LINK & ROCKENBACH, PA 1555 Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard, Suite 301 West Palm Beach, Florida 33401 (561) 727-3600; (561) 727-3601 [fax]
Gs'
nkrocklaw.com Scott J. Link (FBN 60299 Kara Berard Rockenbac 44903) Angela M. Many (Frt2 Primary: Scott@lin ocklAiw.com Primary: Ka inkrocklaw.com Primary: Second Seco Eservice(alinkrocklaw.com
By. Is/ Scott J. Link
(S; 'i Counsel for Plaintiff/Counter-Defendant ffrey Epstein
**SERVICE LIST**
| Jack Scarola
Searcy, Denny, Scarola, Barnhart & Shipley, P.A.
2139 Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard
West Palm Beach, FL 33409
mep@searcylaw.com
jsx@searcylaw.com
scarolateam@searcylaw.com
Co-Counsel for Defendant/Counter-Plaintiff
[REDACTED] J. [REDACTED]
| Nichole J. Segal
Burlington & Rockenbach, P.A.
Courthouse Commons, Suite 350
444 West Railroad Avenue
West Palm Beach, FL 33401
njs@FLAppellateLaw.com
kbt@FLAppellateLaw.com
Co-Counsel for Defendant/Counter-Plaintiff
[REDACTED] J. [REDACTED]
|
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| [REDACTED] J. [REDACTED]
Pottinger LLC
425 N. Andrews Avenue, Suite 2
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301-3268
brad@epllc.com
staff.efile@pathtojustice.com
Co-Counsel for Defendant/Counter-Plaintiff
[REDACTED] J. [REDACTED] | Marc S. Nurik
Law Offices of Marc S. Nurik
One E. Broward Boulevard, Suite 700
Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33301
marc@nuriklaw.com
Counsel for Defendant Scott Rothstein
|
| Tonja Haddad Coleman
315 S.E. Seventh Street, Suite 301
Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33301
tonja@tonjahaddad.com
efiling@tonjahaddad.com
Co-Counsel for Plaintiff/Counter-Defendant
Jeffrey Epstein
| Fred Haddad
Haddad & Navarro, PLLC
1 Financial Plaza, Suite 2612
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33394
dee@haddadandnavarrolaw.com
Co-Counsel for Plaintiff/Counter-Defendant
Jeffrey Epstein
|
| Jack A. Goldberger
Atterbury, Goldberger & Weiss, P.A.
250 Australian Avenue S., Suite 1400
West Palm Beach, FL 33401
jgoldberger@agwpa.com
smahoney@agwpa.com
Co-Counsel for Plaintiff/Counter-Defendant
Jeffrey Epstein
| |
IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE FIFTEENTH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT, IN AND FOR PALM BEACH COUNTY, FLORIDA
Case No. 502009CA040800XXXXMB
JEFFREY EPSTEIN,
Plaintiff/Counter-Defendant,
vs.
SCOTT ROTHSTEIN, individually; , individually,
Defendants/Counter-Plaintiffs.
# AS TRANSCRIPT O
?c/2d1:4e r
DATE TAKEN: day, March 8th, 2018 TIME: p.m. - 4:50 p.m. PLACE 5 N. Dixie Highway, Room 10D est Palm Beach, Florida BEFORE: Donald Hafele, Presiding Judge
(..Se lS'ivillIr
Ai'...) k This cause came on to be heard at the time and ace aforesaid, when and where the following oceedings were reported by:
Cos
Elaine V. Palm Beach Reporting Service, Inc. 1665 Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard, Suite 1001 West Palm Beach, FL 33401 (561) 471-2995
1 APPEARANCES:
2 For Plaintiff/Counter-Defendant:
3 4 LINK & ROCKENBACH, P.A. 1555 Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard, Suite 301 West Palm Beach, FL 33401 By KARA BERARD ROCKENBACH, ESQUIRE By SCOTT J. LINK, ESQUIRE
6 7 8 9 For Defendant/Counter-Plaintiff: SEARCY, DENNEY, SCAROLA, BARNHART SHIPLEY, P.A. 2139 Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard West Palm Beach, FL 33409 By JACK SCAROLA, ESQUIRE By DAVID P. VITALE JR., ESQUIRE By KAREN TERRY, ESQUIRE cos
10 11 For Non-Parties L.M., E.W. ta e
12 13 HATCH, JAMES & DODGE 10 West Broadway, 4 0 Salt Lake City, 1 By PAUL G. CASS QUIRE
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15 For Jeffrey E t\*
16 17 ATTERB Y, DBERGER & WEISS, P.A. 250 Aus a ian Ave. South, Suite 1400 We Palm Beach, FL 33401 By fOrA. GOLDBERGER, ESQUIRE
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### PROCEEDINGS
THE COURT: Thank you. Welcome back everybody. Have a seat.
MR. SCAROLA: May I move to this podium now?
THE COURT: Sure.
MR. SCAROLA: Thank you, sir.
Your Honor, have we decided what going to hear? we're
THE COURT: Yes. My and was going to be Motion in Limine Addre Evidence, and of nding as I left upplement to cope of Admissible that same vein Epstein's Notice of Servi of nredacted Appendix in Support -- e nse in Opposition to Second S plem ntal Motion in Limine addressing Scop of A issible Evidence.
. SCAROLA: Your Honor, there are actually a ul~nple submissions to the Court to deal with losely-related issues, and those issues arise out of the fact that over the course of the last three weeks 724 new exhibits have been added to the exhibit list of the defendant Epstein.
And just to provide some general background, some of which your Honor may recall, there was an
1 2 3 4 6 7 8 9 exhibit list filed by Mr. Epstein on November 16, 2017. That same exhibit list was attached to the pretrial stipulation on December 22, 2017. And then for the first time on March 5th of 2018 the new exhibit list was filed. If you compare the .44.2k exhibit lists of November 16th and December nd, which, as I said, are the same, with the t ch 5L, exhibit list, 25 new exhibits -- - 724 new exhibits were added. excu
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 Your Honor held a hearin this matter on December 5th and made it exhibits that were not December -- and I all parties that sed by the end of may have been the December 22 dat --ahn not sure about that exact Ze (C ) date -- but x i ' s that were not specifically disclose wo not be permitted to be used at tria You made it clear that catchall listings w ld unacceptable; that specific individual x Au, C5 'bits needed to be listed. I'm sure your Honor as a recollection of those circumstances. And that, obviously, is a fairly standard order that your Honor adheres to in connection with trial practice.
24 25 THE COURT: What I just wanted to point out is in conjunction with what we're going to be
eventually talking about, we're now dealing with the Motion to Strike Epstein's Untimely Supplemental Exhibits and to Strike All Exhibits and Any Reference to Documents Containing Privileged Materials Listed on ' Privilege Log.
MR. SCAROLA: Yes, sir.
THE COURT: That led into what I bed earlier of the motions that will on the table.
MR. SCAROLA: That's cor And that's why I acknowledged, your Hono we're really dealing with a number ely-related motions.
So the first a procedural issue; and that is, whethe ou Honor is going to allow the listing and sg 724 new suggesti e Court is that that is a threshold exhibits. And my issu that really helps to resolve much of what f lou because if, as a matter of procedure, those 72 ew exhibits are not going to be used, then uch of the rest of the argument becomes irrelevant. There are, however, very significant substantive issues if the procedural determination does not dispose of the use of those exhibits.
THE COURT: These exhibits specifically were added when?
1 2 MR. SCAROLA: They were added by a new list filed on March 5th of 2018.
3 4 6 7 THE COURT: Okay. Just to put this into perspective, March 5th would have been Monday of this week, today being March 8th, and the trial starting on March 13th, presuming it begins a scheduled.
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 MR. SCAROLA: Yes, sir. But I take it clear that while the 724 were neve li ted on a prior exhibit list before Mar some of those documents were disclosed er the past three weeks. So I am not su g to your Honor that the first notice w an intent to attempt to use these docu4 is s March 5. The first notice we got of a 17 1 document disclosures to attempt to use some of these ed some three weeks ago as new were sent to us.
18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 AAd again, this is from memory, but I think O hie may have been three separate groups of w71?°6 ocuments that were sent to us not covering all of the 724. And obviously, your Honor knows from the materials that you have reviewed much attention was focused on documents that we contend and have contended for eight years are privileged documents. Documents listed on a very specific privilege log.
1 2 3 And those are 45 of the 724 newly-listed documents. And those documents were brought to our attention just last week.
4 6 7 8 9 So my suggestion to your Honor is that we deal first with the procedural issue because, as I said, that will narrow issues significantly. there will still remain some substantiv ue with regard specifically to any attem e of privileged materials.
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 Now, your Honor heard fr th opposing counsel that I have accus of having stolen the documents. I assu Honor that that's not the case. I have sed them of having stolen the documents. at have said in repeated communicati s hat these are stolen documents. And thes do u ents, if your Honor has had an oppo unity to look at the timeline, were very at this point handed over by the bankruptcy for one purpose and one urpose only; and that was to print them out, • stamp them so that they could be turned over for privilege review by the Jaffe law firm, including specifically Brad
24 25 THE COURT: Let me stop you there so we can put this in context.
Joe Ackerman, as I recollect, was representing Mr. Epstein for some period of time, and he was at that juncture associated with the firm in some capacity.
MR. SCAROLA: Yes, sir. That's correct.
THE COURT: So if I'm understanding th's correctly then, the bankruptcy court to C. th documents over to
0 MR. SCAROLA: Did your Honor ant me to get into that now? I'm happy to at.
THE COURT: So that tand. I know during a very tumultuo od of time these would be the Rothstein f' ployee.
MR. SCAROA% Yea, sir. Let me go through sme this and gi o a quick overview, although all the deta provided in the timeline that I prov ed to your Honor.
V t happened was that almost immediately CSol'lowing the implosion of the Rothstein, osenfeldt, Adler firm a trustee was appointed by the bankruptcy court to take control of the firm, and that trustee took control of all of the firm's files and all of the firm's electronic data, including all of its e-mail servers. So it is the trustee that had possession of all of these
'elek
e-mails.
Mr. Epstein through counsel, and at this point it was the firm, issued a subpoena in our civil litigation, then pending in front of Judge, for the trustee to produce all of the e-mails. Judge Ray, to whom that subpoena referred, Judge Ray appointed Judge Car special to make a determinatio i tb what could appropriately be turned over bec use obviously these were e-mails related to a wide variety of cases. It was ire contents of the e-mail server of R Rosenfeldt, Adler, and it was recogni those e-mails could contain attorne li t and work product privileged materials. ge Carney was appointed a special a determination as to what should and tld be turned over and report back to Judge
0 Judge Carney gets 27,000 e-mails and Judge arney says, "I don't have an appreciation as to what may be privileged here. We need to come up with a procedure so that I can be advised of what privilege assertions are being raised." So Judge Carney says, "I want what was then the newly-formed law firm that Mr. is working in, I want
1 Jaffe, Weissing, Fistos and Lehrman"
2 THE COURT: Jaffe, right?
3 MR. SCAROLA: Yes. Jaffe.
4 THE COURT: We can just refer to them as Jaffe.
6 7 8 9 10 MR. SCAROLA: All right. "I want Farm r Jaffe to go through these e-mails and prepare iv ege log. Let me know what's privileged h d then I'll make a determination as to wh going to get turned over."
11 12 13 14 15 16 documents t enters a The response from Mr c through me is this is 27,000 e-mails ant them, they should be responsible for g them and stamping them and delive gStose printed and stamped AllZ7e r our review. And Judge Ray
17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 nd Judge Ray says in his order -- and it's n relevant part at the bottom of the first of this timeline -- Judge Ray says the law irm of will print a hard copy of all the documents contained on the disks with numbers added and will provide a set of copied, stamped documents to the special and an identical set to, who will use the same to create its privilege log.
And Judge Ray, federal bankruptcy Judge Ray, says, ' will not retain any copies of the documents contained on the disk provided to it nor shall any images or copies of said documents be retained in the memory of copiers. c Should it be determined that o Epstein retained images or copies of th je t documents on its computer or otherwis Court retains jurisdiction to award sanc ion in favor of, Brad or his c
So it was obvious th was to happen at that point was they we ke over the ministerial task a • rs of the court of bearing the exp turn these documents over to Jaff a rad for purposes of preparin a p ilege log.
