Epstein's First Suicide Attempt Failed. Now, 'Troubling' News

Prosecutors say surveillance footage from that July 23 incident has gone missing
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 19, 2019 6:12 AM CST
Jeffrey Epstein's Suicide Try Surveillance Footage Missing
This March 28, 2017, file photo shows Jeffrey Epstein.   (New York State Sex Offender Registry via AP, File)

Almost three weeks before he killed himself in his jail cell in New York City's Metropolitan Correctional Center, Jeffrey Epstein attempted suicide in a different cell—and now the feds say surveillance footage of the cell's exterior during that first incident has vanished. Per TMZ, prosecutors in White Plains District Court Wednesday made the sheepish reveal, with no real explainer on how the video from July 23 had gone missing. Bruce Barket, an attorney representing Nick Tartaglione, the former cop who was Epstein's cellmate at the time of the suicide attempt, tells the New York Daily News the revelation of the disappeared video is "troubling."

"I'll reserve judgment until I've found out more details," says Barket, whose client had asked for the video to be preserved to help his own case. Tartaglione could face the death penalty if found guilty of killing four people in a drug deal gone bad, and his defense team wanted the Epstein video as evidence of Tartaglione's character, as Tartaglione insists he saved Epstein; Epstein reportedly claimed Tartaglione attacked him that same night. The judge in White Plains told prosecutors to keep looking into what happened to the footage. Meanwhile, investigations continue into Epstein's actual suicide on Aug. 10. (More Jeffrey Epstein stories.)

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