Palm Beach Police Chief Michael Reiter and Detective Joseph Recarey are credited with conducting the initial rigorous investigation into Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes beginning in 2005, building the case that ultimately led to his prosecution — though not the prosecution either man believed the evidence warranted.
Det. Recarey spent months gathering victim testimony, corroborating accounts, and conducting surveillance that documented the pattern of young women entering and leaving Epstein’s Palm Beach mansion. By 2006, Recarey had assembled what investigators and legal observers later described as a strong case for serious federal trafficking charges.
Chief Reiter became increasingly frustrated when State Attorney Barry Krischer’s office appeared to minimize the case. Reiter took the unusual step of writing directly to the Florida Bar asking it to investigate Krischer’s conduct, citing what he characterized as an inappropriately favorable approach to a wealthy defendant.
Reiter and Recarey’s work was eventually routed to federal prosecutors in Miami, where it became the basis for the federal investigation — though the resulting non-prosecution agreement of 2008 disappointed both men. Recarey later gave an emotional interview to the Miami Herald stating that the plea deal had “destroyed lives” by failing to adequately punish Epstein.
Det. Recarey died of cancer in 2018, one year before Epstein’s 2019 federal arrest. He did not live to see the renewed federal prosecution. Reiter has spoken publicly about the case, and both figures are regarded by victims’ advocates as among the few law enforcement officers who took the allegations seriously from the beginning.