CO RT: For lack of a better metaphor, wasn't that a fox in a henhouse type of tion?
MR. SCAROLA: Well, sir, were these not officers of the court, the answer to that question is yes. These were adversaries who were being given control over these documents, but they were adversaries who had a sworn duty to follow the Court's direction. And we had every reason to
1 2 3 believe that this respected law firm and these respected lawyers would do exactly what they were told to do.
4 6 7 Now, we know that the disk that contained that information, as has been conceded by Epstein's counsel, was formatted on December 10 -- expuSe me -- December 8th of 2010.
8 9 THE COURT: What do you mean by ) formatted? AS. k was
10 11 12 C. c, MR. SCAROLA: What I mea the documents on that disk were divided in different categories.
13 THE COURT: AS was December 10?
14 MR. SCARO D ember 8th of 2010.
15 THE CO '1< • Zr hank you.
16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 MR. after being ordered not to retain any copies adisk that is formatted by is the disk that is now in the possession of effrey Epstein and Jeffrey Epstein's counsel. And it contains without a doubt those documents that we identify on a privilege log that is generated as a consequence of that process. It contains those privileged and attorney work product e-mails. And that assertion of privilege has never been So within approximately one week
overruled.
THE COURT: Did the Special Magistrate Carney or Judge Ray ever hold a hearing to determine the nature of the privilege? Was that ever called up for a hearing?
MR. SCAROLA: What happened, your Hono, is that Judge, when he learned of the circumstances of what was going on in ba ptcy court, communicated to Judge Carne his subpoena was issued in my case. work you are doing, it is RY AV While sect you and the relevant and material se and it is my job to determine issue vilege in my case." That short circuited e rk that was going on in the bankruptcy u t and Judge Carney never issued any rulings regard. to decide what is
his +Court t hen became a matter over which Judge exercising jurisdiction to determine how ubpoena issued in the Circuit Court State case, how that subpoena was going to be responded to. So our privilege log goes to Judge
> And there's some back and forth about whether the privilege log is or is not adequate, and there is a direction with regard to certain requests for
1 2 3 4 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 documents on the privilege log. Specifically, there is a Request Number 13, which asks for communications between Jaffe and the federal government and communications between Jaffe and any members of the press. And those are ordered turned over. And those are turned2vtr in full compliance with the Court's order.1 issues of privilege that were raised gard to both attorney-client and work prod ct rivilege never gets ruled on by Judge because before they are ruled on, a volu smissal is taken of the claims against ards.
13 14 15 16 17 18 19 So we have a i 'e log in place. It specifically li t se documents. Some of these c5 ) documents w e 1 ed as attorneys' eyes only. And that res is n has never been lifted. And some of t se documents are listed on the separate e log, and those restrictions have never lifted.
20 21 22 23 Now, in some of the communications that have gone on back and forth you may have seen reference to a disclosure to the Razorback defendants. Excuse me. The Razorback plaintiffs.
24 25 THE COURT: That was the litigation led by Mr. Scherer.
rivilege, will turn over anything that you consider ate for us to turn over. But we have no 'ty to waive our client's attorney-client your Honor, and some of these e-mails clearly contain information that originated with clients. And we are in the midst at this point of still-pending litigation, and it is important for us to protect our work product privilege as well. Some of that litigation is still ongoing right now.
MR. SCAROLA: That is correct. The Conrad Scherer firm was involved in that litigation, and the Conrad Scherer firm was also interested in getting to take a look at whatever relevant e-mails might have been in the hands of the bankruptcy trustee, and then got turned over to us.
Well, there were direct negotiatio w ich I was a personal participant with the s for Conrad Scherer, and an agreement s r ached with the lawyers for Conrad Schere ause, as we have told every judge before w ave appeared with regard to these matter not attempting to hide anything. Yo St o conduct an in-camera inspection, we t u to conduct an in-camera inspection c u it will confirm that we're not attempti to ide anything.
That's the Crime Victims Rights Act case.
So there is a very legitimate reason for us to be concerned about protecting both the work product privilege and the attorney/client privilege, particularly protecting it from Mr. Epstein, and particularly protecting it from Mr. Epstein n w that we know there was a clear violatio ► **th federal judge's order with regard to ter in which these materials were to be h ndl d.**
**Interestingly -- and I d know whether there's any relationship - but shortly after this disk is imp retained by, that e inds up withdrawing from the case. So t 'r gone. And apparently the disk sits tt r years until a request is made to turn of files.**
**nd what we have been told is ki!pv tia y, for whatever reason, resists that rie est, but Mr. Link and associates go down to Nhjiami, they review files, they get their hands on this disk. There is a significant delay between their appearance in the case and when they finally go to look at the files. Then there's a two-week delay between looking at the files and receiving the disk. And then**
1 2 there's a two-week delay between receiving the disk and starting to
3 THE COURT: Excuse me just a minute.
4 Bailiff, see what may be transpiring outside, please. Pardon me. Off the record.
6 (Discussion held off the record.)
7 THE COURT: Go ahead. I apologize. 464r
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 MR. SCAROLA: Your Honor, in the 1 scheme of things, I don't think th t those delays make very much difference at the lawyers who, as your Ns noted, announced to the Court that they oing to be ready for trial 90 days late d ere it is just weeks before this cas s out to begin that they are 7e first revie n 1 boxes, or over 30 boxes of files. gh ave been 31. I think 36 is the numb B boxes of files that never even got r i by them. But these are
19 20 21 22 23 24 25 So those are matters of significant concern to s. But the matter of greatest concern is that once it becomes apparent that these are documents that are listed on our privilege log, a privilege that has never been challenged, a privilege that remains in place, and we notify opposing counsel here is our privilege log, here are the numbers,
the numbers of these documents on that privilege log, you have an obligation, an ethical obligation, to turn them over to us, to turn them over now, and to make no use of those documents unless and until you have a court order that says otherwise. You need to tell us where did y u get them, when did you get them, how did yo t em, to whom have you distributed them? Aid e are questions that we still don't have ans ered.
What we get from the oth, de is, "Well, they could have come from ey could have maybe come from there, maybe me from someplace else, we don't kno ." A if they don't know where S o they came from t t source is clearly a proper 1 7., t v the burden in overcoming this ion to prove a waiver if they cont d any waiver existed. source, the privileg
wasn't with regard to Conrad Scherer se when those documents were turned over to onrad Scherer -- and we have the letters that confirm the written agreement with every detail of that agreement in place -- those were turned over as part of a common interest privilege with an express representation it was attorneys' eyes only, with an express representation they would be turned
over to no one. Indeed, when they got turned over to Conrad Scherer, they were originally turned over with a confidentiality watermark on every document.
And then they contacted us back again and said, "We're trying to OCR all of these documents so that they are searchable, and we can't d hat with the watermark on them. Can you pl pr vide us with another copy without a waterm ' And we did that; again, trusting these offers of the And we have ad Scherer did. court to abide by their agree every reason to believe At \\ t They were not the sour
ib The obvious s 8s, , ased have been able Whit after th now upon what we e together, is very clearly roper retention of this material een expressly ordered by the federal court not to retain any of it.
, every representation I have made to the Copo t, everything that is included on this timeline an be established through documents that pinpoint the dates and the identity of involved and the character of was made and every disclosure the individuals every disclosure that that was withheld. It has taken a substantial effort to put all of this together again. We have been working on this
many, many, many hours. But the subject of appropriate sanctions is a subject for another day except to this extent: We need to know who has access, who has had access to this confidential material. We need to know if there's some intent to call a witness who may have been given apcSss to this confidential material. We need to the lawyers involved. of
And Mr. Cassell is going to a dre s from the perspective of the clients th cern that they have about being informed Q ow their confidences have been d. So with your A Y Honor's permission I SS o d like him to have an opportunity to re the Court briefly on that topic.
THE What I'd like to do, though, is allo defense counsel to be able to speak to the d Binger analysis dealing with the late Clii closure, because if Mr. Scarola is right and at is that these exhibits were listed for the first time in March, which would have been three days ago, and discussed perhaps within the last few weeks, then we would have essentially a Binger issue to analyze. So Miss Rockenbach, go ahead and proceed in that respect, please.
4. ?bk
(:)-mail 04408; MS. ROCKENBACH: This is the stamp an e-mail from to Paul Cassell, October 17, 2009.
'le
MS. ROCKENBACH: Thank you, your Honor. I am certain that this courtroom is a place where we are searching for truth and not hiding evidence, whether it is evidence that causes conclusion by this Court that there is no case to be tried. And for the first time after four days of n e use that word --
MR. SCAROLA: Excuse me. I'm so f this is one of the privileged e-mails, assume it probably is, your Honor has e d an order sealing these documents, press is present. It is being displayed Qm tly in violation of ethical obligation \\ r inquish possession of 44c, these documents
Ag e t THE CO • r1 1 right. In lieu of publication in open ur by don't you just hand me the document making sure that counsel also has the is referenced with the correct stamp.
THE COURT: Okay. Is this an extra copy? MR. SCAROLA: Do we have an extra copy, please? There are literally thousands of e-mails we're dealing with.
1 2 MR. LINK: It's in the appendix that we've provided you.
3 4 THE COURT: I'm familiar with it from reading the materials myself and I could probably put my hands on it.
6 7 MR. LINK: It's in the appendix, your or. Appendix 1.
8 MR. VITALE:
9 E. TERRY: 04408.
10 MS. ROCKENBACH: That's ' Thank you.
11 12 THE COURT: And I hay oo. I can get my hands on it pretty eas hink.
13 14 MR. CASSELL: nor, if I could just be heard just brie
15 16 THE CO o ahead and introduce yourself to our new ur eporter.
17 18 CA SELL: Paul Cassell on behalf of three LM, EW and Jane Doe.
19 20 21 We'd like the record to be clear that we're oining public disclosure or reference to these documents. in the objection to any
22 23 THE COURT: Well, reference and public disclosure are two different things, Mr. Cassell.
24 25 MR. CASSELL: I'm sorry. Any disclosure of the contents or the substance of these documents.
1 2 THE COURT: Outside of the Court's review? Are you objecting to my review?
3 4 MR. CASSELL: No. We're not waiving any privileges, but we don't want there to be any public reference to the contents.
6 7 8 THE COURT: All right. Thank you for h t clarification. So let me go ahead and Nyland put my hands on --
9 10 11 O MS. ROCKENBACH: Your Honor, cap give you AV the copy that Terry noted was 8. I don't need it.
12 THE COURT: Okay fine.
13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 SrS? MS. ROCKENBAC . h purpose of me putting this particular ec of evidence, which I've been asked on mu ' 1 occasions by Mr. Scarola to destroy arrage of e-mails over the past four ays, m handing it to the Court as evidence o Ac h. no 'nger surprise. It can't be Binger surprise rt . if he is authoring an e-mail with egard to this very action that's pending before this Court about five to six weeks before Mr. Epstein sued him. So that can't be a surprise to Mr. It actually makes this case incredibly stronger for the issue of probable cause.
But more importantly, your Honor, it's about the truth. It's about the truth and the fact that over the past four days my professional integrity, my character has been impugned to the extent that very simply we told -- actually, I didn't respond to any single e-mail. For the record, Mr. responded to e-mails. I didn't want to on what I saw was escalating e-mails tha ed off with a demand that we destroy evid nce which I know as an officer of the cou cannot do, and a demand to disclose who, e. And we immediately did. Fowl
Then I had my al issue an affidavit that establishe ha of custody. I obtained the Fed Ex rece' t r the three boxes that contained this inc disk. And that's on file with the cour
o destroy evidence. I was called unethical more ct Sad t the e-mails did escalate, and we were -- no, demanded -- demanded on multiple times than four times, sanctions were mentioned, the words improper, unethical, six times, hid, disturbing, misdeeds. And then last, but not least, Mr. Scarola did in fact -- and this is not privileged -- did in fact send an e-mail indicating
1 2 3 4 6 that he didn't want a special, declined our request for one because it does not take a special to determine that stolen privileged documents -- this is for the first week, or the first time the week before trial -- are inadmissible. I disagree.
