The original charges brought against Jeffrey Epstein in Florida in 2007 were laughably weak when weighed against the sheer scope of his crimes. Despite overwhelming evidence that he had trafficked and abused dozens of underage girls, he was allowed to plead guilty only to two state-level prostitution charges—one of them grotesquely labeling a minor as a "prostitute." This framing alone was an insult to his victims and a textbook example of the justice system bending over backwards to protect power. Rather than a serious prosecution, it was a carefully choreographed wrist slap designed to shield Epstein and the wealthy men around him from real scrutiny.


The law itself compounded the travesty. Florida statutes at the time allowed prosecutors to downgrade Epstein’s conduct into charges that not only failed to reflect the gravity of child sexual abuse but actively mischaracterized it. By calling minors "prostitutes," the law criminalized victims while sanitizing the predator’s behavior. This legal loophole—exploited with the DOJ’s blessing through the infamous non-prosecution agreement—made a mockery of justice. It revealed a system that, when confronted with wealth and influence, preferred euphemism and minimization over accountability. What should have been a landmark prosecution of a serial child sex trafficker instead became one of the most grotesque miscarriages of justice in modern American legal history.









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source:

https://www.baltimoresun.com/opinion/op-ed/bs-ed-op-1209-pitts-prostitute-20181205-story.html