Summary: The trial against accused sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has been granted a delay by the appeals court.

The famed sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein is set to go to trial but his legal team is pushing to get the trial delayed. The Palm Beach billionaire settled lawsuits against him from three teenage victims for $5.5 million. Epstein claims that he was persuaded to settle the claims by attorney Bradley Edwards and former attorney Scott Rothstein.

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The case between Epstein and Edwards was slated to begin Tuesday in the Palm Beach County Circuit Court. After a round of appeals filed by Epstein’s attorneys Scott Link and Kara Rockenbach, the 4th District Court of Appeal granted a stay in the case. Circuit Judge Donald Hafele originally rejected Epstein’s request, calling it “hyper-technical” but the appeals court was convinced by Epstein’s team to delay the trial.

Edwards’ legal team includes Philip Burlington, who stated, “Right now, everything stops. The jurors won’t be called. It doesn’t look like the trial will be going forward.” Another member of Edwards team, attorney Jack Scarola, and Burlington filed a response to Epstein’s appeal. They also filed a separate request to limit the stay so other case matters can be handled.

Epstein has been spending most of his time on his private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands. He agreed in 2007 to plead guilty to state charges of solicitation of minors for prostitution and solicitation of prostitution. In exchange for his guilty plea, federal prosecutors agreed to drop their investigation. He was accused of paying dozens of teenage girls for sex at his Palm Beach mansion. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison but only served 13 months. He will have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

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The guilty plea agreement also required Epstein to settle civil suits against him, which included nearly 36 claims filed by young women. Edwards represented three of the teenage women who had claims against Epstein. The amounts were never revealed until this trial.

The battle between Epstein and Edwards began in 2009 when Epstein sued Scott Rothstein, who worked in the same Fort Lauderdale firm as Edwards. Rothstein was disbarred and is currently serving a 50-year sentence for operating a $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme. The scheme ran by getting investors to buy fake lawsuit settlements.

Epstein claimed in his lawsuit that Rothstein partnered up with Edwards to build the allegations against him by the three teenagers Edwards represented. He alleged that Edwards subpoenaed his high-profile friends like President Donald Trump and former President Bill Clinton to sell their case. He eventually dropped the lawsuit against them. Edwards responded by filing a malicious prosecution lawsuit against Epstein.

Epstein’s attorneys, Link and Rochenback, went to Judge Hafele, fearing that Epstein did not properly drop Rothstein from his lawsuit. Edwards’ attorneys believe that the attorneys failed to properly remove Rothstein so they are asking for the stay to fix their mistake.

Judge Hafele noted, “It would seem to me that you are essentially creating the error yourselves by not doing due diligence. We are not going to be reaching back seven years on a technicality to somehow thwart the efforts of the court in trying to move forward on behalf of both sides to resolve a case that has drawn significant amount of public interest and that has been pending for nine years … 3,013 days as of today.”

Do think Epstein is just trying to delay the trial? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.

To learn more about Jeffrey Epstein, read these articles:

Photo: pagesix.com

Source: Palm Beach Post

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