On Monday, a federal judge in New York dismissed the charges that had been filed against two prison guards who falsified documents regarding the night that sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein was killed.
As reported by CNN, U.S. District Court Judge Analisa Torres ordered that the charges against Tova Noel and Michael Thomas be dropped after both men successfully completed the conditions of their deferred prosecution agreement; prosecutors in the case said the same in a filing with the court last week.
Back in May, both guards agreed to complete 100 hours of community service, as well as full cooperation with a review by the Department of Justice (DOJ) Inspector General. In cooperating with the DOJ investigation, the guards provided “”truthful information related to their employment by the Bureau of Prisons, including about the events and circumstances described in the Indictment,” federal prosecutors said in their letter last week.
The original charges stemmed from the guards’ failure to complete the full head count of every prisoner in the specialized unit where Epstein was being held in the Metropolitan Correctional Center, located in New York City. On August 10th, 2019, Epstein was found dead in his cell; despite the suspicious circumstances surrounding his death, medical examiners ultimately labeled it as a suicide by hanging. Following Epstein’s death, Noel and Thomas signed documents asserting that they had indeed counted every prisoner that night, which amounted to falsifying federal records.
Epstein had been arrested once again for numerous sex crimes, including trafficking underaged girls. The case against him came to an end due to his death, but there has been renewed interest following the conclusion of a similar trial against his longtime associate, Ghislaine Maxwell. Last week, Maxwell was found guilty of five out of six charges of various sex crimes, all relating to her assistance with Epstein’s trafficking between 1994 and 2004. She could now face up to 65 years in prison.