Nicholas Tartaglione

Background

Nicholas Tartaglione is a former police officer from Briarcliff Manor, New York, who was arrested in 2016 and charged with murder in a drug-related quadruple homicide case. He was held in pretrial detention at the Metropolitan Correctional Center while awaiting trial on federal murder charges.

Cellmate to Epstein

In the period preceding the July/August 2019 incidents at MCC, Tartaglione was Jeffrey Epstein’s cellmate. When Epstein was found in distress in his cell (around July 23-24, 2019 in some accounts, though the precise timeline was unclear), Tartaglione was present.

Denials

Tartaglione’s attorney stated that Tartaglione had nothing to do with any injury to Epstein and had actually assisted Epstein during the incident. Tartaglione reportedly told his attorney that he tried to protect Epstein.

Investigation Significance

The circumstances of the July incident what happened in the cell, whether it was a suicide attempt, attempted homicide, or something else was never definitively determined publicly. After Tartaglione was transferred to a different housing unit, Epstein was placed alone in a cell without a celmate, a circumstance that was later cited as a security failure.