Prosecutors Drop Criminal Case Against Jeffrey Epstein’s Prison Guards

Federal prosecutors have dropped their criminal case against two Manhattan prison guards who were tasked with guarding Jeffrey Epstein on the night of his suicide.

ABC News reports U.S. prosecutors on Thursday asked a judge to dismiss charges against Tova Noel and Michael Thomas, the two correctional officers who allegedly falsified government records on the night Epstein killed himself on their watch. The two guards were accused of shopping online and falling asleep instead of checking on Epstein every thirty minutes.

Epstein was found dead in his prison cell on Aug. 10, 2019. According to court documents, the 66-year-old was placed on suicide watch sometime that July, after he was found unconscious with a bed sheet around his neck; however, a post-suicide watch report painted Epstein as a cooperative inmate who had no intentions of killing himself.

Though the New York medical examiner declared his death a suicide by hanging, some conspiracy theorists remain convinced, without evidence, that Epstein was murdered in an effort to prevent his testimony against his high-profile associates. 

The news arrives just days after Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime associate of Epstein, was hit with a six-count indictment, which included charges of conspiracy,  transporting a minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, enticing a minor to travel to engage in criminal sexual activity, and sex trafficking of a minor.