The Florida prosecutors who cut a controversial plea deal with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein in 2008 sabotaged themselves by “slut shaming” his teenage victims, the lawyer of one 14-year-old involved in the case said.
Spencer Kuvin, who has represented scores of Epstein’s victims, applauded the recent release of transcripts from the 2006 grand jury investigation into him — which exposed how he stood accused of raping minors inside his Palm Beach mansion.
“They definitely blew the case before it began,” Kuvin told The Post. “The way the prosecution handled this, it was clear they scared the victims and turned the grand jury against them.”
Kuvin, whose client was the youngest girl referenced in the investigation, accused the prosecutors in then-US Attorney Alex Acosta’s office of being overly intimidated by billionaire Epstein, whose list of high profile associates included former Presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump.
Along with fears of Epstein’s vast wealth and influence, Kuvin said the prosecutors were likely immediately frightened by the team of high-powered lawyers the financier immediately brought to court.
The Florida team was equally as worried that they might have another William Kennedy Smith rape case on their hands, Kuvin added.
That highly publicized 1991 trial brought plenty of backlash against the Palm Beach prosecutors’ office when Smith was found not guilty, with Kuvin suggesting prosecutors feared a similar outcome if they failed with Epstein.
“There was a whole lot of fear in that department,” Kuvin said. “Combine that with the pre #MeToo attitude and it was clear they tainted their own case.”
The attitude Kuvin referred to was the way in which prosecutors aggressively grilled his minor client and the other victims — despite many of them having been sexually assaulted then recruited by Epstein, who was then in his 40s, to find other victims in exchange for money.
“You aware that you committed a crime?” Prosecutor Lanna Belohlavek asked Kuvin’s client, according to the transcript.
“Now I am. I didn’t know it was a crime when I was doing it,” the girl, who has never publicly identified herself, answered
Members of the grand jury also echoed the inappropriate questions to the young victims, with Kuvin claiming they did so because of the precedent prosecutors set.
“Do you have any idea deep down inside of you that you—what your [sic] doing is wrong?” one juror asked the girl.
“And you’re well aware that—what you’re doing to your own reputation,” another juror chimed in.
The victims were also questioned about several posts they made on social media, including a MySpace post where one allegedly joked about having $250,000 income.
Kuvin described the way his client and the other victims were treated as “awful, devastating, and despicable.”
“This was back in the day when it was all too common to blame victims for sexual assault,” Kuvin said. “The prosecutors didn’t care about these girls.”
“The victims were made to feel ashamed,” Kuvin added. “And all [the prosecutors] were thinking was, ‘Who else could we prosecute here?’”
The clearest evidence of the prosecution’s failure was the fact the grand jury only heard from two of Epstein’s victims, according to the transcript, and not any of the other 38 investigators had tracked down, Kuvin said.
“We knew of so many local victims in the case, and they only called two girls in,” Kuvin said.
“They brought in two victims just so they can say, “Oh well, we tried.’”
The 150-page transcript was released on July 1 detailing the harrowing case against Epstein that ended with the pedophile sentenced to less than two years jail — which was almost entirely served under house arrest — after taking a plea deal that has been routinely slammed as being far too lenient.
The deal allowed Epstein to escape severe federal charges by pleading guilty to state charges of procuring a person under 18 for prostitution and solicitation of prostitution.
In 2020, the Department of Justice slammed Florida prosecutors and found that Acosta, Trump’s former Secretary of Labor, exercised “poor judgment” in handling the case.
After serving his time Epstein would go on to molest many more victims before he was charged with federal sex trafficking crimes in New York in 2018.
Epstein, 66, was found dead inside a New York City jail cell in August 2019. His death was ruled a suicide.