7 8 9 10 No court has looked at these e-mai An your Honor just asked that question, as really important, did Judge 1 ok t these in-camera and determine the p ege issue?
11 12 13 14 15 16 17 So I am very pleased gree with Mr. Scarola for the f ( ig e I heard just now a request or an agre ot even a request, an agreement that se hould be looked at in-camera. They absolu 1 ould be looked at in-camera because a iscerate Mr. Epstein's malicious pros ution case from proceeding.
18 19 eft COURT: Mr.
20 21 22 23 24 O But so disturbed was I by the barrage of e-mails, I reached out to the former ethics director of the Florida bar, a trusted colleague, Tim Chinaris. I have the affidavit. I don't know if your Honor has.
25 THE COURT: I don't remember seeing it.
MS. ROCKENBACH: It was very significant because I was being asked to destroy evidence, I was being called unethical for the first time in 23 years, and then I saw the word stolen, and honestly my heart was broken. So Mr. Chinaris has an affidavit that I've filed with the Court. e knows the information
AS THE COURT: Is that in this? MR. LINK: Your Honor, it's it thg package we delivered right before lunch.
I c THE COURT: Okay. tr at it. ACO lad to take a look
ASS" MS. ROCKENBAC . e as the ethics director for the Florida r r almost a decade, authoring Ac ime thousands o o i 'ons on legal ethics for lawyers facing ith regard to the rules of regulgting the Florida Bar.
of the rules that I was thinking about in of this hearing was 4-3.3 because both sides, (including Mr. , who happens to be party but should be held to a higher standard than just a simple party, has a duty to disclose candor toward the tribunal. That Florida 4-3.3 rule is very significant in this case because no one can advance false statements or positions to this Court.
lith,
1 2 3 These e-mails, your Honor, go to the very heart of this malicious prosecution case and whether it can proceed.
4 6 7 8 9 But returning to Mr. Chinaris, he had three opinions after reviewing the relevant documents, Auk speaking to both Mr. Link and myself, based o the escalating accusations over the course o ur days. And his three opinions are ref in paragraphs 29, 30 and 31.
10 11 12 13 14 Mr. Link and Miss Rocken• have acted in an ethically proper manner. s one. Number two, the documents in ^ were not inadvertently prov wrongfully obtained by Mr. Link and Mi Ro enbach --
15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 MR. SC . Excuse me. is going Your Honor, if this h into an evidentiary hearing with rega to t7ie ethical propriety of opposing s conduct, I object to this affidavit as Oc Day and I want to be able to cross-examine any thic s expert who is of the opinion that retaining privileged documents known to be privileged listed on a privilege log when there is no knowledge as to the source of those documents and a court order exists saying you're not allowed to have them, I want to cross-examine that expert.
THE COURT: Well, the objection is sustained in the sense that I really do want to, as I indicated earlier, continue to as best as we can conduct the proceedings in a way that befits the known integrity of not only the attorneys here before us but also the history that has bee pervasive in the 15th Judicial Circuit. I on't want this to dissolve into an ethical sion as to whether or not someone committe so e type of ethical violation. That's re not my focus today. And that focus is A perhaps at a different d even perhaps in a different forum. suited for others
(:%E"V Really wha as o be attempted to be divined today is so of representation by counsel for Mr. Epstein ash to what the source of these docu nts were.
ROCKENBACH: Yes, your Honor.
C THE COURT: Why were they preserved, how were t4jhey preserved, for what reason were they preserved, did that preservation violate or come close to violating an order of the bankruptcy court, has the privilege been waived? And then we get back again to the Binger analysis.
I did a quick word search, and the Fifth
testimony." So that's where we are als going to be focusing today. District provides us with some recent direction and assistance and talks about the issue of surprise. And it says, quote, "The opposing party also earlier attempted to exclude the surprise testimony by an unsuccessful motion in limine. Furthermore, is in the context of Binger refers t he A ' surprise in fact of the objecting partyS is not dependent upon the adverse nature of
But I don't want to ' a discussion as esponsibilities lates to the origin of ?4 0. how, if counsel' ; a re, these documents inclusive of the e the 724 y new exhibits being added formally to present counsel's SS unless we have to ' d particularly as it relates to for tjL first time on March 5th, just three days certainly outside of the Court's pretrial rapr in terms of timeliness, whether they onstitute prejudice. So let's try to focus there, if we could.
a lil li.
> And I understand, just so the record is clear, doing this for a long time both as a trial lawyer and as a judge, I understand how feelings can be hurt, I understand how people can take umbrage at
certain things that are said.
The beauty of being an experienced trial judge, if nothing else, is developing a thick skin. Sometimes I'll hear people say something and use my name and they don't even know I'm standing there.
MR. LINK: That wasn't me, was it, Jud e
THE COURT: No. And I understand th re are going to be instances where peopl oing to think that I'm the best in the wor d a d the absolute worst in the univers ve come to that rationale pretty quickly. k some time, but (;" it it was fairly quickly.A do understand. I illS don't want anyone i that I'm not pe compassionate t he xtent that I recognize that there have usations hurled here which may be minim l nsidered offensive and accusatory. But is move beyond that for now and let's get to some o the issues that I discussed earlier that we anytocus on relating to decisions that I'll have ao make concerning the potential admissibility of this evidence.
MS. ROCKENBACH: Thank you, your Honor. I appreciate that.
And we have established the chain of custody through the affidavit of Tina from our
office. So it is clear we did not improperly obtain them, nor were they inadvertently disclosed to us.
THE COURT: Tina is your paralegal?
MS. ROCKENBACH: Who obtained the three boxes, the three boxes from, which copctined that CD which is at issue.
THE COURT: I think the disconne having here today is not so much tke fact that Miss received the bo somebody got notice that the boxes wer
> A MS. ROCKENBACH: n issue.
THE COURT: at somebody did what they did. And there y e been an issue with regard to W t luntarily turning them over. Those ar s that can be dealt with later on. And ain, it may be a different forum than I'm ling with here today.
Xrly But what I'd like to know is how 0 ot the documentation, do we to know that, whether or not that documentation was obtained or retained in a manner that either was in violation of Judge Ray's order or walked a certain tightrope that could be construed as a constructive violation of that order. And if we know that, then it would go
tik
1 2 a long way in me trying to make a determination as it relates to Binger and its progeny.
3 MS. ROCKENBACH: Thank you.
4 THE COURT: So that's really where we need to focus.
6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 I have no problem and I don't think Mr. Scarola has any problem in terms of fa t that you all did your homework; albei% his position, late in the game, and se u re¢ this information from 1111110 question, though, is why ' er have these documents, why w continued to be held, and was it i t ion either expressly or constructively it elates to Judge Ray's order? e critical
15 16 17 MS. RO H: Thank you, your Honor. Mr. Link died this issue and will address that.
18 19 LINK: So, Judge, let me see if I can lldriify a couple of things.
20 21 22 23 24 25 First, these exhibits that we're talking about from the disk, they absolutely were just listed on our exhibit list. They were just located by us in the last week. However, on our exhibit list it's always been a general category, as Mr. Scarola said. The reason there are 749 specific exhibits
1 is the clerk required it. So --
2 THE COURT: The clerk required it?
3 MR. LINK: Specific. You have got to do
4 THE COURT: The clerk, you're saying? Or the Court?
6 MR. LINK: The Court.
7 8 THE COURT: II, okay. I thought yo re saying --
9 10 O MR. LINK: It's called the cl rk' exhibit list for the Court, but the C did it.
11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 THE COURT: So in co n with an order that I had made earlie e proceeding that I was not going to a grieral catchall types of exhibit identif I required that each and every exhib' e pecifically listed. And we've gone thr gh riad exhibits in our quest to dete ine whether or not, for example, the Fifth dm t privilege is going to be recognized and r issues having to do with admissibility. And at was generally followed, to my recollection, because I dealt with many specifically identifiable exhibits. So yes, I agree that that was something that the Court had a specific interest in and has always taken the position that all cards are going to be on the table in a timely fashion so that,
number one, first and foremost once all the cards are on the table, the law favors settlement, and it may come to fruition, and has more often than not resulted in an amicable resolution to a case. And as importantly, both sides are adequately prepared so that, as I mentioned in this Pollard cas no one is unduly surprised by something th me before them at or near the beginning i 1.
that. MR. LINK: Yes, sir. So that
The second thing I Court is that Mr. Edwa filed exhibits aft )Point out to the the same thing and rder, just like we did. And I'm not com in g --
THE CO • ell, if you're not complaining about it
LINK: The reason I want to explain is in our pretrial stip I'm of the mindset we reach agreement, we have an agreement. Arc n our agreement, your court order says no additional exhibits unless the parties agree. In the pretrial stip Mr. Scarola and I agreed we reserved our right to add additional exhibits. So in compliance with the pretrial stip and this Courts' order requiring us to identify them, we've
1 been doing that, sir.
2 THE COURT: Okay.
3 4 MR. LINK: So we are not in violation of the Court's order. Mr. Scarola and I again agreed to do this.
6 7 8 So let's talk about becau e it A is as clear as mud. It is not as clear as Sc rola says. Here is why. If you look at h
9 10 THE COURT: That metaphor, I sure I understand clear as mud.
11 12 13 14 MR. LINK: It's not ASS It's not clear, frankl . t is not as simple %1/2 " and clear as Mr. S a ays. And I want to show you why. cThat's the point.
15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 I hone 1 nnot tell you, I can't, where ti. cam hat end up in file. I can. . Vie have looked for every piece of ation, correspondence, we've gone through boxes three times trying to answer that uestion. We have reached out to lawyers for They have no memory of it. So we, like Mr. Scarola --
23 24 THE COURT: Excuse me. Is Mr. Ackerman still actively practicing?
25 MR. LINK: He is, yes. And we reached out to
1 2 Joe Ackerman. Mr. Ackerman. Sorry. We reached out to Mr. Ackerman.
3 4 Here is why it's confusing. And I think this is really important to understand what happened.
6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 When the trustee took over the files, there was an understanding by Mr. and his rm that there would be about 5,000 e-mails t ey agreed to do a -- go through them and privilege log. What's missing fro Mr Scarola's timeline is that in November informed the bankruptcy court stee had produced 74,000, 74,000 pages o ents on two compact disks. Not one. that
14 15 16 17 18 So then wh Mr. we need ened, because of the volume, firm goes in and says, "Judge, We did not know we were going to g 74,600 pieces of paper and we need time to through them."
19 20 THE COURT: I may have lost you. The 74,000 k,...)ages were self-generated from the Rothstein firm?
21 22 MR. LINK: Yes. And delivered by the trustee to Mr.
23 24 25 THE COURT: And Mr. , you're suggesting, indicated that they need more time to review the e-mails or whatever documents --
| 2 | THE COURT: -- they may have encompassed, and |
| --- | -------------------------------------------- |
| 3 | to raise objections, and that forum was the |
| 4 | bankruptcy court. |
4 bankruptcy court.\
5 MR. LINK: All this started in the bankruptcy\
6 court.
6 court.\
7 So when Mr. Scarola says there was one disk\
8 produced by the trustee with 27,000 e-mails on it,\
9 that's not true. There are two disks and there's\
10 74,000 e-mails. That's what Mr. Edwards\
11 represented to the Court. I haven't seen these\
12 disks, but that's what Mr. Edwards represented.
12 disks, but that's what Mr. Edwards represented.
13 So what happens after that is there is a
14 complicated negotiation between the [REDACTED] [REDACTED]
15 firm and Mr. Farmer, on behalf of the [REDACTED] Jaffe
16 firm, about how are they going to take these
17 documents, which are not [REDACTED] stamped, not [REDACTED]
18 stamped, and they wanted a hard copy to review so
19 they could make a privilege log, but they didn't
20 want to pay for it. The trustee didn't want to pay
21 for it.
22
21 for it.\
22 Mr. Epstein volunteered with the special\
23 [REDACTED] -- actually, [REDACTED] [REDACTED] -- but\
24 Mr. Epstein's counsel volunteered that they would\
25 use their machine to print out, print out from the
1 MR. LINK: Correct.
disk that had no stamps on them, documents, and Mr. agreed to that.
