Kamal Ghorui
A newly revealed surveillance video from the night of Jeffrey Epstein’s death showed prison guards casually milling about only a few feet from the cell where he killed himself at Manhattan’s Metropolitan Correctional Center.Correctional officers Tova Noel and Michael Thomas were seen lounging in front of the officer station in the Special Housing Unit at around 3:15 a.m., both writing on a piece of paper, walking back and forth and talking on the phone instead of conducting the mandatory 3 a.m. rounds, according to video unearthed in the trove of DOJ documents recently released.Epstein was just a few feet away, in the first cell on the block, down a short set of stairs behind the officer station of the ninth floor L tier wing, according to schematics of the prison.The Department of Justice said Epstein was believed to have killed himself sometime between 10:30 pm Aug. 9, the last time Noel, who was working a double shift, checked on inmates, and 6:30 am Aug. 10, when Noel and Thomas discovered his lifeless body while serving breakfast to inmates.The guards apparently ignored bright-orange warnings and reminders that the officer in charge of the Special Housing Unit had plastered on their computers, the DOJ documents revealed. The notes reminded everyone that Epstein was fresh off suicide watch, needed a bunkmate at all times, and regular check-ins.“Manadatory [sic] rounds must be conducted every 30 minutes on Epstein, as per God!!!” read one order.The SHU boss, Lt. Roberto Grijalva, later told DOJ investigators, “I put it next to the computer. It was just something between us, that said, make sure rounds are conducted and he has a bunkie at all times. It’s bright orange paper and black lettering.”Grijalva said he left the instructions “right next to the screen, hanging on the PC” sometime before he went home for the weekend at 2 pm on Aug. 9.“Whoever was there, they watched — saw that paper. Monday, I came in and that paper wasn’t there anymore,” he said.Grijalva said around 8 am on August 9, he brought Epstein and his cell mate, convicted drug dealer Efrain Reyes, downstairs. Epstein was meeting with his lawyers all day, and Reyes had all his belongings with him, and was likely heading home.“When I walked them towards the door, I said, ‘you’re going to get a bunkie,’” Grijalva recalled telling him. “Epstein is like, ‘No, I’m good.’”“He seemed calm,” Grijalva added of Epstein. “He joked around because he asked for a new jumper and I told him, ‘No.’ And he said, ‘Why not? I was like, ‘It’s a jail, this is what you got to do. Nobody else gets a jumper, it’s not Versace,’ you know. He’s, ‘Ha, ha, ha, ha,’ he laughed and that’s it.”Grijalva said before leaving for the weekend, he told staff multiple times Epstein would need a new cell mate when he returned from meeting with his lawyers that evening.He also told inspectors the reason Epstein had multiple orange sheets in his cell, the cloths he used to hang himself, was because officers failed to remove Reyes’ sheets when he was discharged, and they likely gave Epstein a couple extra after he complained he was cold at night.“They f–****d up,” Grijalva said. “Sorry. That’s a big no go.”Grijalva was still employed at the Manhattan Correctional Center and had been promoted to deputy captain, according to the Bureau of Prisons.The House Oversight Committee Chair called Noel in for an interview March 26 after The Post reported she googled Epstein shortly before he took his life and banked mysterious cash deposits.Noel and Thomas were accused of falsifying records that said they checked on Epstein throughout the night, even though investigators later learned they failed to do the 3 am and 5 am rounds.They were fired, but criminal charges against both were dropped in 2021 by Obama-appointed US District Court Judge Analisa Torres.
