A woman who accused Jeffrey Epstein of forcibly raping her as a child has filed a civil lawsuit against his estate, girlfriend, and three household staff, alleging that they enabled the abuse.
Jennifer Araoz said she was repeatedly subjected to sexual abuse from Epstein when she was 14- and 15-years old, including a 2002 forcible rape in his New York City townhouse. She previously disclosed the story in July and noted that she intended to sue the disgraced millionaire, but after the 66-year-old was found dead of an apparent suicide, Araoz has now set her sights on those she said enabled the abuse.
The complaint, which includes a secretary, a maid, and a “recruiter” in addition to Epstein’s longtime girlfriend, alleges that Epstein’s girlfriend, 57-year-old Ghislaine Maxwell recruited and provided logistical support for the financier’s sexual abuse. The suit claims Maxwell and the other three unnamed staffers “conspired with each other to make possible and otherwise facilitate the sexual abuse and rape” of Araoz.
Araoz alleged today that Maxwell “conspired with Epstein in the implementation and maintenance of his criminal enterprise which, in turn, victimized” her. The complaint referenced other court documents which purportedly show Maxwell helped Epstein recruit underage girls, scheduled their appointments, intimidated witnesses, provided oversight over his operation, and kept it all secret. Araoz said Maxwell helped ensure three girls a day were “made available” to Epstein “for his sexual pleasure.”
“Today is my first step towards reclaiming my power,” Araoz told reporters Wednesday after the suit was filed. “Jeffrey Epstein and his network of enablers stole from me. They robbed me of my youth, my identity, my innocence, my self-worth. For too long, they escaped accountability. I am here today because I intend to change that.”
The new lawsuit amends a prior lawsuit she intended to file against Epstein and his estate before he was found dead of an apparent suicide. A deputy sheriff served Epstein with Araoz’s impending lawsuit in his prison cell on July 22. A day later, on July 23, Epstein was reportedly found nearly unconscious on his cell floor with marks on his neck as the result of a possible suicide attempt.
Along with the proposed lawsuit, Epstein was also served in July with a subpoena to compel him to preserve and turn over records identifying all of his employees as well as logs of all the visitors to his home from the start of 2000 through the end of 2003. Last Friday, Epstein’s lawyers called Araoz’s request “an utter waste of judicial resources” and said it would “defy common sense” for the court to order Epstein to produce those employment records.
Epstein was found dead Saturday morning in his prison cell. He was being held in the special housing unit of the prison after being moved from suicide watch days before.
Epstein’s apparent suicide followed the unsealing last Friday of 2,000 pages of court records connected to the defamation lawsuit brought by Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre against Maxwell, whom Giuffre has accused of helping Epstein abuse her and others when Giuffre was underage. The records included allegations by Giuffre that Maxwell instructed her to have sex with the U.K.’s Prince Andrew, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, and former Sen. George Mitchell, among other high-profile figures.
Attorney General Barr vowed earlier this week that the DOJ’s Epstein investigation would continue.
“Any co-conspirators should not rest easy,” Barr said. “The victims deserve justice, and they will get it.”
Today’s suit is also one of the first filed under New York’s Child Victims Act, which went into effect Wednesday. The new law allows victims of child sex abuse to file civil lawsuits against those who allegedly abused them for the next year, regardless of when the abuse took place. From there, the accusers will have until age 55 to file lawsuits.
In a Wednesday piece in the New York Times, Araoz describes her experience of entering Epstein’s lavishly revolting life. She described stepping into his mansion in Manhattan’s Upper East Side in 2001 and noticing security cameras and TVs playing footage in real time.
“I was a child, just 14 at the time. But the message was clear: I was in the house of someone important and I was being watched,” Araoz wrote. “I can still remember watching myself on those screens as I walked into the house of the person I came to know as a predator, a pedophile, my rapist.”
Araoz described her anger about Epstein not having to answer for his crimes after his suicide, but said that her “quest for justice is just getting started.”
She said she was recruited by a stranger during her freshman year outside her performing arts high school. She said the recruiters would give her money to visit Epstein, and although the first encounters felt benign, she began getting asked to massage the financier.
“The visits were about one to two hours long and we would spend the time talking. After each visit, he or his secretary would hand me $300 in cash, supposedly to help my family,” she recounted. “But within about a month, he started asking me for massages and instructed me to take my top off. He said he would need to see my body if he was going to help me break into modeling.
“I felt uncomfortable and intimidated, but I did as he said. The assault escalated when, during these massages, he would flip over and sexually gratify himself and touch me inappropriately,” Araoz added.
She then described how during her last visit Epstein forced himself on her, held her tightly, and forcibly raped her.
Araoz said she kept quiet for years, feeling as though the “power structure was stacked against” her. She recounted struggles with anxiety and shame.
“I used to feel alone, walking into his mansion with the cameras pointing at me, but now I have the power of the law on my side,” Araoz said. “I will be seen. I will be heard. I will demand justice.”
