Jeffrey Epstein death ruled ‘suicide by hanging’ – TheNigerialawyer

New York — Jeffrey Epstein’s prison death has been ruled a
suicide by hanging, the medical examiner’s office announced Friday.
Epstein, 66, was found dead in his cell at the Metropolitan
Correctional Center in New York City on August 10.

His death sparked outrage and disbelief over how such a
high-profile prisoner, known for socializing with powerful people
including presidents Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, could have gone
unwatched.

The Bureau of Prisons said Epstein had apparently killed
himself, but that didn’t squelch conspiracy theories about his
death

Epstein, who was charged with sexually abusing numerous underage
girls over several years, had been placed on suicide watch last
month after he was found on his cell floor on July 23 with bruising
on his neck.

But multiple people familiar with operations at the jail say he
was taken off the watch after about a week and put back in a
high-security housing unit where he was less closely monitored, but
still supposed to be checked on every 30 minutes.

Attorney General William Barr said officials have uncovered
“serious irregularities” at the jail. The FBI and the Justice
Department’s inspector general are both investigating Epstein’s
death.

Jail guards on duty the night of Epstein’s death are suspected
of falsifying log entries to show they were checking on inmates
every half-hour as required, according to several people familiar
with the matter.

A guard in Epstein’s unit was working a fifth straight day of
overtime and another guard was working mandatory overtime, the
people said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the
lacked authorization to publicly discuss the investigation.

U.S. District Judge Richard Berman, who is in charge of the
criminal case against Epstein, asked the jail’s warden this week
for answers about the earlier episode, writing in a letter Monday
that it had “never been definitively explained.”

The warden replied that an internal investigation was completed
but that he couldn’t provide information because the findings were
being incorporated into investigations into Epstein’s death.

The Associated Press often does not report details of suicide
methods, but has made an exception because Epstein’s cause of death
is pertinent to the ongoing investigations.

The Washington Post and The New York Times reported Thursday
that the autopsy revealed that several bones in Epstein’s neck had
been broken, leading to speculation his death was a homicide.

Chief Medical Examiner Barbara Sampson issued a statement
Thursday in response to those articles, saying: “In all forensic
investigations, all information must be synthesized to determine
the cause and manner of death. Everything must be consistent; no
single finding can be evaluated in a vacuum.”

The medical examiner’s ruling came a day after two more women
sued Jeffrey Epstein’s estate, saying he sexually abused them.

The suit, filed Thursday in a federal court in New York, claims
the women were working as hostesses at a popular Manhattan
restaurant in 2004 when they were recruited to give Epstein
massages. One was 18 at the time. The other was 20.

The lawsuit said an unidentified female recruiter offered the
hostesses hundreds of dollars to provide massages to Epstein,
saying he “liked young, pretty girls to massage him,” and wouldn’t
engage in any unwanted touching. The women say Epstein groped them
anyway.

One plaintiff now lives in Japan, the other in Baltimore. They
seek $100 million in damages, citing depression, anxiety, anger and
flashbacks.

Other lawsuits, filed over many years by other women, accused
him of hiring girls as young as 14 or 15 to give him massages, then
subjecting them to sex acts.