Reckoning: Federal Prison Officials Allegedly Broke The Law by Releasing Jeffrey Epstein's Medical Files, Lawyer Charges
The lawyer representing the family of Jeffrey Epstein is accusing the federal Bureau of Prisons of allegedly violating the law by releasing confidential medical information about the billionaire pervert who died in their custody, RadarOnline.com has exclusively learned.
The alleged privacy breach revealed the billionaire sex trafficker suffered from a long list of health problems and depression leading up to his reported suicide death inside his prison cell at New York City’s Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in August 2019.
Renowned attorney Stacey Richman, who represents brother Mark Epstein, charges the BOP violated the government’s 1999 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act – known as HIPAA – by releasing Epstein's medical details to the media.
“There are a lot of curious things going on with this case,” Richman exclusively told RadarOnline.com. “How are they releasing his medical information and psychological condition in total violation of HIPAA, and we are looking into that!”
Richman suspects BOP officials released the medical data to prop up the June 27 U.S. Department of Justice Inspector General’s 128-page investigative report that attributed Epstein’s suicide to the “negligence” and “misconduct” of prison guards.
“The government’s approach is that it was a suicide, and nobody wants to say anything else, but I don’t understand why they did this big release on Epstein’s medical records,” Richman said. “They already sold that (suicide) story, why are they still trying to sell that story.”
As RadarOnline.com previously reported, renowned forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden blasted the report and accused the IG investigators of ignoring that Epstein had two fractures on the left and right sides of his larynx, as well as one fracture near his Adam’s apple – a tell-tale sign of manual strangulation or garrote.
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“(The IG report) pretty much is entirely about security and doesn’t get into the cause of death except for a few paragraphs – which is done in very unscientific manner,” said Baden, who served under eight governors as the pathologist for the Correction Medical Review Board which reviews all prison and jail deaths throughout New York State.
“(The IG) spoke to the (New York City Medical Examiner) that did the autopsy and that was the end of it,” added Baden, who vehemently disagreed with the coroner's suicide ruling. “They didn’t do anything further.”
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services website, the now-dead Epstein was protected by the HIPAA rules which remain in effect “for a period of 50 years following the date of death of the individual.”
“During this period, the Privacy Rule protects the identifiable health information of the deceased individual to the same extent the Rule protects the health information of a living individual,” the website states.
Epstein, 66, suffered from chlamydia, sleep apnea, constipation, lower back pain, hypertension, and prediabetics before he was found hanging from a bed sheet inside his cell, according to the documents recently released by the BOP.
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The document drop obtained by the Associated Press through the Freedom of Information Act request, also revealed two weeks before he committed suicide Epstein was being “tortured” by the moaning of a broken toilet that “wouldn’t stop running.”
“He was still left in the same cell with a broken toilet,” the prison’s chief psychologist wrote in an email in July. “Please move him to the cell next door when he returns from legal as the toilet still does not work.”
BOP Spokesman Donald Murphy declined to comment on Richman's allegation. Instead, he emailed the BOP's FOIA guidelines that regulate the dissemination of medical records with other correctional institutions and law enforcement agencies — NOT the media.
When RadarOnline.com requested clarification, Murphy did not respond.
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