Epstein prosecutor was rebuked for prior child sex case | Miami Herald
[{"sender": "Darren Indyke", "recipients": ["jeevacation@gmail.com"], "timestamp": "3/14/2019 4:30:53 PM", "subject": "Epstein prosecutor was rebuked for prior child sex case | Miami Herald", "body": "https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article226765309.html\n\nJeffrey Epstein prosecutor was\npreviously rebuked for handling of a\nchild sex case\n\nJulie K. Brown\n\nNine months before cutting a covert plea deal with sex trafficking suspect Jeffrey\nEpstein, Miami U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta was notified that the lead\n\nprosecutor in Epstein’s case had concealed victim information in another underage\nsex crimes case, the Miami Herald has learned.\n\nThe prosecutor, A. Marie Villafafa, was harshly rebuked by a federal judge in\nJanuary 2007 for what he called her “intentional and/or serious lapse in judgment”\nwhen she failed to explicitly inform him that the defendant, a Texas man who\ntraveled to Florida to have sex with a 14-year-old girl, had a prior history of\npredatory behavior with minors, court records show.\n\nAcosta, her boss at the time, not only knew about Villafafa’s breach — records show\nthat he subsequently defended it. Acosta assigned another prosecutor in his office to\nwrite a treatise for the judge in an unsuccessful attempt to persuade him to soften\nthe stinging language in his order.\n\nSenior U.S. District Court Judge William J. Zloch copied Acosta on his order,\nnoting, “The court is at a total loss as to why the Office of the United States Attorney\nfor the Southern District of Florida, as well as the Assistant United States Attorney\nassigned to the above-styled cause, found it appropriate to intentionally withhold ...\ninformation from the court.”"}]