NEW YORK — Two correctional officers ignored their duties and instead snoozed and surfed the internet, allowing Jeffrey Epstein to commit suicide behind bars, prosecutors charged in an indictment Tuesday that gave a detailed timeline of the multimillionaire sex offender’s final hours.
Metropolitan Correctional Center guards Tova Noel and Michael Thomas are due to appear in Manhattan Federal Court on charges they filled false forms documenting inmate headcounts in the Special Housing Unit of the federal lockup.
Epstein was found dead on Aug. 10. The 66-year-old offender was awaiting trial for sex trafficking of underage girls after having avoided serious jail time for more than a decade.
“As alleged, the defendants had a duty to ensure the safety and security of federal inmates in their care at the Metropolitan Correctional Center. Instead, they repeatedly failed to conduct mandated checks on inmates, and lied on official forms to hide their dereliction,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said.
Epstein’s cell in the unit for inmates separated from the general population was only 15 feet away from Noel and Thomas’s desks, according to the indictment. Noel filed the first false paperwork at 4 p.m. on Aug. 9, prosecutors charged. Cameras captured the guard escorting Epstein to his cell for the last time at 7:49 p.m. By 10 p.m., all inmates in the 750-bed jail were in their cells for the night. Noel and Thomas then filed another false “count slip,” the indictment says.
At 10:30 p.m. Noel, 31, walked to a door to the tier where Epstein was housed. It was the last time anyone, including a correctional officer, walked to the only entrance leading to Epstein’s cell, prosecutors note in the indictment.
For roughly the next seven hours into Aug. 10, Noel and Thomas — the only officers on duty in that wing of the MCC — allegedly kicked back and took it easy. They are accused of filing three more false documents certifying headcounts, as well as additional false certifications claiming they’d performed mandatory rounds every 30 minutes.
For two hours, Noel and Thomas, 41, sat at their desks without moving and “appeared to have been asleep,” prosecutors said. They also used their computers. Noel searched for furniture sales and benefit websites, according to the indictment. Thomas checked out motorcycle sales and sports sites, prosecutors said.
“For substantial portions of their shift, Noel and Thomas sat at their desk, browsed the internet and moved around the common area of the SHU,” the indictment reads. “To conceal their failure to perform their duties, Noel and Thomas repeatedly signed false certifications attesting to having conducted multiple counts of inmates, when in truth and in fact, they had never conducted such counts.”
A breakfast cart for inmates arrived at 6 a.m. — and all hell was about to break loose. At 6:33 a.m. the two guards entered Epstein’s tier and an alarm was sounded.
“Epstein was alone in his cell and not responsive, with a noose around his neck,” the indictment reads.
Noel and Thomas immediately fessed up to a supervisor, prosecutors said.
“Epstein hung himself,” Noel allegedly said. “We did not complete the 3 a.m. nor 5 a.m. rounds.”
“I messed up, she’s not to blame, we didn’t do any rounds,” Thomas said, according to the indictment.
Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., released a statement on the charges ahead of a Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington on the troubled Bureau of Prisons, which controls the MCC.
“These arrests are important, but they’re not the end of this: These guards aren’t the only ones who should stand trial — every one of Jeffrey Epstein’s co-conspirators should be spending the rest of their lives behind bars,” Sasse said.
The MCC has suffered from short-staffing and budget cuts that have plagued Bureau of Prisons facilities around the country.
Attorney General William Barr previously said investigators found “irregularities” at the MCC, which has housed notorious terrorists and drug kingpins. BOP Director Kathleen Hawk Sawyer told the Judiciary Committee that the FBI and a Department of Justice watchdog were investigating Epstein’s death.
“With a case this high profile, there has to be either a major malfunction of the system or a criminal enterprise at foot to allow this to happen. So are you looking at both? Is the FBI looking at both?” asked Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.
“The FBI is involved and they are looking at criminal enterprise, yes,” Sawyer replied.
