MIAMI _ Jeffrey Epstein, the Palm Beach millionaire who was arrested earlier this month on child sex-trafficking charges, was found injured in his New York jail cell Wednesday, News 4 New York reported.
The station said Epstein, 66, was found in the fetal position and had marks on his neck, citing sources close to the investigation. The station said it may have been a possible suicide attempt, quoting sources.
Last Thursday, Senior U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman in New York ordered the accused serial sexual predator to remain incarcerated at the Manhattan Correctional Center. Berman, who listened to testimony from two women who said they had been abused by Epstein as teenagers, said Epstein was a danger to young girls.
Epstein's attorneys had requested that Berman let him stay in his Upper East Side Manhattan mansion. They offered to use his personal fortune as collateral to guarantee his bail, and promised to pay for his own private security force to keep him essentially imprisoned in his own home.
But Berman said a jail cell would provide the most protection for Epstein's victims and would prevent him from leaving the country.
Epstein's arrest came eight months after the Miami Herald published a three-part investigative series, Perversion of Justice, which detailed how federal prosecutors in South Florida shelved a federal sex-trafficking indictment 12 years ago and granted a plea deal that allowed Epstein to serve just 13 months in a Palm Beach County jail. He was able to leave the jail six days a week on work release for his West Palm Beach office.
The deal was crafted in secret under Miami's then-U.S. attorney, Alexander Acosta. Acosta was the Labor Secretary in the Trump administration until he resigned, effective last Friday.
It was not clear if Epstein injured himself or if he was attacked, according to the station.
