Police chief’s reputation helps discredit attacks¶
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Police chief’s reputation helps discredit attacks¶
By Larry Keller¶
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer¶
Monday, August 14, 2006¶
In the case of Palm Beach financier Jeffrey Epstein, it seems, at times, as if two men are accused of wrongdoing: Epstein and Palm Beach Police Chief¶
Epstein, 53, was indicted last month on a charge of felony solicitation of prostitution solely because of “craziness,” one of Epstein’s lawyers said. His¶
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department disseminated “a distorted view of the case” and behaved in a “childish” manner when the grand jury didn’t indict Epstein on the charges it sought, another Epstein lawyer complained.¶
y Epstein¶
Billionaire financier¶
Jeffrey¶
Epstein has been indicted¶
for felony solicitation of prostitution by a grand jury following accusations by teen girls.¶
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To hear the Epstein camp tell it, 48, is a loose cannon better suited to be the sheriff of Mayberry. They whisper that he’s embroiled in a messy divorce.¶
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did in fact file for divorce from his wife, Jill, last year, after 24 years of marriage. They have a son, 18, and a daughter, 14. The couple is scheduled to go to mediation next week, Aug. 16. Nothing in the court file suggests their split is particularly ugly.¶
incurred the wrath of the Epstein camp as well as the state attorney’s office for two reasons. First, he pressed for¶
Epstein to be charged with the more serious crimes of sexual activity with minors. Second, he slammed State Attorney in blunt language seldom used by one law-enforcement official concerning another because of what he perceived as that office’s mishandling of the case.¶
In a letter to written May 1, called his actions in the Epstein case “highly unusual.” He added, “I must urge you to… consider if good and sufficient reason exists to require your disqualification from the prosecution of these cases.”¶
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Police chief’s reputation helps discredit attacks¶
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In short, told the county’s top prosecutor for the past 13 years that he ought to get off the case. “It looks like a departure from professionalism,” Miami-Dade State Attorney said of letter.¶
Following Epstein’s indictment, referred the case to the FBI to determine whether the super-rich, super-connected defendant had violated any federal laws.¶
won’t discuss the case or the broadsides aimed at him. But others almost uniformly use one word to describe the chief: professional.¶
“I have always been impressed by Mike’s professionalism and his leadership,” said chief of the Lantana Police Department and a Palm Beach County cop for 32 years.¶
“The town of Palm Beach has a very professional police department. We all consider Mike to be our peer and a man of integrity.”¶
Juno Beach Police Chief agreed. Although he doesn’t know well, he has met with him on countywide law enforcement issues. “I’ve never seen him lose his cool. I’ve never seen anything but a professional demeanor from him.”¶
joined the Palm Beach Police Department in 1981, leaving a $20,000-a-year patrol job at the University of Pittsburgh. His personnel jacket shows consistently excellent job evaluations.¶
Posh Palm Beach is no hotbed of crime, and in his first year on the job, a resident confined to his home with a sick child thanked for delivering a few Cokes to the house. refused payment for the beverages. Another resident thanked for shutting off his car’s headlights in his driveway, saying a valet must have been at fault.¶
worked everything from road patrol to organized crime, vice and narcotics. And he’s no novice at investigations involving the island’s rich and famous. He was the lead detective probing the drug overdose death of David Kennedy in 1984. He also was one of the officers who worked the investigation of William Kennedy Smith, who was charged in 1991 — and later acquitted — with raping a woman at the Kennedy family compound in Palm Beach.¶
who has a master’s degree in human resource development from Palm Beach Atlantic University, also has attended the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Va., and management courses at Harvard. He’s been active in countywide interagency law enforcement organizations and has a “top secret” national security clearance.¶
“He has a perspective that’s broader than just addressing the needs of the town,” said Town Manager who promoted from assistant chief to chief in March 2001. makes more than $144,000 as the town’s top cop. Elwell thinks he’s worth it.¶
“He’s very businesslike, very straightforward. He’s not easily agitated or flamboyant. He’s about the work,” Elwell said. “I think that his service as chief has been outstanding in five-plus years.”¶
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