life on multiple counts of statutory rape, and child sex trafficking.
Court documents in that case claimed he routinely sought out girls as young as 14 and paid them $200 to $1,000 for sexually explicit massages in his homes in Palm Beach, Fla., and Manhattan.
In the New York sex-offender database, Epstein isn't registered under a zip code rather a "name search" option that does not list his New York address.
The reason for this is because Epstein's Upper East Side home is considered "temporary" and by NY state law, he is required to provide only his permanent address to the database.
Epstein is currently listed under his Florida home even though he is no longer a Florida resident either (after his arrest he immediately became a US VI resident), but then again who's keeping count?
Once again these are mere technicalities when it comes to Epstein's sexual predator case. The two most disturbing parts of this story are that this could easily happen again and that once again there will be no justice.
Had Epstein been a caring benefactor contributing to society and these young girl's education and well being then the world would have judged him differently.
What he has done instead is the exact opposite -- causing enormous damage to hundreds of underage girls who could have been sponsored towards a better education.
With respect to Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance, I'm confused by his decision to allow this sexual predator to live at his Fifth Avenue house all this time (since August 2010), given his rather tough stance on gun control as witnessed by his testimony in Friday's NYPost when asked about a Florida driver cleared in a Manhattan weapon's charge, "guns brought illegally into New York City" he said, " for any reason violate well established state laws and are a threat to our public safety".
Then wouldn't a registered sex offender living 500 feet from a park (Central Park where young girls congregate), and with resources to spare be an even more dangerous threat to society?