So they print the documents out -- long before our time, Judge -- they print the documents out, a set is given back to the trustee, and a set is given to Jaffe. The machine that pr'n s it, according to the magistrate and all the communications, doesn't retain any im o we start with two disks. To make it there was three. One had a pp6 m. with two disks and 74,000 complicated, But let's go
They print them opt d copy documents. One to the trustee Jaffe. The magistrate want clay, and so you will see the magistrate 4 disks: One with 25,000 images on it an ith -- I can't tell you how many imag because the special says, "I didn't (4c:2 a it."
I think -- this is Scott Link guessing -- I ant to be clear about this -- I think the disk that ends up at was the special disk. And here is why I think that: A, it was in a file that said Special . B none of which makes sense to me until we put this together. B, there's a hearing where Mr. Scarola
0ti,k
YY
1 2 3 4 6 7 8 says to him, "You, special, review all these documents." Just like he said here, he said it ten times, "We have nothing to hide. You decide what should be turned over." The trail goes cold. I can't find a letter or communication from the special that says, "I looked. Here h y are." But I know this: The disk that w en to to copy had no sta
9 10 11 12 13 When you look at the judge's rde from Judge Ray that Mr. Scarola pointed it says will print a hard c 11 the documents contained on the disk es numbers added. That's how they we ASS i to do it.
14 15 16 S THE COURT: n nd hat disk, I presume, that f, you're allu did have numbers on them. I'm talk' t the individual documents.
17 18 19 20 21 R. L K: Yes, sir. They're all s mp itrolpe e . So they were not the disks 'ded -- again, I can't say they're not. I'm a t ?l,, of testifying. This is Scott Link's forensic review.
22 23 24 25 THE COURT: But again, Mr. Link, respectfully -- and I appreciate you're trying to put together and piece together something that transpired seven years ago -- the problem still
1 2 3 4 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 remains the same. Frankly, it doesn't really matter to this Court what format it was, who formatted it or to whom it was supposed to be intended. I'm sure there may be cases even after this Worley case that we'll be talking about tomorrow at length at the bar conference, b that case stands for the proposition globall Q th sanctity in that particular case of t attorney/client privilege to somet ing so rudimentary as whether or not ttorney referred a client to a given docto eatment. And the Supreme Court has clea ed that information is privileged and \\1 n be divulged.
14 15 s MR. LINK: 5, ir. I was just trying to answer your u 14441 s ; : en about the disk.
16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 Okay. So the point that I'm tryi to make is when I'm saying it really doesn't tter all of those other details, what matters to THE + a h sanctity of those documents, for lack of a better term, the protection of those documents at Court is, again, Judge Ray's order relative to e all costs, and that shall not with the threat of sanctions retain any of those documents.
24 25 It says here, "Should it be determined that or Epstein" -- so not only does it go
1 2 3 4 to, but it goes to Epstein -- and constructively, if not explicitly, by this order extends to Mr. Epstein's legal representatives, from this Court's interpretation.
16 17 18 19 MR. LINK: And I th that. The bankruptcy court r e that. What I'm suggesting to t Co t is I don't think it's as clear as Mr S a la said. And he may go to Judge Ray and dge ay will have a hearing. Based on what ;e've ooked at, I don't believe it's as clear t t t what they did because it's possible, 1 4: 40e upon what I've read
20 THE COURT: That did?
21 MR. LINK: Yes.
22 23 THE COURT: So are you suggesting to me that -- so that I'm understanding correctly
24 25 MR. LINK: Yes, sir. I'm not here representing .
MR. LINK: Yes, sir.
THE COURT: "Should it be determined t a or Epstein retained images, op es of the subject documents on its compu otherwise, the Court retains juris ict on to award sanctions in favor of client," end quote. or his
THE COURT: I understand. But you're here representing Mr. Epstein, who by virtue of this order that is being highlighted in part on the ELMO, that did what it was supposed to do pursuant to that order, returned everything that it was supposed to return, but through some happenstance had the disk containing they information that was the source of Ju order and somehow, therefore, shou d b exonerated by virtue of the fact that be we really don't know how may tten it, but assuming it should have done, miraculously this ns up in files and hence s uld essentially ignore the A4I;F, dictates of h der?
MR. the urt. Let me make sure you understand what's x ,sdt:i disk. o, sir. And I think I've confused
0
The 27,550 pages on this disk, we've only ooked at 5,000 of them, okay? Of those 5,000, I will represent to you and you can look at them -- I don't believe any and I know none that we attached -- were communications between an attorney and a client.
I asked Mr. Cassell and I asked Mr. Scarola to
identify by number if there are any attorney/client communications and we would segregate them. The response I got, every page is an attorney/client communication. So that's one.
THE COURT: But that's not what this order says, Mr. Link. The order doesn't say anyt 1 g about privileged documents.
ACt MR. LINK: Judge, I understand t t.
THE COURT: The order says th AC) will not retain any copies of documents contained on the disk prov it nor shall any the memory of Fowl i s copies. And we images or copies of sa w ents be retained in s, A r. already went th gh he sanctions. wler White
MR. LI t we don't know -- here is the disconne don't know as we sit here that the disk hat we located there wasn't handed to them by cia Carney after Mr. Scarola gave him O 'ob and said look at it and give them whatever ou think is okay because the majority of the documents we've looked at have to deal with scheduling and sporting events and going out drinking and all kinds of things. It is not a group of documents that are on the privilege log.
Here is the second thing we learned --
1 2 3 4 THE COURT: And is that going to serve as the conduit to attempt to admit these documents into evidence in the face of the order that I have just read?
6 MR. LINK: Your Honor, I see the order. What I'm trying to get across -- I'm doing a lousy job.
7 THE COURT: No, you're not.
8 MR. LINK: -- is that I can't to
9 10 THE COURT: Try to get to the poi t that I'm really --
11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 MR. LINK: I don't t ct we can conclude today that this disk i It of their violating this order. This ld have been as a result of the special to looking at it and saying, "I don't see c n tions between attorney/client, I believe been a waiver of the work product base on giving it to Razorback, issue injection, these issues have been raised."
19 20 21 22 23 24 25 THE COURT: So now you're suggesting that 0 t±k. ormer Judge Carney, to my knowledge a very well respected jurist who presided in the Circuit Court in Broward County, to my knowledge, and has done senior work here in the 15th Judicial Circuit somehow engaged in some type of ex parte communications with
1 2 3 4 MR. LINK: Judge, I can't because I've looked. I have searched. I'm not saying that at all. All I can piece together is that Mr. Scarola asked Special Carney to do that.
5 6 7 8 9 10 This disk, when we got -- we put a sticker on it. We went and looked at boxes and put stsc ers on things. The disk said Epstein Al p. Had no idea what was on it. Looked like ng we should put a sticker on. It came n, xhe disk, and we started looking at it.
11 12 13 14 15 When these issues ca asked tS ci to please give u h aginal boxes. We got \\ the original boxes f nd the disk in a folder that says J. Ca y inting on it. That's it. That's all a ' n this folder.
16 17 18 19 20 21 22 The watermarks, there's no conf' entia ity agreement, there's no stamps on the ume ts. They are stamped and there's a in there. So what I'm s if we're rying to figure out whether violated the order, I don't think it's as c ear as Mr. Scarola says.
23 24 25 Now, I wasn't there. I can't tell you what they did, Judge. But I do know this: Many of the documents that are on this disk and that are on
1 2 3 4 their privilege log have been used in this litigation. They have been used. They have produced some. They're exhibits that Mr. has asked about and answered that are on this privilege log. There's over a hundred of them.
6 7 8 9 10 11 A So this disk is not a disk of their pr'v leged documents. It's a disk of 27,500 docum . nd what's the most important part of thi s dge never held an in-camera. No udicially has looked at these. And tha here we need to be.
12 13 14 15 16 iO I don't think any 's matters. What matters is we have \\r ords, this Court shou de rmine they're relevant, see if there's i 'lege and see if that privilege has been aive That should be the process. they're relevant,
17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Co RT: On Thursday afternoon, which is be taken up by additional argument, where y I'm a committed member to the Bench Bar, as s encouraged not only by the 15th Judicial Circuit and Fourth District Court of Appeal but also by our local Bar Association, of which many of you are prominent members here, so you know that commitment must be taken seriously, and I do take it seriously, and then Friday I'm booked up with
1 2 3 4 hearings on other matters of the 14- to 15 hundred files that I'm carrying in this division, of which this is but one, with the trial to commence on the morning of Tuesday, the 13th of March.
6 7 8 9 THE COURT: That's a big endeavor. Thytj is an endeavor that is beyond this Court's ab C ' s!' physically and from a time perspectiv I'm not going to do that.
10 11 12 C MR. LINK: Your Honor, I that you don't have the time. I have of em a special . They don't wa
13 THE COURT: too late.
14 15 MR. LINK: Apt dge, the truth is never too late.
16 THE Please don't interrupt me.
17 I apologize for that.
18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 COURT: Protocol dictates the orderly istration of justice and, correspondingly, the rderly preparation for trial. That preparation - and you'll be surprised when it comes to larger cases like this -- not only applies to counsel and their team of attorneys that the respective side have, but it also applies to the singular individual who is responsible for this orderly
MR. LINK: Yes, sir.
presentation.
I often refer to a case that I printed directly from the Fourth District Court of Appeal, RJ Tobacco Company versus Calloway, and it talks about the trial judge's ultimate responsibility. There it was to ensure app o riate attorney behavior, but it talks also abo o t exercising its control of the litigat the trial, of important pretrial heari gs ike we're having here today, and talks this is especially true in length -takes cases and goes on to speak about court should and should not tolerat t comes to interruptions and other matte th don't necessarily befit the A e presentatio crherwise excellent counsel.
But was trying to communicate while we were speaking over each other is that this is the V son why courts have spoken to the issue of ly and reasonableness and preparation.
I can't speak to the matter in which this case has been prepared by counsel for Mr. Epstein over the last 3,000 and some odd days. I can, however, speak to what is before me now. Why someone before you and Miss Rockenbach got involved in this case -- because I saw Mr. Ackerman's name in this
matter in the four years that I've been presiding over this case -- I saw his involvement, I saw what he attempted to do. His timing was critical - whether his work was or wasn't is not for me to say, but certainly his time in which he spent in representing Mr. Epstein would have been cr cal to any successor counsel's involvement case.
0 Thankfully, for the purposes f m st of the decision-making that I do her the civil circuit courtroom I had experienc gained a significant amount of ce in a relatively quick amount of ti was baptism by fire, I think some woul al it. But I had opportunities e to get into urtroom long before others did who had experience level. Whether that was good or bad, the results speak for themselves. d have that opportunity. And to learn a deal, not so much from those who I work with, ut even more those who I work against, so to speak; my opposing counsel. The wealth of knowledge that I gained from how they did their work was astounding and something that I cherish even to this day. But what it taught me more than anything was that preparation is critical, whether
the case is a \$10,000 whiplash case or whether it's a \$10 million class action suit.
And the very essence of what's being brought to my attention today, where requests are made for in-camera inspections at a time that's essentially commencement of trial, a special 44ew two to three business days prior to the thousands of documents several days b h commencement of trial for the firs ti e, despite recalcitrance from Whi heir -- somebody reviewing their files app for the first time mere weeks before the going to court, those types of things ha held -- I was going to say in high reg, t what was meant by what I'm saying is pry Agf ion e material in getting to these e was nothing that I knew of despite agai what appears to be brief recalcitrance on the part to turn over the materials elves, this could have been done six months go, a year ago, two years ago, three years ago, four years ago, five years ago, six years ago, and it should have been done then. To bring these types of matters before the Court at this particular time is, in my view, inappropriate.
