Two of the women who accused Jeffrey Epstein of molesting them when they were minors will be in attendance for his court appearance on Monday in Manhattan.
Michelle Licata was just 16 when she claims a young woman brought her to Epstein’s Palm Beach estate and she was paid to give him a massage.
‘He said, god, you’re just so beautiful and sexy and gorgeous and it was making me feel really uncomfortable,’ said Licata in an interview with ABC News.
Then he wanted me to rub his back, and he kept asking me to go lower and he was kind of talking to me.
Courtney Wild was even younger, revealing that she was still in middle school when Epstein allegedly forced her into performing sex acts.
‘I was 14, I had braces on,’ recalled Wild.
‘Like, I remember standing in his kitchen … and he also had a lot of girls there all the time.’
Wild and Licata, who were among the victims in the previous criminal case brought against Epstein, 66, in Florida back in 2008, said that they will both be in court on Monday for his arraignment and bail hearing.
The two also expressed their hope that the registered sex offender stays behind bars.
Victim: Two of then women who accused Jeffrey Epstein of sexual assault during his previous criminal trial in Palm Beach, Florida back in 2008 are speaking out (Courtney Wild above)
Shattered youth: Courtney Wild (left at 14) was still in middle school and had braces when Epstein allegedly forced her into performing sex acts (victim Michelle Licata at 16 right)
Relief: ‘He said, god, you’re just so beautiful and sexy and gorgeous and it was making me feel really uncomfortable,’ said victim Michelle Licata (above), who was then-16
Lawyers with the Southern District of New York will likely argue that Epstein is a flight risk, and should remain behind bars.
His defense team will fight that, though there is a chance they might acquiese to home confinement for their client.
That would put him back in Upper East Side townhouse that authorities spent the weekend tearing through while gathering evidence in the case.
‘The first moment finding out Jeffrey Epstein was put in jail was so relieving to me,’ said Licata.
‘I felt safer. I’ve waited for this one day just to happen and it’s finally come.’
The women in Florida are currently fighting so have Epstein retried in that case.
On June 30, 2008, Epstein pleaded guilty to a single state charge of soliciting an underage girl for prostitution, and ultimately served just 13 months of his 18-month sentence.
That time was served not in a prison, but rather the Palm Beach Stockade, which is a local detention center.
Epstein was also allowed to leave six days a week to go work out of his West Palm Beach office during his time behind bars.
After his release he did have to register as a sex offender, but not in all states.
That fight is over a non-prosecution agreement that Epstein signed in the case, which was overseen by President Trump’s current Secretary of Labor, Alex Acosta.
That agreement does no extend to the Southern District of New York.
That office’s Public Corruption Unit investigated Epstein, who is facing up to 45 years behind bars if found guilty on both counts: sex trafficking of minors and conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking of minors.
The charges against Epstein were filed following dozens of interviews with victims, who also spoke with the FBI and the NYPD, a law enforcement official told DailMail.com.
Almost all of these women claim they were underage when they were asked to give Epstein massages at his Palm Beach or New York City homes, according to a law enforcement official.
Some of the women also said that they were shuttled between the two properties on Epstein’s jet, said that official.
Those women claim that these massages would often lead to Epstein asking that they perform a rape act on him in exchange for money.
That same official said that the incidents for which Epstein is now being charged all occurred between 1999 and 2005.
The Public Corruption Unit is tasked with heading up the ‘prosecution of corruption crimes committed by elected and appointed officials, government employees, and individuals and companies doing business with the city, state, and federal government.’
Among the crimes it investigates are ‘bribery, embezzlement, and frauds committed against local, state, and federal government agencies,’ but no mention of sex trafficking.
Judgment day: These charges come days after documents were unsealed that could detail how Epstein and his accused accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell allegedly trafficked underage girls(Epstein in 2008 after entering his guilty plea)
Break in: DailyMail.com obtained exclusive photos which show the aftermath of the search by federal agents, including Epstein’s damaged and splintered door
On the job: Unidentified men were spotted entering and leaving the property as late as 2am on Sunday (above)
Epstein’s first court appearance will come less than 48 hours after he was taken into custody by federal agents at Teterboro Airport.
It all happened just before 5pm on Saturday, when Epstein reentered the country for the first time since June 16, when he took off from the same airport bound for Paris.
Prior to that trip, Epstein had been crisscrossing the US as he moved between his properties in New York City, Palm Beach, New Mexico and the US Virgin Islands.
Epstein’s arrest comes in the wake of a three-part expose in the Miami Herald detailing his settlements with victims and sweetheart plea deal.
