Two federal prison workers on duty the night Jeffrey Epstein killed himself in a Manhattan jail could be charged as early as this week with falsifying records to hide their failure to check on him as was required, according to a person briefed on the case. The workers, who have not been publicly identified, came under scrutiny soon after Mr. Epstein’s death because they were responsible for monitoring the high-security unit where Mr. Epstein, the disgraced financier who had previously been convicted of sex crimes, was being held. Rather than checking on Mr. Epstein every half-hour as they were supposed to, the workers fell asleep for several hours and doctored corrections records to cover up what they had done, according to several law enforcement and prison officials with knowledge of the matter. The charges against the workers would be the first to arise from a criminal inquiry into the death of Mr. Epstein, who hanged himself at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan while awaiting trial on new sex-trafficking charges.

Source: New York Times November 19, 2019 02:26 UTC