MIAMI _ Nine months before cutting a covert plea deal with sex trafficking suspect Jeffrey Epstein, Miami U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta was notified that the lead prosecutor in Epstein's case had concealed information in another underage sex crimes case, the Miami Herald has learned.
The prosecutor, A. Marie Villafana, was harshly rebuked by a federal judge in January 2007 for what he called her "intentional and/or serious lapse in judgment" when she failed to explicitly inform him that the defendant, a Texas man who traveled to Florida to have sex with a 14-year-old girl, had a prior history of predatory behavior with minors, court records show.
Acosta, her boss at the time, not only knew about Villafana's breach, but records show that he subsequently defended it. Acosta assigned another prosecutor in his office to write a treatise for the judge in an unsuccessful attempt to persuade him to soften the stinging language in his order.
Senior U.S. District Court Judge William J. Zloch copied Acosta on his order, noting, "The court is at a total loss as to why the Office of the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, as well as the Assistant United States Attorney assigned to the above-styled cause, found it appropriate to intentionally withhold ... information from the court."
Later that year, Acosta and Villafana put together a plea bargain for Epstein, a multimillionaire money manager accused of sexually abusing dozens of teenage girls at his mansion in Palm Beach. The deal, a federal judge ruled last month, was intentionally kept from his victims in violation of the Crime Victims' Rights Act.
While the two cases are unrelated, it shows that both Acosta and Villafana had been warned about the importance of victim disclosure in sex crimes cases before the Epstein agreement. They nevertheless forged ahead with a pact with Epstein that violated the law.
U.S. District Court Judge Kenneth A. Marra wrote: "When the Government gives information to victims, it cannot be misleading. While the Government spent untold hours negotiating the terms and implications of the (agreement) with Epstein's attorneys, scant information was shared with victims."
This comes as Acosta, who is now the U.S. secretary of labor, is facing mounting scrutiny for his oversight of the Epstein case. On Monday, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders declined to say whether President Donald Trump has full confidence in Acosta, noting that Acosta's involvement in the Epstein case is "currently under review."
The Justice Department launched a probe in January into whether Acosta, Villafana and other prosecutors committed professional misconduct.
Francey Hakes, who worked in the Justice Department's Crimes Against Children unit, said Zloch's comments were so brutal that it should have deterred Acosta and Villafana from keeping the Epstein deal secret.
"It is highly unusual for a court to allege an assistant U.S. attorney has intentionally withheld information. That allegation is like dropping a bomb in the legal community," she said.
"It seems to show that they are not taking these cases very seriously, they are not advocating for strong punishment for sexual predators, and not advocating for victims in a meaningful way."
Villafana, a well-regarded 18-year veteran federal prosecutor, would not comment for this story. But her lawyer, Jonathan Biran, said she has worked tirelessly on behalf of crime victims. She received the 2011 National Crime Victims' Rights Service Award as well as the Attorney General's Project Safe Childhood Award.
He also pointed out that the parents of the victim in the Texas man's case wrote a letter thanking Villafana at the conclusion of the case.
"AUSA Villafana has spent her 18-year career advocating tirelessly on behalf of victims of some of the most serious crimes in Florida, and has received numerous awards for her successful prosecution of major cases," Biran said, adding that Villafana has "made South Florida a safer place for children and adults alike."
