2006: Palm Beach Police Refer Epstein Case to FBI

By mid-2006, Palm Beach Police Chief Michael Reiter had lost confidence in State Attorney Barry Krischer’s handling of the Epstein case. Krischer’s grand jury had produced only a single solicitation of prostitution charge — a result Reiter believed dramatically underrepresented the gravity and extent of Epstein’s crimes.

Reiter took the extraordinary step of writing to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement requesting an independent review. He also made a formal referral to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, specifically citing the inadequacy of the state-level proceedings.

This FBI referral set in motion the federal investigation conducted primarily through the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida. Federal prosecutor Anne Marie Villafaña took the lead in building what became a significant federal case.

Without Reiter’s initiative in going outside normal channels, there might have been no federal case at all. His action was unusual — law enforcement chiefs rarely bypass their jurisdictional counterparts so directly — and reflected the depth of his conviction that justice was being denied to the victims.

The FBI case would ultimately result in the 2008 non-prosecution agreement negotiated by U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta, itself deeply controversial, but the federal referral was the necessary precursor to any federal accountability at all.