A case that University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law Professor Paul Cassell has worked on for more than a decade on behalf of sexual assault victims reached a critical point this week, when multimillionaire Jeffrey Epstein was arrested in New York on new charges related sex crimes involving minors.
Cassell, a nationally-renown crime victims’ rights advocate, has represented two victims allegedly abused by Epstein.
The case has had a winding path through the legal system. According to court documents filed by Cassell, between 1999 and 2007, Epstein sexually abused more than 30 minor girls, including two clients he represented, Jane Doe 1 and Jane Doe 2. The FBI investigated the case for violations of federal law.
Paul G. Cassell, a Ronald N. Boyce Presidential Professor of Criminal Law at the University of Utah’s S.J. Quinney College of Law. Photo by Benjamin Hager.
Ultimately, prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida reached a non-prosecution agreement with Epstein, blocking not only his prosecution for federal sex crimes but also that of certain co-conspirators, in exchange for Epstein’s agreement to plead guilty to two low-level Florida state offenses, Cassell said.
From the time the federal government began investigating Epstein until the time it concluded the non-prosecution agreement, the office never conferred with the victims about the non-prosecution nor told them that such an agreement was under consideration.
When Epstein’s sexual abuse victims became concerned about what was happening in their cases, Cassell and co-counsel on the case filed a lawsuit alleging that the office had violated the victims’ rights under the federal Crime Victims Rights Act (CVRA). The district court ruled in favor that the prosecutors had violated the victims’ rights under the CVRA.
Now, with new charges moving forward against Epstein, Cassell and his role in the case took the national spotlight in the media in recent days. His work on the case on behalf of victims will continue in the weeks and months ahead.
He has appeared in local media including on the front pages of The Salt Lake Tribune and The Deseret News. He also was interviewed by several national and international outlets, including The Washington Post and Fox News National.
Cassell uses his personal experiences fighting for victims to educate law students to do similar work in the future. He is among faculty members who guide students on cases as part of the law school’s Victims’ Rights Clinic, where law students learn how to be advocates in difficult cases.