Jeffrey Epstein, middle, at 2008 hearing in West Palm Beach. Photo: Uma Sanghvi/Palm Beach PostState Attorney Removed From Case as Florida Investigates Jeffrey Epstein's Sweetheart Deal
Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg will no longer handle the investigation, according to an executive order Tuesday from Gov. Ron DeSantis, who reassigned the task to Bruce Colton in Martin County.
August 06, 2019 at 09:48 PM
3 minute read
The original version of this story was published on Daily Business Review
The prosecutor handling a Florida investigation into “irregularities” in convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s plea deal and work release is off the case, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Tuesday.
Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg, a former member of the state Senate, will no longer handle the investigation, according to an executive order Tuesday from the governor, who reassigned the task to Bruce Colton, Aronberg’s counterpart in Florida’s Nineteenth Judicial Circuit in Martin County.
Epstein, a financier who has homes in Manhattan and South Florida, is on trial in New York on charges of child sex trafficking and conspiracy. He pleaded guilty in Florida in 2008, after state and federal investigations, to procuring a minor for prostitution and felony solicitation of prostitution. He served 13 months in Palm Beach County jail and was later placed on work release.
The plea deal was broadly criticized, drawing scrutiny for Palm Beach Sheriff Ric Bradshaw’s decision to give Epstein extraordinary work release perks, and for then-U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida and former Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta, who agreed to the deal. A federal judge later found Acosta was wrong to set up a clandestine nonprosecution agreement that shielded Epstein and his accomplices from federal prosecution.
The governor’s move this week follows a request from the Palm Beach County Sheriff Office, which had been leading the investigation, to transfer the case to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
“Given the recent questions that have been raised around the Jeffrey Epstein case, I am formally requesting the FDLE assume the existing criminal investigation, and I pledge the co-operation and participation of my agency,” Bradshaw wrote in a letter to DeSantis on Tuesday. “I believe the public interest would best be served by an FDLE-led investigation examining every aspect of the Epstein case, from court sentencing to incarceration. My agency will continue with the on-going internal affairs investigation.”
The governor in turn reassigned the case, asking the FDLE to launch a probe, and Colton to oversee it. He asked them to examine “the investigation, prosecution and all matters related to allegations related to jeffrey Epstein and his assigned work release program and other irregularities.”
DeSantis also called for the assigned prosecutors from Martin County to “proceed immediately” to Palm Beach County, “vested with the authority to perform the duties prescribed.”
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||Read the sheriff’s letter:
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