Two Manhattan prison guards who were supposed to be guarding Jeffrey Epstein when he killed himself back in August are now under arrest. The New York Times writes that they were taken into custody “on federal charges related to their alleged failure to check on him.”
The workers came under scrutiny shortly 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 hours and falsified records to cover up what they had done, according to several officials with knowledge of the matter.
The AP reports that the guards were offered a plea deal, but turned it down.:
Epstein was placed on suicide watch after he was found July 23 on his cell floor with bruises on his neck. Multiple people familiar with operations at the jail have said Epstein was taken off suicide watch about a week before his death, meaning he was less closely monitored but still supposed to be checked on every 30 minutes.
Investigators believe those checks weren’t done for several hours before Epstein was discovered in his cell with a bedsheet around his neck, another person familiar with the matter told the AP.