Edwards and Cassell File Crime Victims' Rights Act Lawsuit

attorneys Brad Edwards and Paul Cassell — representing multiple Epstein victims as ‘Jane Does’ — pursued Crime Victims’ Rights Act litigation challenging the validity and legitimacy of the 2008 federal non-prosecution agreement. The CVRA (18 U.S.C. § 3771), enacted in 2004, guarantees crime victims the right to be informed of, and be heard in, plea proceedings that resolve federal crimes against them.

Edwards and Cassell argued that the NPA had been negotiated and signed in secret, without notifying victims or allowing them to object — a direct violation of the CVRA.

The litigation was slow and complex. Epstein’s defense team fought vigorously at every stage. The case moved in and out of different federal courts over the course of nearly a decade.

In February 2019 — before Epstein’s July 2019 arrest — Judge Kenneth Marra of the Southern District of Florida ruled that prosecutors had violated the Crime Victims’ Rights Act by hiding the agreement from victims. The ruling formally confirmed what victims had alleged for over a decade.

Brad Edwards, a Florida-based civil litigator, became one of the most prominent legal advocates for Epstein survivors, filing numerous civil suits on their behalf. He authored a book about his experience litigating against Epstein’s network. Paul Cassell, a University of Utah law professor and former federal judge, brought academic rigor and high-profile advocacy to the CVRA cause.

Their work created a parallel legal record that, alongside the 2018 Miami Herald series, produced the renewed public and prosecutorial pressure that led to Epstein’s 2019 federal arrest.