Palm Beach detective describes Epstein's methods for recruiting girls: Deposition

In a now-released deposition, Palm Beach Detective Joseph Recarey described the process by which the late Jeffrey Esptein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell would recruit underaged women for sexual exploitation.

The deposition became public Thursday evening as part of the second batch of documents related to Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre's 2015 civil suit against Ghislaine Maxwell. Judge Loretta Preska ordered their release in December and the Southern District of New York published the first batch on Wednesday.

During the deposition, Recarey recalled interviewing 30-33 women whom he had interviewed that either gave or were asked to perform messages. Of those, he noted that only one of the women recruited for massage purposes had prior experience in that field and that said woman was older than the rest. He further confirmed the majority were under 18 years of age.

"And how was it that Mr. Epstein gained access to that number of underaged girls?" Recarey was asked.

"Each of the victims that went to the home were asked to bring their friends to the home. Some complied and some didn't," he explained. Recarey further outlined that the women in question would visit Epstein's home, give a massage for which they would be paid, and potentially recruit other young men to do the same to earn additional money.

He further asserted that associates of Epstein would reach out to the girls to recruit them, ostensibly to provide massages.

When pressed to describe the "pattern" of such activities he learned from the interviews, the detective stated that "[i]nitially, when the -- when the victims would come into the home and were brought upstairs to provide the massage, Epstein would lay on his massage table, where they would start to rub his back and the back of his legs."

"Epstein would either attempt to fondle the girls or touch the girls inappropriately, and at which point he would masturbate. And when he was done, he would get up and go wash off while the girls would get dressed and go back downstairs and get paid," he continued.

"When they went to perform a massage, it was for sexual gratification," he insisted.  "Once they were recruited, they were brought to the home. They were to provide a massage. Some of the victims did not want to be touched; some of the victims did not want to partake in that. So it was -- I believe for -- for a couple of them it was only a one-shot deal, but others continued to come."

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter.