Epstein’s former cellmate said he never touched the convicted sex offender who was sentenced for soliciting prostitution from minor girls. The cellmate, Nick Tartaglione, a former cop accused of four counts of murder, made his statement in a two-page letter obtained by the New York Daily News.
“As far as Jeff Epstein is concerned, I never touched the man,” Tartaglione said in the letter. “I despise anyone who hurts children but whatever was going to happen to him, I was not going to be a part of it.”
According to the cellmate, the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) staff placed him in a cell with Epstein because they knew he wouldn’t hurt him.
"The staff here at MCC had hundreds of inmates to choose from yet I was their first choice,” the prisoner asserted.
On 10 August, Epstein was found dead in a solitary cell in what was determined by the NY state coroner to be suicide by hanging. After an earlier attempt to kill himself failed, he was put on suicide watch, but was shortly taken off, after claiming Tartaglione roughed him up.
Tartaglione, who has previously complained about conditions at MCC, said he received threats from prison staff after Epstein’s suicide, the Daily News report says. In his letter, he says he asked to be transferred to another prison while awaiting trial.
Epstein’s death was notable primarily due to his numerous connections to the rich and the powerful in the US and other countries. The well-heeled pedohile and pimp used to brag he had “dirt” on a number of his high-profile acquaintances, and his suicide has given birth to multiple conspiracy theories.