0 t ?l,,
Now, if this was newly-discovered evidence
1 2 3 4 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 that was not in the hands of Mr. Epstein's lawyers since 2009, whenever this all came to fruition, then I would say we'd have to take a different approach. But the very nature of the documents that we're talking about -- again, rightly or wrongly held -- were in fact held by ite, Epstein's counsel, at an incredible crud ; ti e in this process; and that being in and a 010, when the Rothstein firm imploded, these e-mails were apparently confi when somebody made the decision that in paying for the copy costs, they b a d over to . And if I h t of an incredulous tone to that stateme i s probably purposeful. A411:tr
15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 But th c remains, material Mr. Link, that these in the hands of Epstein's attorneys from he inception of the issue itself. And to now the Court with not five pages of documents ok at, but 27,000, or whatever that number -- it escapes me because of its shear mass -- is impossible and is not going to be countenanced here.
23 24 25 And I understand what you're going to tell me because I've gotten a flavor for some of these documents that have been provided.
1 MR. LINK: Yes, sir.
2 3 4 THE COURT: And that is that they are detrimental to the position taken by Mr. and that they are helpful to the position taken by Mr. Epstein.
6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 The issue, though, is one of whether t 2e protocol and the orderly administration 'us ice is going to be forsaken notwithstandi i the aspect of privilege and the sancti y o privileged communications, whether all o se considerations are going to be thrown ou alanced against material that has been hands of AS' Mr. Epstein's lawy S r day one. And I, for one, am not goi to acrifice protocol over what may or may t b number one, privileged, and if not priv certainly late disclosed documentation of a massive nature.
18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Should the amount of documentation be a citnminative factor in a court's analysis in this ontext, based upon 35 years of compound experience, bench and bar, and a little bit more now than half on the bench, I do not believe that the orderly administration of justice should be countenanced and should be disruptive. Should be disruptive.
And what I meant by that, should the destruction of the orderly administration of justice be countenanced? And the answer to that question, in my respectful view, is no. Because if I do it once, then I'm setting a precedent, even though I know trial courts traditionally do do that, according to case law. And forgiv f r my choice of words, but as someone who 1 for member now of the bench -- not a s op judge, but lc, a senior member of the bench at sends a message to my colleagues believe is the appropr not doing what I
MR. LINK: I~eSond, your Honor?
THE COURT: A
MR. LI 'rst I want to apologize. I did not mean in errupt the Court when you were spea
l4c, MR. LINK: Second, we're 7,000 pages, we're talking about 49 exhibits. There are only 49 exhibits that we are asking the Court to look at. So that it is not 27,000 pages. not talking about
0 Icl?S\`
> Third, I think most importantly I absolutely agree your Honor has a difficult, difficult weighing decision to make between staying on course
COURT: Not at all. Go ahead.
and what I think is more important than any of this, which is getting to the truth. And I believe in my heart, your Honor, the reason I'm so passionate about this and the reason I apologize for interrupting you is if this courtroom is looking for the truth, then those 49 document8 have got to come into court. They have got front of the jury.
0 THE COURT: But they're not c min in here, and I would hope elsewhere, i s going to be at the sacrifice not only as orderly administration of just also in derogation of a federal bankr urt's order or any court of recognized j tion's order that would have the necessa u rvisionary control of a given case, bu also at the potential extermination or derogation of a privilege. And for all of those why I am extremely reluctant to start g these things into consideration just a few ays prior to trial.
Again, if this was something that came into play that was being hidden by the other side, and I'm talking now generically, and your side discovered that information at the 11th hour, this would be an entirely different discussion. And
that's one of the things I want to emphasize for this record. But that's not the case.
As I mentioned -- and this is the last time I'll say it -- these documents have been in the possession of Mr. Epstein from the inception of this case as we know it. They didn't move. nd the problems that are inherent in this si, of which this Court simply does not have me to address prior to trial, are all of tho e reasons that I have just described to The disruption of the orderly administra justice, the sacrosanct nature of t lege, and of even S c more importance is said I wouldn't repeat; A; and that is, th at 11 times analysis, f t inception Epstein lawyers had this mat ialf . And, obviously, the timeliness, or the ect untimeliness of the request for the C rt w to take these matters into consideration, o (Ceifh they are well beyond when exhibits that were nown or should have been known were not listed. material to the
MR. LINK: Your Honor, may I have one more shot, please? I know you have been very patient with me.
THE COURT: If it's going to be any different than what you've told me. If it's going to be the
1 2 same, we've already established, and it's a matter of record, and I have made my ruling accordingly.
3 4 MR. LINK: Yes, sir. I understand that. I'll be very quick.
6 7 8 9 You asked about whether there was any hiding Atik i of these documents. And one thing I want t e Court to see is this: These are -- Mr. Scaro do t want me to put that up on the screen, so ' 1 hand it to you.
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 C.) If you look at the privi log which they filed, which Judge ' dequate and I don't believe there wa nit er privilege log filed, so I don't ere's a privilege log - but that's anot d another issue -- but if you lZmme look at the r'v ege log and the e-mails that it relates me if a lawyer looking at that woul be able to tell the real content of the that Mr. was writing. Because I Crh you have an obligation to disclose in a way at allows a lawyer to make a determination of whether it's privileged or not.
22 23 24 25 THE COURT: Mr. Link, you're making my point for me. Mr. Ackerman, , had these materials ever since day one. I don't know how much more I can make this clear.
As I said, the analysis would be completely different if it was shown to me that somehow, some way the Searcy, Denney firm, Mr. Jaffe -- I was going to say Ron Rothstein, but I don't want to get him confused with the wellrespected coach and former coach of the Hea - Scott Rothstein was sitting on this stu Th t's not what happened here. That's the p f t at I'm not only issue of the trying to drive home and emphasize the issue of timeliness, not the privilege has not been te t first and it foremost is the fact t er, Epstein's illiSv own lawyers, have s tin on this from day one for seven, eigh
MR. LI Djt we don't know -- the point I'm trying take, I don't know that they looked at it.
COURT: That's not my problem.
LINK: Maybe Carney gave it to them and aid, "Don't look."
THE COURT: That's not my problem. If Mr. Epstein has a case against his attorneys, he can deal with those claims to his satisfaction. I'm not here to determine whether or not someone did or did not commit malpractice.
MR. LINK: I understand that, Judge.
THE COURT: I'm here only to deal with this issue that is before me; and that is, whether a wholesale late disclosure of significant exhibits that have been in the possession of [REDACTED], Epstein's attorneys, from day one and, thus, as a matter of continuum in Epstein's possession, his possession is constructive to the possession of the attorneys that represented him, that string of attorneys that have been representing him since 2010, and that if nobody got around to looking at [REDACTED] documents -- and how that could be understood is beyond me, as not only a seasoned attorney but also now a seasoned judge -- until you and Miss Rockenbach took it upon yourselves and your paralegal to do it is not my problem. And that's all I'll say on the subject.
I have made my ruling. It is a several-pronged ruling. And for the reasons that I've stated, that's the reason why I am not going to engage in some type of a last-minute evaluation of documents that could have been evaluated from 2010 all the way to March of 2018.
But nobody ever took it upon themselves to even look at those documents in [REDACTED] [REDACTED]
1 2 3 4 file. How that could be the case, who knows? But I'm not finding fault with anything you or Miss Rockenbach or Miss did. That's not the issue. You've done your job.
6 7 8 MR. LINK: I understand. Your Honor, may I have one minute to confer with appellate co n el to make sure there's nothing I need to do es rye this?
9 10 0 sdf THE COURT: Absolutely. Let' Cu t take a brief recess.
11 (Thereupon, a as taken.)
12 13 14 short\\44(c60, THE COURT: Thank you again. Please have a s elcome back.
15 16 17 MR. Sc Your Honor, I want to hopefully tie up a ew ose ends on the matter that has just been uled on.
18 19 20 IZZIIIIr I correct in understanding that the !4;16 0 ,0 e ndant is prohibited from making any use of the 24 late-disclosed exhibits?
21 ?41. THE COURT: Yes.
22 23 24 25 MR. SCAROLA: Next, sir, we would request the defendant be required to relinquish possession of all copies of the privileged documents to the Court under seal. They have expressed some concern
1 2 3 4 stating that we have asked them to destroy them. We want them turned over to the Court under seal. They should no longer have possession of those until such time as somebody rules that they are entitled to have possession.
6 7 And I want to make one brief comment a o t that, if I could can.
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Your Honor knows very well that owS White is a very large law firm that keep me iculous time records with regard to the se s that they render. And the concept • is impossible to reconstruct through th a records what was received, when it to ived, when it was reviewed, what pe d with it, who was informed of what was a '.41I, p Z 7 ing 41 with it quite frankly is absolute i c nceivable to me; that a law firm of that ize, eeping records the way it did, cannot r uct what went on with regard to this mation.
20 21 22 23 24 25 THE COURT: And that's a good point. What I was going to point out earlier and I failed to do that, and I appreciate the reminder, is that I would have expected certainly in deference to the fact that Mr. Epstein was a client of that someone from would have had the
ability to weigh in somehow as to these critical issues.
Perhaps I'm being a bit naive when I say that having served Mr. Epstein in their capacity as counsel, it's my respectful belief that they owed an obligation to Mr. Epstein, if not this C u t, to explain how and why they had access and t ese records in their possession in light court order and in light of this ongoing gation. And as a matter of respect to Mr. • ein and his ongoing legal team, to hay some type of affirmative steps to h t with this issue head on because of arent implications of same.
So I a i t nt to make clear that I'm finding absolute no ault with Mr. Link, Miss Rockenbach, Miss ampbe 1 or anyone else from the Link and ken ch firm in terms of what they did, albeit e manner in which they had to do it and the iming, unfortunately, of the matter from their perspective in having to do it, but that takes nothing away from what the Court has already remarked upon concerning the fact that now in the representation of Mr. Epstein had these records from the inception is one of the
reasons for the Court's ruling.
MR. SCAROLA: Your Honor, may we include in the order a direction that opposing counsel is required to relinquish possession of all copies of the privileged documents to the Court under seal?
THE COURT: Well, the only thing that obviously has to be taken into consider i the appellate rights of Mr. Epstein and h 're going to preserve those rights in igh of the fact that the Court has rejected t st minute request for in-camera inspection reasons that I've already stated at leng e record.
MR. SCAROLA: s why I've suggested that they be relinqu o the Court under seal, your Honor. The given an exhibit number. To the exte the appellate court finds it reas able and necessary to examine those ume°it\*ts, the appellate court will have the tunity to do that.
0 THE COURT: So you're suggesting to file with the Clerk of Court under seal the documents at issue?
MR. SCAROLA: Yes, sir, that's correct.
THE COURT: That's better stated.
Do you have any objection?
MS. ROCKENBACH: No objection, your Honor.
THE COURT: So stipulated.
MR. SCAROLA: Your Honor will recall that opposing counsel has also informed the Court on multiple occasions that backup in the preparation for this case was being provided by the Gun r law firm, and we would like a certification, n t em as well that no copies have been reta
MR. LINK: They don't have an dge.
THE COURT: Okay. That' e. If Mr. Link and Miss Rockenbach are r ing that to the Court, I'm satisfied w representation.
,,(( MR. SCAROLA: ccept that representation as well, your H r, ut what we would like and believe we e e itled to is a list of all persons to whom e p ileged documents have been diss mate . And I'm particularly concerned in t)&s r ard; that the testimony of any witness C5 be influenced by their improper exposure to rivileged documents. So we ask that a complete list of all persons to whom those documents have been disseminated or the contents of the documents that been disseminated be provided to us.
And I know that Mr. Cassell has some concerns in that regard as well that he would like to
1 2 address with the Court. So if he may have an opportunity to speak to the Court in this regard --
3 THE COURT: That's fine.
4 Mr. Link, if you want to comment on that?
6 MR. LINK: Yeah. I think I can solve that problem very easily, your Honor.
7 8 9 10 11 The documents were within my law fi an my client. That's it. They haven't bee to any third parties. There's not a thir ty witness, V) m. u for me to put on the stand. ° have ruled we can't use them. We won' t
12 MR. SCAROLA: k nclude Mr. Epstein?
13 THE COURT: include Mr. Epstein?
14 15 16 MR. SCARO H Mr. Epstein been provided with copies t documents or the contents of these pr d documents?
17 18 19 L K: I just said my client. My law firm lient. And I can say legal counsel, oldberger. So that's it.
20 21 MR. SCAROLA: That may require some further relief that we can address at another time.
22 23 24 25 And so that the record is clear, your Honor, we believe that sanctionable conduct has occurred, and we are reserving the right at a later time - but it's not something that needs to be addressed
1 2 now -- but we're reserving the right to address the issue of appropriate sanctions at a later time.
3 THE COURT: Thank you.
4 Mr. Cassell?
6 7 8 9 MR. CASSELL: Thank you, your Honor. Paul Cassell, and I'm here this afternoon, and I understand it's getting late in the day, 1 e very brief, representing three victim, EW and Jane Doe. Just one housekeeping
10 11 We have filed a motion t. ervene, which is unopposed.
12 13 14 15 THE COURT: The o g I need is an order. Everything else wa ed but the proposed order. So if i < uepp'osed, then phrase it as such and I' a lad to execute it.
16 MR. ASS Thank you, your Honor.
17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 ust so the record is clear, on July 19, 2010, s en id a half years ago, LM said these very and Jane Doe through counsel said these documents are privileged. So the Epstein entity ents are privileged, and on February 23, 2011, that is Mr. Epstein and his array of lawyers were on notice at that time that every one of these 45 documents was privileged.
25 And then what happened on Friday night, March
2nd, was that Mr. Link put into the public court file summaries of the e-mails, quoting from them directly, and we believe that was improper. And indeed, we've heard today Mr. Link represent to the Court all we wanted was an in-camera review, but of course they wanted something more. They wap4d to put those in the public court file beca knew than the cat would be out of the publicity would ensue, and other d~magg to my clients could occur. And so afternoon to raise what i essence concerns about ASS" privileged materiA . Epstein. When I use Dg sy ere this re time of the ease of those the term "Mr. E tei " I'll entity. be referring to this
Let ear. There is no doubt from sworn test ony in front of the Court that on January 10, 2 8 a nts of this law firm picked up a disk from ( Mh law firm, and the law Arm, as you know from the ELMO, had been directed some six or seven years earlier not to retain any copies of these documents. So there should be no dispute about the circumstances right now.
At that time Mr. Link's law firm, Mr. Epstein, were in possession of documents that
was in possession of that were in violation of a court order. Mr. Scarola has used the term "stolen documents" and I think that, frankly, describes accurately the nature of the documents, although who the thief was, of course, remains to be determined.
So the question in front of you rig ow is what to do about this. Well, we know t ing. We know there's been absolutely no was er of attorney/client privilege. Hc! we know that? Well, your Honor knows th law very well. To be a waiver of atto ent privilege is something that is voted. There has to be a clear, intentiopol waver of the privilege. And how do we k w t re's not been a clear, intentio 1 w er of the privilege? Just use Mr. nk s word. Things are clear as mud. Well, l0 i som thing is clear as mud, there cannot be an 0 'n; ntional waiver. So there's no waiver of ttorney/client privilege.
I know the hour is late. THE COURT: You don't have to feel rushed. want to make sure that you're heard and that your clients are heard. MR. CASSELL: Thank you, your Honor. We
appreciate that because what we've heard shockingly this afternoon is -- let me -- I know we need to be careful with language -- let's just say an accused abuser, Mr. Epstein, the man accused of abusing my three clients, we are told has seen these very privileged documents. We're told Mr. Goldb r er has seen them. We're told, of course, in and his law firm has seen them. And of c his very large law firm, the Wh to aw firm, has V seen them as well. so th stion is what do we do? And
And we're mindful fact you're about to embark on what's 1 be a very time-consuming trial. So I wo e to impose six remedies that we would as y u o execute today; none of which, I want to Ehas ze, will require consumption of the Courts time other than signing will provide for you. the proposed order
The first is -- Mr. Scarola has already asked ,A..? !;::)or this and I believe obtained this, but I want the record to be clear. My clients are asking that you preclude any use of the privileged exhibits either directly, indirectly or derivatively during the upcoming trial because if someone relies on this information, for example, in asking a question
1 2 3 to Mr. or asking a question to any of the witnesses that Mr. is presenting, that could implicitly reveal privileged information.
4 6 THE COURT: We have all done this, so don't feel like you're alone. Are you talking about Mr. Epstein?
7 8 MR. CASSELL: I'm sorry. If Mr. Ep 'n' attorneys do that, that's the concern
9 10 11 12 13 So, for example, if they're f rmu sting any questions to Mr. , the uldn't be able to use any privileged inform n cause we're worried that that coul citly disclose privileged communi
14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 Secondly, wo d like Epstein counsel -- and that's a br t m that includes -- I've probably lost tra e different law firms, but Mr. 'nk aw firm, the law firm, I b,,l.iev. there are several others, Mr. Goldberger's g ailyf ecords, irm, we want them all to canvass their canvass their e-mails, canvass their servers and tell us if they -- how did this happen? How did this happen?
23 24 THE COURT: You're talking about how did the firm garner these records?
25 MR. CASSELL: Correct.
1 2 THE COURT: Well, I'm not sure that any of their servers are going to shed light on that.
3 MR. CASSELL: Well, it may be, for example --
4 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 THE COURT: I don't want to go on a fishing expedition, as you can appreciate. I don't want to exacerbate the problem; meaning, I don't wa unnecessarily delve into myriad e-mail s ms to gain knowledge that is likely residin firm in some form or on, whether it be current or former emplo or otherwise. So I am not going to go to t '-nt at this juncture without furth or basic proof for going in that dire
14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 It MR. CASSEL T t would be our request. But there would Alill a .road 41 - expediti you phrased it fishing would phrase it a retrieval expe tion -- to retrieve what's happened here. A B at the minimum we would ask your Honor then to it s,0 Oh ct Epstein attorneys who were previously before is Court, to examine the circumstances here.
22 23 24 25 You noted that you thought there might have been an obligation for them to address the Court head on. I'm here telling you that the victims believe they, , has an obligation to 1 address the victims head on. How did this happen?
2 3 4 6 7 THE COURT: And understandable. I was not confining the obligation of to those entities that I mentioned. It was those entities that came to the Court's mind initially. I don't want this record to suggest I wasn't taking 1 to account the concerns of the victims.
8 9 10 11 12 13 MR. CASSELL: Certainly, your Ho or, wasn't suggesting -- and this, of course, y first opportunity -- you have alway erred to building a record -- this is my op y to build a record as well. So we o know how these materials were obt
14 15 16 17 The third e want to know is who were the materia ributed to? Mr. Scarola has made that req st o behalf of his clients. I'm making that eques on behalf of my clients.
18 19 20 21 22 ?Se 're told that Mr. Goldberger has seen it, e told Mr. Epstein has seen it. We want to 0 ,t. ?L now who else has seen it. And this, frankly, may require looking at e-mails, looking at servers and that sort of thing.
23 24 25 I think the record should be clear that in a routine case, you might say, "Well, that's going to be too expensive." Your Honor is aware this is not
a routine case because I understand that two of the finest and largest law firms here in Florida are currently representing Mr. Epstein, so they certainly have the resources to search -- to accomplish the searches that would be involved to see how these materials got anywhere.
The fourth thing is we want an orde4\$5;Lng Mr. Epstein not to reveal the content t is information to anyone. We are tol th t Mr. Epstein has seen the info on, so he should be singled out specifical n order.
Fifth -- I think s already been recovered. All co the documents are to be turned over and se to the Court.
Sixth, w t our temporary sealing order, which we ill rovide later today, to be converted into & permanent sealing order. Mr. Link filed in V is court file, we believe highly mp~operly, information that he was on notice was Te. rivileged. And he said today he wanted an in-camera review. Well, you do not get an in-camera review when you put those very documents, or at least summaries of those very documents, into the public court file.
We want the Friday night filing, the notice of
1 2 redacted materials, to be placed under permanent seal.
3 4 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 And then the last request is just a housekeeping request. We're obviously scrambling to sort out the implications of all this. I'm sure I have missed some points that need to be m Due to the late filing of this document, 1 t the public filing of the document imprope like leave to be able to file a su would V application for additional re s after the trial concludes and after we hav about how the document obtained and who they went to. ved information
14 15 And so tho ar > the requests that I make on 4 behalf of m t o lients.
16 THE All right.
17 r. Link?
18 LINK: Yes, sir. Thank you.
19 l4c, THE COURT: Thank you.
20 21 22 23 O MR. LINK: I'm not sure how I can be more clear about where we got the documents from. We got them from, your Honor. I don't think that's a mystery anymore.
24 25 I've represented to the Court who I have shared the papers with. The Court has ruled that
1 2 3 4 we're going to take the disks that we have and put it under seal. We'll destroy all the other copies. That's what Mr. Scarola asked for and that's what we said we would do.
6 7 8 As to the filing, I never said all I wanted was an in-camera inspection. What I said w s Mr. Scarola said he would like one and I d great, let's have one.
9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 0 Most important is this: The ocu ents that we filed -- and there was some m unication with Mr. Cassell -- I want to e the record is clear -- we did two th e filed redacted documents. We red 1 of the names of EW, LM and Jane Doe, a thi ourt has instructed. So their initi s Ag w ;t: ewiped out. Mr. Cassell called me and s m looking at a document and i see thei initials." What he was looking at is we serve the counsel and hand delivered to the -- did not put it in the public file -- the nredacted documents so we would all know what was in there.
22 THE COURT: By the court, you mean
23 MR. LINK: To you. To the judge.
24 THE COURT: -- to myself.
25 MR. LINK: Yes, sir.
1 2 THE COURT: Not as far as the court file is concerned.
3 4 6 7 8 9 10 MR. LINK: The court file only contains the redacted version. We have double checked that. I asked Mr. Cassell to tell me if I missed a redaction. Could it happen? Yes, it could h ppen. We haven't found one. If there was one w sn't redacted, we'd be glad to redact it. t e only thing that was filed in the clerk ejwas the redacted version.
11 Thank you, Judge.
12 AS ) \\ THE COURT: All r' t hank you.
13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 itt S S' Much of whichr uch of the relief that has been reques h essentially been taken care lame SiCi l) of I believ r gh the Court's prior order; that e disk containing the documents that are bajng sought to be introduced at trial to take d will be permitted to be filed under seal. Cih~sanitized redacted versions of those records 'm also ordering to be sealed in an abundance of caution just in case there may be some error, not intentional, on the part of counsel who filed those records.
24 25 Mr. Epstein will be barred from referring to any of those records as it relates to the documents
that were gathered from or from any other source that would have included those records that were the subject of Judge Ray's order. So it's to preclude anything coming in through the back door which wouldn't be allowed through the front.
Mr. Link, did you want to comment o is.
MR. LINK: Yes. I wanted to rem nd Court we have over a hundred exhibits th t w re listed on that disk that are already in i court file. We've used them in deposi So I'm wondering -- those are uded.
THE COURT: m not talking about those. I'm tal g 1 out the ones that have been derived fro w r and that have been sought to be in od c d as part of the 748 or 724, or what er this number is, or the 45 that have been as privileged and have not been ruled upon ill not be ruled upon prior to trial because f the reasons that I have explained in detail earlier.
MR. LINK: Thank you, Judge.
THE COURT: Mr. Cassell, did I leave out anything else?
MR. CASSELL: Yes. We want to know how the
1 2 3 Epstein entities came into possession of the documents, and then we want to know where they went.
4 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 THE COURT: Because of the court ruling, I don't find that to be a front burner issue at this time. Please don't confuse anyone here. Court's reference to front burner as opp being an issue of importance. Front simply means that in preparation for a tr al hat is actually a mere two to three 'ess days away, if you count tomorrow, which really count as a court business day bec a my obligations to the Bench Bar Conferen n t have the opportunity to really delve to hat prior to trial.
15 16 17 18 19 And as r arola pointed out, I believe, earlier, ha an be done at another time. So I am cert nly not going to forget that it needs to be ut it will be ordered that it be done post
20 21 22 23 Any other remedies that are sought as you go along -- I understand the relative late nature of these revelations; hence, you are not precluded from filing a supplemental motion.
