EFTA00105970.pdf

From: "Blase, Nicholas (USANYS)" To: "s., (USANYS)" < >, " (USANYS)" Cc: ' (USANYS) [Contractor]" Subject: NYLJ Date: Thu, 14 Nov 2019 16:04:46 +0000 Boies Schiller Sues Jeffrey Epstein Estate on Behalf of 3 Sexual Abuse Accusers The lawsuits, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, include claims for battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress by plaintiffs who said they met Epstein and his companion, Ghislaine Maxwell, between 1995 and 2002. By Tom McParland November 12, 2019 at 03:21 PM Boies Schiller Flexner attorneys on Tuesday sued the estate of Jeffrey Epstein on behalf of at least three women who said they were sexually abused by the deceased financier after being recruited into his alleged sex-trafficking network in New York. The lawsuits, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, include claims for battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress by plaintiffs who said they met Epstein and his companion, Ghislaine Maxwell, between 1995 and 2002. Two of the women, Maria and Annie Farmer, were the subjects of New York Times reporting in August, which identified the two sisters as the first to report abusive behavior by Epstein at his Manhattan townhouse. Though the FBI took up an investigation, the Times reported, a widely criticized 2008 plea deal eventually derailed any federal prosecution. According to Maria Farmer's complaint, Epstein had hired her to purchase art for him, though her job responsibilities soon shifted to "focus on monitoring and keeping records of EFTA00105970 who entered Epstein's New York mansion." She said that Epstein took interest in personal details about her family, and upon hearing that she had a younger sister, arraigned to have 16-year-old Annie flown to New York. While there, Maria Farmer said, Epstein groped Annie in a movie theater and eventually flew the girl to his New Mexico ranch, where he assaulted her. In her own lawsuit, Annie Farmer said that Maxwell, a British socialite who has been accused of procuring young women and underage girls for Epstein, pressured her to have physical contact with Epstein and that both adults participated in the abuse, under the guise of a massage. Both of the Farmer sisters are represented in the litigation by David Boies, Joshua Schiller and Sigrid McCawley of Boies Schiller. Maria Farmer claimed in her filing that "Maxwell was regularly bringing school-aged girls to the mansion" in New York, and that they were always escorted upstairs. Maria Farmer, who was 26 years old at the time, said she was told that the girls were interviewing for modeling positions with lingerie retailer Victoria's Secret and was unaware of Epstein's sex-trafficking conspiracy at the time. The complaint included a reference to former Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, who she said visited the mansion "on a number of occasions" and "would go upstairs at the same time the young girls were there." While the filing did not contain any explicit allegations of wrongdoing by Dershowitz, it did signal the latest salvo in an ongoing feud between the professor and Boies Schiller, which has represented Epstein accusers in a range of civil litigation. Until recently, Boies and McCawley represented Virginia Giuffre, who claimed that Dershowitz had defamed her through his strong denials of forced sex. Dershowitz has filed counterclaims against Giuffre, and last week Boies sued Dershowitz, claiming that he had falsely accused him of extortion. Dershowitz has repeatedly and forcefully denied allegations that he had sex with anyone in Epstein's orbit. On Tuesday he said Maria Farmer's account that she had seen him at Epstein's mansion in 1995 was "categorically" false. EFTA00105971 According to Dershowitz, he never visited Epstein's home until after Maria Farmer ended her connection to the financier in the summer of 1996. He said the passage would work to undermine her credibility moving forward. "It just shows that Boies is more interested in going after me" than in helping his own client, Dershowitz said in a brief phone interview. Boies was not immediately available to comment Tuesday. A third plaintiff, Teresa Helm, on Tuesday said that she was recruited by a fellow massage- therapy student in 2002 to interview for a traveling masseuse position with a wealthy couple in New York. After speaking with Epstein employee Sarah Kellen, Helm said she was flown to Manhattan, where she was to be housed at a 66th Street apartment, which housed "many of the models and other young women" Epstein was abusing. Soon after, Helm said, Epstein sexually assaulted her as she tried to leave the room after he pushed his foot into "her intimate parts" during a foot massage. Helm said she was so traumatized by the encounter that did not finish massage therapy school with the same certification that she initially set out to achieve and returned to Ohio shortly after the alleged assault. All three lawsuits named Darren Indyke, a longtime attorney for Epstein, and Richard Kahn, who were named executors of Epstein's estate following his apparent suicide in August. Indyke and Kahn are named solely as executors of the estate While Epstein's death in federal custody terminated the criminal case against him, plaintiffs have sued his estate for civil damages—a process experts have said could take years to complete. Prosecutors in Manhattan, meanwhile, say they are continuing to investigate whether any of Epstein's associates and employees could have been linked to the conspiracy. EFTA00105972 Nicholas Biase Public Affairs United States Department of Justice U.S. Attorney's Office Southern District of New York [email protected] 'Mobile: (646) 261-2074 Press Office: (212) 637-1020 EFTA00105973