Everybody knows that the rich can buy more “justice” than the rest of us. Get over it, right? That would be easier if Palm Beach County residents didn’t keep having our noses rubbed in it.
Sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s lawyers last week got a federal judge to agree that the public should not be able to learn full details of the sweet deal Epstein finagled in 2007 to avoid federal charges that could have resulted in serious prison time.
Epstein, a billionaire, had been using a trifling portion of his wealth to pay dozens of underage girls to give him “massages” at his Palm Beach home.
Because of the still-inexplicable federal non-prosecution agreement, Epstein in 2008 pleaded guilty to watered-down state charges and served a too-short 13 months at the Palm Beach County jail, enjoying significant perks like weekends off and trips to his office during business hours.
The original deal was a travesty. Compare Epstein’s treatment with Scott Blake’s four years later. Blake was a Palm Beach County middle school principal who got 10 years for arriving at what he thought was a rendezvous with an underage boy he “met” on the Internet.
But there was no boy. It was a cop-run sting. He got 10 years in federal prison for his intention to have sex with one minor. The feds gave Epstein a pass after he actually had sex with a multitude of minors.
Epstein benefitted from his great wealth and the excellent lawyers it buys. Besides, the girls might have been minors, but they still were minors who engaged in sex acts for money. The judicial system and society at large have an ingrained, unfair willingness to dismiss such people as “sluts” who aren’t victims in the fullest sense.
Epstein exploited them. But deep in its heart, the judicial system believed he just hired them. There’s another bias as well. Epstein had “normal” sex with girls. Blake sought sex with a boy.
Two of Epstein’s victims now are trying to void the federal non-prosecution agreement. But the public still is being denied documents that could show why Epstein got special treatment.
Who is being protected here? Epstein is. So are the federal and state prosecutors who blessed the blatant favoritism. The system is looking after the rich and the powerful, not the victims.
We all are used to a new political landscape in which rich donors are allowed to buy as much “speech” as they can afford. This is a twist in which a rich criminal is being allowed to buy silence.
Class bias is all over the Epstein case. The same is true of the other high-profile Palm Beach County case in which the privilege of wealth is prominent in the courtroom. Wellington polo mogul John Goodman was in court last week for pre-trial hearings in his continuing attempt to dodge responsibility in the death of Scott Patrick Wilson.
In 2010, Goodman’s Bentley smashed Wilson’s Hyundai into a canal. The cars speak volumes about the class and wealth factors woven into this case. Wilson drowned. Goodman fled. Surely it is impossible that someone as valuable to society as Goodman should find his life ruined because of Wilson’s unfortunate fate. Such seems to be the motivating attitude as Goodman spends millions trying to toss blood alcohol tests or explain them away.
Give the judicial system some credit for actually convicting Goodman in 2012, bringing a 16-year sentence. That unraveled because of one lying, irresponsible juror. The entire scenario only was possible because the defendant’s wealth has made it such a high-profile case in which every aspect of the trial goes under a microscope.
The retrial already has brought favors for Goodman. No longer, it seems, can a Palm Beach County jury be trusted to render a verdict. A jury will be imported for Goodman. Imported cars, imported polo ponies, imported juries.
It is too early to declare that impartial justice never will prevail. Epstein’s federal non-prosecution deal could be voided – although that wouldn’t ensure a subsequent, successful federal trial. Once that issue is settled, all the secret documents could become fully public.
And although it is galling that Goodman has to have a second trial, he will indeed have a second trial, barring a last-minute deal. Another conviction and equivalent prison sentence are possible.
But likely? Don’t put money on it. You’re asking to be outbid.
Jac Wilder VerSteeg is a journalist based in Palm Beach County. Contact him at [email protected].
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