24 25 I also note that you have requested attorney's fees and costs related to this endeavor, and I'm
1 reserving on that as well.
2 3 4 MR. CASSELL: But related to that is the distribution. The cat is now wandering out of the bag, so time is of the essence.
6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 THE COURT: Right. And again, I think that in an abundance of caution, and I understand y concerns, but what the attorneys here r iz and Mr. Epstein is also under this or is that no further dissemination is going o b made. I think that goes without sayin far as the attorneys are concerned. own each of them known Mr. Scarola ISg i Terry, Mr. Burlington, seated at counsel tabl o ny years, as I have * Sr and I think the nize that when this Court makes a sta n that it is abundantly clear that it will e rced to the letter. I have no doubt in m mind hat they will all be respectful of the curt der of non-dissemination of any of those ents hence forth.
20 21 22 23 24 25 And Mr. Link has already represented to the Court that other than Mr. Epstein and his co-counsel, that there have been no eyes laid upon these documents. Hence, I'm accepting that representation, as Mr. Scarola has accepted those representations during the hearing as well.
1 2 3 MR. CASSELL: We haven't heard, of course, from . Will the Court direct them to make similar representations?
4 6 7 8 THE COURT: I believe that I have sufficient authority to do that under these relatively peculiar circumstances. My jurisdiction, t is somewhat limited because they have w' from the case.
9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 0 As a general blanket order I froul¢i simply say that all attorneys who have o representing Mr. Epstein shall be subject order of confidentiality, of se n d of nondissemination of a information that is contemplated in the documents that are part of the umbr 1 der of Judge Ray. And that would include 1 o he exhibits that we spoke about toda and t at have been filed as a matter of /4 :r YIZ V
19 20 21 MR. CASSELL: Could they also be directed to 0 IcAm?k ake a representation as to who they have distributed the documents to?
22 23 THE COURT: Mr. Link has already -- are you talking about ?
24 MR. CASSELL:
25 THE COURT: I don't think that I have that
ability.
MR. CASSELL: Could I be heard on that issue then? I believe that you do have -- all right. We'll deal with that later then, your Honor.
MR. LINK: Can I make a suggestion, your Honor, that might be helpful?
THE COURT: Sure.
MR. LINK: We now have, I think S36 boxes they delivered; I believe al th boxes they have. The disk, the original we now have it. I don't know for sure, b t that there's another disk that they d kept. If the Court will instruct as p f his order that we (S 0 maintain the bo, cause them back, will take possession of the boxes. wanted
HE COURT: If you are telling me that you Cf rs e a thority from Mr. Epstein to retain those o and Mr. Epstein is essentially giving you arte blanche, you and Miss Rockenbach and Mr. Goldberger jointly, the authority to make any decisions necessary to protect his interests, that motion would be granted.
MR. LINK: I'm standing here with this puzzled look because I'm not sure what that means, frankly.
All I was trying to do is say I will preserve the documents, the original files, because I don't think there's another set of files somewhere.
had asked me to return them once we went through them, and if the Court can instruct me to hold the boxes, then I will do that.
44t THE COURT: I don't have a problem m that instruction, so I'll leave it at . You're speaking on behalf of your client Mr. Epstein, as well as your own law firm, an take it, as well, so I hay oblem making -- in entering this order si re current counsel for Mr. Epstein. Goldberger, I
MR. LINK: will make c an . >you, Judge. I think that easier.
MR. : Your Honor, there are two addi onal matters that I would hope can be pos 1 of in advance of the start of trial.
THE COURT: Sure.
MR. SCAROLA: One is Mr. Epstein's motion to strike Dr. Jansen, and the second is issues with regard to adverse inference. I think that both of those matters have been fully briefed. Mr. Burlington is here to present argument in response to the motion regarding Dr. Jansen.
I suggest -- your Honor has told us that we're finishing at 4:30 today -- that we allot 15 minutes, seven and a half minutes per side, to each of those matters.
THE COURT: All right. Off the record.
Aral r MR. LINK: Your Honor, we have a mo,1 t strike the 79 exhibits that they disc ate after the cutoff. I think if we ng to do a goose and a gander, the Court ld rule those exhibits are stricken.
(Discussion held off the record.)
THE COURT: Well, -- I want to review that motion n ince my concentration has been on the se ci that I mentioned before. I'll be gla t al with it prior to trial.
MR. IN I'm comfortable with your Honor rulin&onte papers if Mr. Scarola is.
COURT: Well, I'd rather, since it's ? Spthing of the magnitude of trial exhibits and 79 n number, I'd rather have argument on the subject, to be perfectly with you. I appreciate your willingness to entrust the Court with that endeavor, but I think it's better to have you heard on the record.
All right. Mr. Burlington, which one did you
want to tackle first?
MR. BURLINGTON: Your Honor, it's his motion.
MR. SCAROLA: The motion to strike Dr. Jansen.
THE COURT: All right.
MR. BURLINGTON: Unless you want me to argue both sides, your Honor.
THE COURT: What's the other motion2"
MR. SCAROLA: Adverse interest nor, from the assertion of the Fifth Amendment.
MR. LINK: Which one are
MS. TERRY: Jansen.
S'' Good afternoo SSu # Honor. start over toda See if I can
MR. LINK: Jansen O
THE CO • u have done fine.
' ) MR. N : I don't remember winning one yet, SO maybe this one. I have hopes.
V zQur Honor, this is our motion to strike c ora 0 r. ansen. And I know the Court has read the aper, so I'm going to be very brief about this.
We have struggled since coming before this Court in December with what this case is, because I keep saying to the Court that Mr. wants to try a defamation action, he wants to clear his name, he wants defamation-type damages, and the
Court keeps rebuking me properly and saying, no, this is a malicious prosecution action. We're not going to try a defamation action.
Their expert that they want to put on the stand for damages has no opinion, your Honor, as to damages. Not one. He can't talk about any mage suffered by Mr. , if any. His so pi ion is that he was given defamatory state counsel, defamatory statements, an to d to do a search to see how many times efamatory statements hit a web page many people touched the web page w-4 defamatory statement on it.
So, for ex le, there's AgE e that says R h t 'n and (s\\ a newspaper articic, and that magazine or that wsp 2ler has 3,000 people that look at the news er He says there are 3,000 hits. He can't / c lor if one of the 3,000 people read the C5 r \*cle, what they thought about the article, did t make any difference, did they change their view of Mr. did they not do business with him, did they fire him?
He says he has no economic damages, so how does it help a jury to hear about nine million web hits when you can't point to a single person -- I
1 2 3 said, "Tell me one person, one person, Dr. Jansen, that you know read one of these articles." He said, "I can't. I have no idea."
4 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 The other thing that was important is he said, "I just use an average of data. I can't tell you exactly because they accumulated over month .' He can't even tell us how many times this a.4cle was actually touched. All he can tell yo to the Palm Beach Shiny Sheet webs 4V average month 3,000 people lo that help the jury from a I go on an . So how can expert determine whether the filing of icious prosecution action caused Mr. any damage?
14 Thank you
15 THE CO 1 right. Thank you.
16 Mr. gton?
17 18 LINGTON: I'm Phil Burlington, here on f Brad
19 20 21 1 tIcm> NLAuestions. First, is the expert qualified? That's 7 L This determination comes down to four not being challenged.
22 23 24 25 The suggestion that he cannot give opinions on damages ignores the nature of the damages for which case law is clear, which includes reputational damages, shame and humiliation. They have
acknowledged shame and humiliation as an element of damage. We've citied on page 6 of our response five Florida cases. Two of them, Florida Supreme Court cases, make it very clear reputational damages are prosecution a valid element of a malicious case.
So how do you monetize how does jiCiy monetize the damage that has been suf y my client? We've citied cases, and t ere are cases we rely on from outside the juri but it's we cite this all d malicious clear from the many Flori arises from the common prosecution is des any times as an ancient cause of action 's all developed by the common law.AQ liance on foreign jurisdictions is not u especially when it's consistent with ion. a law.
t the clearest discussion is in a case d Browning, which says that in reputational amages, which are particularly hard to prove, and there's no case that I've ever read where in a malicious prosecution case a plaintiff was put to the burden of bringing in an individual who said, "I didn't send my case to this lawyer because I heard he was accused of a crime." That, of course,
1 2 would require, of course, months of trial to pull people in. But that's not our burden.
3 4 6 7 THE COURT: Right. And we're not looking at a defamation case from the standpoint of publication, where publication is really part of it. So that's not what is being sought here in terms of t e expert testimony, as I understand it.
8 9 10 MR. BURLINGTON: Well, we're see t prove the dissemination, as we would in case. amation
11 12 13 14 15 THE COURT: Well, dis 9c on and recognized or acknowledged public£ re two different is what I'm t 'n to say. I'm essentially lcr agreeing with y I hink, in the sense that there's no e prove publication.
16 17 18 19 20 21 Whe "publication," I'm talking about the nsump ion of that information by another party id that party's -- and the effect on that ner, or the effect on the person who agreed ith that material. You're speaking only to the issue of dissemination.
22 23 24 25 MR. BURLINGTON: The Browning case says that the two primary factors in determining reputational damages are the gravity of the false allegations - and here we have a young, talented trial lawyer who
1 2 3 4 is being accused not only of heinous crimes, but heinous crimes involving undermining the judicial system. And then the second factor noted in Browning, and it's cited in other cases, is the degree of exposure of the false allegations.
6 7 8 9 10 11 And I've cited multiple cases in my brse that say that when courts have evaluated the excessiveness of a malicious prosecut on rd, one of the critical considerations is he egree of exposure of the false allegat And this is how we are doing it in the In g
12 13 14 15 16 17 18 \\ i If we were 30, 40 a go and this was done ISS" and let's say it w I exposed in this area of .4 E the country, Pa Be h County, Broward, Miami, we would come i the newspaper's circulation to give the ome idea of the exposure. That does ly have much probative value in the tern t age. I
19 20 21 22 23 24 25 4 0 And Dr. Jansen is undisputedly qualified, robably more than anybody, to do this, and he explained how conservative his analysis was. And he's not going to tell the jury that the nine million six hundred hits means that nine million six hundred thousand people read this story and now believed that Brad is a criminal, and so
forth and so on.
And one of the factors here is a very wellrecognized principle of the Bigelow case, which is a U.S. Supreme Court case, that says that one of the fundamental principles of justice is that if a defendant engages in wrongful conduct that prates uncertainty as to damages, that falls o t~em.T You can't put the plaintiff to what is an ially impossible burden, assuming we pro e o r cause of action. And that, of course, issue that this trial will be all about.
SS But they're tryin o really you can never ' prove reputational g without bringing in Joe Six Pack off th tr t and inquiring of him how 4 ,,me much of a gage e's holding against Brad because e allegations. That is simply not the standar
it helpful to the jury? Well, the jury is o .going to understand the complexity of issemination of information on the Internet, and this witness is specifically qualified to do that.
0 , ?ha
> So when we go through the analysis is he qualified, is the issue relevant, is it helpful to the jury, we satisfy those three.
Then we come to reasons to exclude. And the
only reason I saw raised in their motion for excluding it was vague references to confusion. And I don't see how there could be confusion, given the clear parameters of what Dr. Jansen testified to were his directions, his methodology. There was ik terminology that he has to explain to the j 2r, but all experts do that in complex situation Th jury here would not be capable of mak analysis of the degree of dissemin do on the Internet as a matter of their on sense.
THE COURT: I didn't e motion as suggesting a prior Dau lysis being required.
MR. BURLINGTO sorry?
THE COURT: 't read the motion filed by Mr. Link to 4jk bout his seeking a Frye or Daubert
BURLINGTON: Correct. That's my reading welt, your Honor.
Now, there was a little preamble, as i7>\\hi...Veen on many motions here, about how this is all there has about a defamation action, and we've cited in our response the term "defamation" is a general term in the English language, and we've cited Miriam Webster, which is about as bread as you can get on a definition.
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The fact that that term is used not only in describing certain parts of the task that was assigned to Dr. Jansen or in our argument regarding the nature of the damages, it's because that term properly applies to false statements of fact that accuse a person of criminal conduct, of bei g insane, being untrustworthy and so fort t s not in any way a suggestion that we a i ging a defamation action.