Around the same time he was being arrested, agents with the FBI were seen breaking down the door to his Upper East Side mansion to execute a search warrant in the case.
DailyMail.com obtained exclusive photos which show the aftermath of that search, including Epstein’s damaged and splintered door.
The episode is likely to cause embarrassment to Prince Andrew, who was an associate of Epstein but has now severed ties.
Groups of unidentified men were seen coming and going at the property until 2am on Sunday.
A security guard from a nearby building told DailyMail.com that between 20 to 25 law enforcement officials showed up at Epstein’s home at around 6:30pm on Saturday.
Most of those were FBI agents, the security guard said. They were accompanied by several officers – both uniformed and plain-clothed – from the New York Police Department.
The guard told DailyMail.com that it took them approximately 10 to 15 minutes before they could pry the door open.
The front entrance appears to be outfitted with fingerprint and keypad technology for security purposes.
The guard says that in the hours since the raid, more law enforcement personnel arrived at the home, where they are expected to work well into Sunday morning.
The guard, who identified himself as Tom, said he would see Epstein there once or twice a month.
He said that two weeks ago, he noticed someone on the street taking photographs of Epstein’s residence.
The US Attorney’s Office and a spokesperson with the New York Police Department both declined to comment on Saturday.
This news comes just days after a judge ordered the unsealing of nearly 2,000 pages of records related to a civil case that could reveal how he and his accused accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell allegedly trafficked underage girls
The documents that will be unsealed are from a defamation case that was settled after Epstein entered a guilty plea guilty to a single charge of soliciting and procuring a person under age 18 for prostitution.
Records in the defamation case contained descriptions of sexual abuse by Epstein along with new allegations of sexual abuse by ‘numerous prominent American politicians, powerful business executives, foreign presidents, a well-known prime minister and other world leaders.’
The appeals court found that the judge in the case did seal a number of documents without a justifiable reason when ordering the release.
Epstein’s lawyers will first get a chance to appeal, and after those legal proceedings play out the documents will start being prepared by the court for release.
The plea deal Epstein agreed to back in 2008 saved him from having to register as a sex offender in 31 of 50 states.
In a deal unknown to the victim or her lawyer, the minor Epstein admitted to soliciting for prostitution was not the 14-year-old girl who first reported the millionaire money manager, but rather another girl, 16, whose age was left blank on court documents.
That victim’s age means that Epstein did not have to register as a sex offender in states like New Mexico, where he owns a 7,600-acre property called Zorro Ranch, and allows him to be classified as a low risk offender in the U.S. Virgin Islands, which is currently his primary residence.
A federal judge ruled earlier this year that then-U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta violated the rights of Epstein’s alleged victims when they neglected to notify them that they were no longer pursuing federal charges.
That was another part of the deal, which in addition to allowing Epstein to have work release and live in a low-security facility also agreed to drop a federal probe into the millionaire moneyman.
Now Acosta – who is the current Secretary of Labor and had been mentioned as a possible candidate for attorney general – and others are again coming under fire for allegedly catering to the man who donated millions to the Clintons and hosted President Trump at his Manhattan townhouse while keeping his victims in the dark.
‘They were cutting a plea deal. It wasn’t a prosecution,’ said attorney Spencer Kuvin, who represented the 14-year-old girl who alerted police.
‘They had a grab bag of 40 girls to choose from.’
He then revealed that he and his client believed they had been the victim referenced in the plea deal.
‘It’s unbelievably upsetting,’ said Kuvin.
‘The rug has been swiped out from under the one girl who was brave enough to come forward and break this thing.’
Questions about Epstein’s deal started to surface after a series of lawsuits were filed by two of his alleged victims.
The women, identified as Jane Doe 1 and Jane Doe 2, claim in court papers that they were unaware of the secret deal being made between the defense team and prosecutors back in 2007 that guaranteed federal charges would not be brought against Epstein, 63, which could have resulted in a lengthy prison sentence for the millionaire.
They filed their lawsuit a few months after Epstein received his lenient sentence in 2008, with their lawyers saying the U.S. Attorney’s Office violated the federal Crime Victims’ Rights Act by not speaking with Epstein’s victims about the details of his plea agreement.
The two victims who filed the suit were 13 and 14 at the time of the abuse.
This filing contained more than 140 exhibits including emails between Epstein’s defense team, the U.S. Attorney’s office and former State Attorney Barry Krischer, which lawyers believe clearly show that victims were being left in the dark.