Disgraced sex offender and alleged child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein was found unconscious with marks around his neck in what prison officials believe was a possible suicide attempt, The New York Times reports.
Epstein’s injuries are not serious, a law enforcement official told The Times. The financier suffered “bruising around the neck” according to the report. The incident came a week after he was denied bail in New York after being indicted on child sex trafficking charges.
Epstein is being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan and was not hospitalized.
Epstein was found “injured and in a fetal position in his cell,” according to NBC New York.
Sources told the outlet that there is some prison officials believe Epstein tried to hang himself but others believe it may have been an attempt to get a transfer. A source told the outlet that a possible assault has also not been ruled out.
Epstein was denied bail last week:
The possible suicide attempt comes just a week after New York federal judge Richard Berman denied Epstein bail. His lawyers asked for Epstein to be allowed to remain under house arrest at his Manhattan mansion while awaiting trial.
Berman ruled that Epstein’s “past sexual conduct is not likely to have abated.”
“Mr. Epstein’s alleged excessive attraction to sexual conduct with or in the presence of minor girls — which is said to include his soliciting and receiving massages from young girls and young women perhaps as many as four times a day — appears likely to be uncontrollable,” Berman wrote.
Epstein is accused of paying dozens of underage girls to engage in sex acts with him at his New York and Florida homes.
Epstein is well-connected:
Epstein is a longtime former friend of the wealthy and powerful. He has long been connected to President Donald Trump, former President Bill Clinton, and Britain’s Prince Andrew.
The Miami Herald reported last year that Epstein’s powerful legal team negotiated a secret plea deal with US Attorney Alex Acosta, who went on to become Trump’s Labor Secretary, that allowed him to plead guilty to just two state prostitution charges even though a federal investigation identified three dozen underage victims and led to a 53-page indictment against the financier.
Epstein served just 13 months in a county jail and was allowed to leave to work from his office six days per week while his “potential co-conspirators” received full immunity in the case.
A federal judge later ruled that Acosta’s deal violated the law because he did not confer with Epstein’s victims. Acosta resigned as Labor Secretary shortly after Epstein was arrested once again in New York earlier this month.
