Demon
Brilliant_Rock
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2009
- Messages
- 1,790
I don’t disagree but the FL crime he pled to was procurement of a woman under 18 for prostitution. Discussion is in this transcript:
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6197537-Berman-Epstein-7-15-19.html
Oh I get that, and the woman he pleaded guilty to procuring for prostitution may have been under 18, but still of legal age?
This is what was bothering me:
2) the government had a damn difficult case. The girls were in fact paid, so yes, minors, but also prostitutes. And one victim expressed to the government that she hoped nothing bad happened to “awesome” Mr Epstein. Now don’t get me wrong. I think abuse victims often try to claim more agency over their choices and refuse to think of themselves as victims even when they clearly are. But those facts, the exchange of money and the lack of a consistent story among victims, made this a difficult criminal case.
I'm guessing you meant the minors that were under 18 but of age to consent to sex? (I haven't read your link yet, but it would seem to me that it wouldn't have been so difficult to convict for sex trafficking rather than prostitution, had the girls been below the age of consent, regardless of whether they were paid or not?) I may be missing something in all this - were the girls all unwilling to testify?