Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw says he has ordered an Internal Affairs investigation into the Jeffrey Epstein situation.
The Sheriff's Office this week has been denying allegations that the hedge fund manager was having sex with females while he was on work release during a 13 month jail term in 2008 and 2009.
According to a chief deputy in a video made for Sheriff's Office records, Epstein was very closely guarded and logs were kept of visitors to the business man while he worked at his West Palm Beach office. Epstein was allowed to spend 12 hours per day at the office, then spent his nights and overnights at the Palm Beach County Stockade.
Sheriff Bradshaw released a statement on Friday that he "takes these matters very seriously and wants to determine if any actions taken by the deputies assigned to monitor Epstein during his work release prgram violated any agency rules and regulations..."
The statement goes on to say that all aspects of the matter will be fully investigated to ensure "total transparency and accountability."
The Sheriff's Office says that Epstein's time served ended on July 21, 2009, and that's when he immediately went on probation. He registered as a sex offender, as part of a plea deal, the following day and anything that he might have done from that point on was not monitored by PBSO, but by the businessman's parole officer.
We've reached out to Brad Edwards' Fort Lauderdale office. He is the attorney representing at least one alleged victim of Epstein. Edwards claimed this week that he spoke with a witness who told him Epstein had sex with females while on work release, but couldn't say whether they were minors.
We want clarification as to whether it's possible dates are misconstrued and that Epstein may have in fact already been released on probation by the time said sex occurred, if it did at all.
July 19, 2019
Media Advisory
Today, Sheriff Ric Bradshaw ordered an Internal Affairs investigation into the Jeffery Epstein matter.
Sheriff Bradshaw takes these matters very seriously and wants to determine if any actions taken by the deputies assigned to monitor Epstein during his work release program violated any agency rules and regulations, during the time he was on PBSO work release program.
All aspects of the matter will be fully investigated to ensure total transparency and accountability.
Photo: Getty Images