In a case filed by The Palm Beach Post, an appeals court Wednesday ordered a circuit judge to consider releasing information from grand-jury proceedings about the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
A panel of the 4th District Court of Appeal said a circuit judge improperly relied on a legal rule to deny the Post’s request to release the information.
While the appeals court said grand-jury proceedings are generally secret, it pointed to an exception in state law that allows disclosure for the purpose of “furthering justice.”
The ruling did not specifically direct the release of information but ordered a circuit judge to privately inspect the requested material and “decide whether the material’s disclosure furthers justice. If so, the court has the inherent authority to disclose any material that furthers justice. In doing so, the trial court shall take steps necessary to protect the identity of the victims, witnesses, and those who have not been criminally charged. If the court determines disclosure of any of the material will not further justice, the court can, in its discretion, deny disclosure of that material.”
The ruling by Judges Melanie May, Cory Ciklin and Jeffrey Kuntz also took a step known as “certifying” a question to the Florida Supreme Court.
That question would ask the Supreme Court to determine whether a circuit court has “inherent authority to disclose grand jury evidence to further justice” under the state law.
Under a deal approved by prosecutors in 2007, Epstein, a wealthy financier, sidestepped federal charges and agreed to plead guilty to two state prostitution charges, including procuring a minor for sex.
The plea deal also provided immunity from federal prosecution for Epstein, four other named co-conspirators and “any potential co-conspirators.”
After the plea agreement on state charges, Epstein was arrested in July 2019 and charged with federal sex-trafficking offenses involving minor girls from Florida and other places.
He was found dead in a jail cell a month later in what was deemed a suicide.
The Post filed the lawsuit against the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office and the Palm Beach County clerk of the circuit court seeking the grand-jury material. The state attorney was later dropped as a defendant, according to Wednesday’s ruling.
Joseph Abruzzo, Clerk of the Circuit Court & Comptroller in Palm Beach County, welcomed Wednesday’s ruling.
“Today’s ruling is the first step in the process for Jeffrey Epstein’s victims to get the answers they deserve,” Abruzzo said in a statement. “Under the direction provided today by the Fourth District Court of Appeal, a judge would have the power to review the Epstein records and the discretion to direct our office to release them. Without a court order, our office does not have the ability to release these records without breaking state law.”
Abruzzo called the ruling as “precisely the kind of clarification that we sought through this appeal.”
He said his office is “simultaneously seeking a change to Florida grand jury laws that will allow us to release the Epstein records with a court order. That bipartisan legislation, filed by Rep. Peggy Gossett-Seidman, R-Boca Raton and Sen. Tina Polsky, D-Boca Raton, was making its way through the recent legislative session with two unanimous committee votes in both the House of the Representatives and the Senate. Unfortunately, the legislation did not complete its scheduled hearings before the end of the legislative session. We anticipate it will be refiled in September.”
He added, “I will leave no stone unturned to have these records released for full transparency to the public. Our office will not appeal this ruling and looks forward to further direction from the court.”
The South Florida Sun Sentinel contributed to this report.