Rick Friedman/Rick Friedman Photography/Corbis via Getty Images(NEW YORK) — Jeffrey Epstein is set to learn Thursday whether he can leave jail while he fights sex trafficking charges brought by federal prosecutors in New York.
Judge Richard Berman said he would rule on the bail request made by defense attorneys who have portrayed the wealthy financier as a “disciplined” defendant willing to pay a bond of $100 million or more.
Federal prosecutors objected, saying the court “cannot rely on the self-discipline of a man with an appetite for children.”
Epstein, 66, has pleaded not guilty to charges of sexually exploiting and abusing dozens of minor girls. He faces up to 45 years in prison if convicted.
Prosecutors portrayed him as an “extreme flight risk” and said that “piles of cash,” “dozens of diamonds” and a sketchy passport were found in a locked safe inside Epstein’s Upper East Side Manhattan mansion.
The defense invoked Bernie Madoff, Enron’s Jeff Skilling and other high profile defendants who were granted bail, though none of them were accused of sex crimes involving minors which, by law, presumes the defendant will be remanded to pre-trial custody, the judge said.
Cases involving these kind of accusations “are unusual in the criminal law insofar as they carry with them a presumption that ‘No condition or combination of conditions will reasonably assure the appearance of the person as required, and the safety of the community,’” said Berman.
Two women, Courtney Wild and Annie Farmer, stepped forward in court earlier this week to urge Judge Berman to keep Epstein locked up.
Wild, who said she was 14 when she was brought to Epstein’s Palm Beach, Florida, estate, called him “scary.” Farmer said she was 16 when she was trafficked in New Mexico.
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