Victim Civil (S.D. Fla.) — 08-cv-80804

Case 08-cv-80804 occupies an unusual procedural posture in the cluster of 2008-2009 Florida Jane Doe civil actions against Jeffrey Epstein. According to the verbatim recital in Epstein's July 18, 2008 Notice of Removal (EFTA02750017), Jane Doe No. 1 — acting through her father — first filed a diversity-jurisdiction tort action in S.D. Fla. on January 24, 2008 as Jane Doe #1 v. Epstein, 08-cv-80069-KAM. Five days later her mother moved to intervene and to stay the action, alleging the suit had been filed without her consent. On February 20, 2008 Jane Doe No. 1 was deposed in the parallel state criminal case, State of Florida v. Jeffrey Epstein, 502006CF009454AXXXMB (Fla. 15th Cir. Ct.); two days later plaintiff's counsel filed a notice of voluntary dismissal without prejudice. On March 6, 2008 the plaintiff — now suing through her mother as parent and natural guardian — re-filed the same allegations in Palm Beach County Circuit Court as Doe v. Epstein, Case No. 50 2008 CA 006596 XXXX MB, with an Amended Complaint demanding $50 million.

On July 21, 2008, Epstein and a co-defendant (whose name is redacted throughout the corpus) removed the state-court action to S.D. Fla. under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1441, 1446, and 1332(a)(1), where it was assigned to Judge Kenneth A. Marra and Magistrate Judge Linnea R. Johnson as 9:08-cv-80804-KAM. The 100-page Notice of Removal (EFTA02750017) and three exhibit volumes — two volumes of the plaintiff's February 20, 2008 deposition transcript taken by Michael Tein of Lewis Tein with plaintiffs' counsel Spencer Leopold present (EFTA02749801, EFTA00234324), and the operative state-court Amended Complaint and summons package (EFTA00234108) — form Document 1 on the federal docket. Epstein was represented at filing by Lewis Tein P.L.; Jack A. Goldberger of Atterbury, Goldberger & Weiss appeared on the parallel state criminal case and filed motions in the federal record (EFTA02750177).

The early federal docket reflects three contested fronts: the procedural fight over removal and remand, the defendants' attempts to stay the civil action under 18 U.S.C. § 3509(k) and 18 U.S.C. § 1595(b)(1) given the parallel federal criminal investigation governed by the September 2007 Non-Prosecution Agreement, and disputes over service of process, alignment of Doe defendants, sealing, and pseudonymity. On August 6, 2008 the court entered an order denying Epstein's first motion to stay (EFTA02750129); shortly thereafter, on September 3, 2008, Epstein filed a renewed Motion for Stay under seal (Doc 18, EFTA02750210) invoking the federal-statute mandatory-stay provisions for civil actions arising out of a parallel criminal action against a minor victim and attaching the deferred-prosecution agreement subject to its confidentiality clause. The plaintiff filed a reply on remand on September 15, 2008 (EFTA02750282). On August 21, 2008, Goldberger filed a state-court Motion for Return of Property in the parallel 2006CF009454 criminal case seeking the return of items seized during the October 20, 2005 search of Epstein's Palm Beach residence; that motion and its 8-page property/search-warrant return became Document 12-1 on the federal docket (EFTA02750177).

Like the other 2008 Florida Doe suits, 08-cv-80804 was eventually consolidated with the lead 08-cv-80119 docket for discovery purposes by Judge Marra's April 28-29, 2009 protective order, and the substantive discovery and stay litigation thereafter proceeded primarily under the 80119 caption. Public reporting and court records outside this corpus indicate the matter, like its sister Doe cases, was resolved short of trial via confidential settlement; the EFTA corpus does not contain a settlement agreement or final order of dismissal for 08-cv-80804.

The DOJ corpus contains 69 EFTA-stamped documents and 14 emails linked to 08-cv-80804. The most procedurally important pieces of the federal record from the case's first ten weeks — i.e., the period during which the case lived under its own docket number rather than being subsumed into the consolidated 80119 record — are present in the sample.

The Notice of Removal package (Doc 1, July 21, 2008) is in the corpus in three parts: the 100-page notice itself with attached procedural exhibits (EFTA02750017), Volume I of Jane Doe No. 1's state-criminal-case deposition transcript (EFTA02749801, Doc 1-1), Volume II of that same transcript (EFTA00234324, Doc 1-2), and the 116-page state-court complaint, summons, and translated-summons package (EFTA00234108, Doc 1-3). The corpus also contains Doc 3 — defendants' July 25, 2008 Motion for Enlargement of Time to respond (EFTA02750121) — Doc 7, the August 6, 2008 Order Denying Motion to Stay (EFTA02750129); Doc 8, Epstein's August 8, 2008 Opposed Motion to Align Parties (EFTA02750135); Doc 12, Plaintiff's August 21, 2008 Motion to Proceed Anonymously (EFTA00234456); Doc 12-1, the parallel state-criminal-case Motion for Return of Property and search-warrant return (EFTA02750177); Doc 13, the August 21, 2008 order on the motion to proceed anonymously (EFTA02750190); Doc 14, Epstein's August 22, 2008 response to that motion (EFTA00234469); Doc 15, the August 29, 2008 Order Extending Time to Respond to Complaint (EFTA02750195); Doc 16, the August 29, 2008 Notice of Pendency / Substitution as Parent and Natural Guardian (EFTA02750202); Doc 18, Epstein's September 3, 2008 sealed renewed Motion for Stay invoking 18 U.S.C. § 3509(k) and § 1595(b)(1), with the NPA attached subject to its confidentiality clause (EFTA02750210); Doc 20, the September 5, 2008 Order on the motion to proceed anonymously (EFTA02750266); and Doc 22, the September 15, 2008 Plaintiff's Reply to Opposition to Remand (EFTA02750282).

A second tranche of filings appears in this case's collection because they were entered in the lead 08-cv-80119 docket after consolidation but cite or attach 08-cv-80804 materials — for example, the June 8, 2009 entries at Doc 147-2 in 80119 (EFTA00221846, EFTA02744708) and the parallel C.M.A. v. Epstein notices of serving second amended interrogatory answers (EFTA00023624, EFTA00157922, EFTA02728383). The corpus also contains a June 9, 2009 USAO-SDFL internal memorandum titled “Operation Leap Year: Notification of Breach” addressed to Acting U.S. Attorney Jeffrey H. Sloman (EFTA00189787) and a 213-page Kirkland & Ellis fax-cover discovery transmission from July 29, 2011 that touches on this case among others (EFTA00180294). The corpus does not contain a copy of the original 08-cv-80069 docket, the Feb. 22, 2008 voluntary-dismissal order, the state-court Palm Beach docket sheet for 50-2008-CA-006596, deposition transcripts of any witness other than Jane Doe No. 1's state-criminal-case deposition, or a settlement agreement or final order of dismissal for 08-cv-80804.