The reputational damages ar clearly recognized by the Florida Court. They have been recognized as se intangible damages for which a jury h 7:S y given broad discretion. On the other ha t y have to be given l%7'n 41this context, the two primary ones as ational damages are the gravity of the Ise allegations and the degree of exposure. th t is exactly what this expert is qualified parameters. o~estify about. And there's been no suggestion s to what confusion there would be. And so, therefore, we believe we have satisfied the standard, and it's your discretion regarding the admission of his testimony.
And to strike a witness entirely is the most extreme remedy that could be sought in this
1 2 context, and we submit it is not appropriate and the motion should be denied.
3 THE COURT: All right, thank you.
4 Mr. Link, you have a few minutes to rebut.
6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 I think a little bit of the confusion n the damages is there's really two standards. e standard for damages in a malicious p ion based on lack of probable cause in a c iminal action has per se damages. T e assumed, because if somebody makes gations that you are a criminal in the court and they have you arrested, then putation and your character are A i di ely impugned.
15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 This i v . In civil it requires damages proximat y sed. And it's not a Frye analysis, it's ot a aubert analysis, it's a basic does this t tor jury and is it a 403 issue, which is if I 0 n the stand and I say there were nine million its when in fact all he did was search for defamatory terms given to him by counsel without taking into consideration was it Mr. who spoke to the press, did he do a press release, when did these -- when were the -- when did the dissemination take place, did anybody read them,
MR. LINK: Very briefly, Judge.
Z 7e
1 did it make any difference?
2 3 4 One of the things Mr. has told us is he has no economic damages. His law firm has made substantially more money, or himself personally, since Mr. Epstein sued him than from before.
6 7 8 9 10 11 So to say to the jury nine million hit ounds like nine million people are reading th' I believe that prejudice outweighs any, lue it might have, any relevance in this cti n, because he needs to show damages prox ly caused and not just put someone on the s talk about hits.
12 Thank you, Judge.
13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 THE COURT: O . S', was writing as we were speaking and ce in was anticipating Mr. Burling n t tate the well-known legal action that a r~uesf t o strike a witness is a drastic and extr e measure reserved only in rare Eli llti c~rrcum tances, especially where here we're dealing an expert which is otherwise qualified to a lebk. estify to what he's going to testify. And there being no Daubert or Frye analysis necessary, the Court would deny the motion.
23 24 25 I would point out that many of the issues that were raised by Mr. Link both in his written motion and orally certainly can be effectively dealt with
\\
on cross-examination. But the core aspect of the Court's ruling today is that reputational damages and damages for humiliation are difficult to demonstrate to a jury, and the manner in which the plaintiff chooses to go about presenting that testimony, in this Court's view, is reasona in part to Dr. Jansen's proposed testimony. a ain, that motion is respectfully denied. O
The next issue.
MR. LINK: Judge, I thin t's 0 for 5.
THE COURT: I don't a re. Never have and never will. I kno y it in gest, and I allowed it the las ithout a mention, but repeating it is ap opriate.
MR. LI : dge, I'm sorry. It was not meant to be in late.
S OLA: Your Honor, the next issue the Court relates to the plaintiff's Clement to an adverse inference instruction T?Ik. rising out of each of those circumstances where Jeffrey Epstein has asserted his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent. The primary objection to the entitlement to an instruction really related to the content of the instruction.
a
And I have handed your Honor the adverse
inference instruction based on Fifth Amendment assertions that we are requesting of the Court, which I suggest to your Honor is in direct conformity with the United States Supreme Court's opinion in Baxter versus Palmigiano and also conforms with the clarification in the case o Coquina Investments versus Rothstein. Interestingly, a matter related to scheme. th
C .) And those two cases toge stand for the basic principle that you ase civil liability solely upon ertion of a Fifth ASS" Amendment privileg a ;; . u if a defendant confronted ;' r with evidence wins him in the context of a civil case refuse, wer questions that are relevant that civil case, then drawing an adverb inference based upon Fifth Amendment n is not required, but is permitted. 's exactly what this instruction says. and mate
Your Honor is well aware of the broad array of questions to which Mr. Epstein has refused to provide answers, and it is of particular significance that those refusals occurred in the context of efforts to obtain discovery on the claim that Mr. Epstein himself asserted.
Amendment concerns, if so ww I might also point out to the Co t there is a basic principle of law relati g tp admission V by silence. Separate and apa om Fifth it accusations under circ res where they have in 8' this case not only 'g but an obligation to speak up in res seco those accusations and they fail to say 'ng, that accounts to an admission by silen confronted with
He filed a lawsuit intending not to provide any discovery with respect to the claims that he made and, carrying through on that intention, refusing to provide any discovery on those claims that he made. Under those circumstances, an adverse inference instruction is particular y appropriate.
o based upon those two very fundamental es, the U.S. Supreme Court recognition, the Amendment protections do not apply in the ontext of civil litigation based upon the basic principle of admissions against silence, admission of a party opponent by silence.
0 Icl?ak
> We ask the Court approve this proposed instruction and permit us to comment upon Mr. Epstein's assertion of the Fifth Amendment
1 2 3 privilege in the context of this civil litigation in each context in which those assertions were made.
4 6 7 8 9 10 11 So it relates to his assertion of the Fifth Amendment privilege with regard to the elements of the claim that he brought against El ks, it relates to his assertion of Fifth Ame nt privilege with regard to all question ing to his economic circumstances, it rel sjto his V assertion of the Fifth Amendm rivilege in every context in which he has a that privilege.
12 Thank you, sir.
13 THE COURT:
14 15 16 Mr. Scarol thereference to Florida standard jury instrugtiQn 01.11, am I going to find this there?
17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 OLA: What you're going to find there, or, is a spoliation instruction. And what done is we have adopted the spoliation Instruction, which is the closest standard in jury -- closest standard jury instruction to these circumstances. That is not an adverse inference instruction based upon Fifth Amendment. No such standard jury instruction exists.
25 THE COURT: Well, I didn't think so. And
thank you for that clarification.
I'm surprised that there really aren't more cases that deal with this instruction in a civil context. And no Florida cases that you're aware of?
MR. SCAROLA: Coquina is a Florida cas, your Honor.
THE COURT: Well, it'S a Federal Ct Court case, not a Florida appellatCoprt case, which would be binding on thi
All right. Counsel Epstein?
MR. GOLDBERGER: et to stand.
Good afternoory. a Goldberger on behalf of Mr. Epstein.
Your H a general statement of the law, Mr. Scar correct.
CO RT: Let me tell you where I have some i . Goldberger, with this. And Mr. Scarola O anyspeak to it as well, now that I understand its rigination.
t ?h,,
The first sentence I don't really have a problem with. The second sentence is where I have a problem. It says, quote, However, the protection that applies in a criminal proceeding does not apply in a civil lawsuit when a person, based upon
1 2 3 4 the Fifth Amendment, refuses to answer questions when evidence is offered against him which is relevant to the case, end quote. I don't think that's an accurate statement of the protection mechanism.
6 7 8 9 MR. GOLDBERGER: I bracketed that myse your Honor, in the instructions Mr. Scarola me. And my concern may be a little differ -n the Court.
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Whether that's accurate t, I don't want this jury to be thinking e right against self-incrimination app a criminal case and, therefore, he's gu everything that they're trying to get a dv se inference on. There simply is n nnect there. I don't know why we need to anything about a criminal case in this \*ury instruction other than Mr. Epstein under 1i!\* 6 Un'ted States Constitution cannot be compelled o~rovide evidence against himself in a crimina' 0 roceeding, period.
21 22 23 24 25 And then, you know, and the guilt of a crime may not be inferred from the exercise of the Fifth Amendment right to remain silent, that's confusing, your Honor, and it's just going to inject criminal issues into this civil trial, and I think it's just
t ?k'
not necessary to the instruction that Mr. Scarola is seeking that this Court give to this jury.
And then the second sentence, your Honor, address, However, the protection that applies in a criminal proceeding does not apply in a civil lawsuit when a person, based on the Fifth Amendment, refuses to answer questions. I now where the Court is heading because th ires a balancing test at this point.
Judge, by the way, • Honor, back in November of 2013 addresse •ery issue in an order that he entered. n 11 quote from it. This is Order on C Oar laintiff Motion to Deter e atus of Punitive Damage Discovery a p icability of Adverse Inference. And in t t o er, your Honor, your predecessor judg Judge, stated, "The counter-plaintiff, B dle I'm sorry -- "The 0 oagcer-plaintiff ' request for jury nstructions adverse inference instruction is deferred until the time of trial. And at the time of trial, upon specific analysis of the specific questions and answers, including those propounded in discovery, the Court will determine whether an adverse inference instruction will or will not be
1 given."
2 3 4 6 So I think what Judge meant in 2013 is that you can't determine what the instruction is going to be until such time as you hear the question, and then you must first do a 403 analysis.
7 8 9 10 11 12 Well, first you must determine whe it s relevant, then you have to do a 403 a then you have to decide whether under t at 03 analysis and respecting the sanctity o invocation of the Fifth Amendment privilege, r an adverse inference instruction a opriate.
13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 So for Mr. Scgso. simply ask you at this point to have a t instruction to give to this jury every based on every time Mr. Epstein invokes s F h Amendment privilege I do not beli e is a correct statement of the law. And I ld sk the Court to follow Judge order, he said I'm going to do it on a uestion-by-question basis.
21 22 23 24 25 THE COURT: Well, a couple things. One is, again, presuming, without knowing, what was going through Judge mind at the time, but I would think that the likely contemplation was that by the time this case got to trial, whether it was in
1 2 3 4 6 7 8 9 10 11 2014, '15 and now '18, Mr. Epstein's criminal issues would have been behind him and that there was not at that particular juncture a need to rule on something that was probably potentially, at best, speculative. However, the time is now, so to speak, because we've gone through in painst detail most of those questions that the deemed relevant and that Mr. Epstein his Fifth Amendment privilege and, the efo e, the Court would find that an adverse in tion would be appropriate.
12 13 14 15 The language that fault with, particularly in th sentence, will have to be ironed out aM de t with in a way that's going to be palat 51 the Court.
16 17 18 19 You ert Xnly have the right, and it is a matt of aw in the civil context, that if you eri llir k t have an instruction provided to the jury on issue, it must be filed to preserve error.
20 21 22 23 24 25 Ci Now, of course, if it was -- if it's deemed to be erroneous to give an instruction at all, then that requirement would be obviated. However, if you are seeking an order with the Court's stated intent that one will be given -- because as far as the Court is concerned, it is necessary based upon
1 2 3 4 my rulings relative to the Fifth Amendment issue that I've already reviewed -- I'll be glad to review a proposed instruction that you and your team prepared.
6 7 So at this time -- again, I'm going to give A the instruction. An instruction. The inst u tion is still up in the air in terms of the w 'ng.
8 9 10 11 I'm comfortable with actually th sentence, I'm comfortable with the paragraph. It's the second paragraph that will need s AV ce in the first anged.
12 13 14 15 16 17 MR. SCAROLA: May your Honor, becaus est a language change, k I understand - although your H r bars not articulated the concern, I ' AgEk 'n erereading that second sentence, I unders it could be of concern. The Fifth ent --
18 19 20 21 COURT: The concern potentially is the f rk 1 et statement that protection that applies in a lel\`, riminal proceeding does not apply in a civil lawsuit.
22 23 24 25 MR. SCAROLA: Yes, sir. I understand that. What I suggest for consideration by the Court and opposing counsel, instead of the instruction reading, "However, the protection that applies in a
1 2 3 4 criminal proceeding does not apply," it should read, "However, the prohibition against drawing an adverse inference that applies in a criminal proceeding does not apply in a civil lawsuit," et cetera. That's the part that does not apply.
6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 You still have your Fifth Amendment protection; however, you don't have pro against an adverse inference. That's intended to say. It's not said as rly as it should be, so I suggest that "However, the prohibition adverse inference that 8iSr proceeding does no 1 in a civil lawsuit," et cetera. anguage read, drawing an in a criminal
15 16 17 18 MR. GO B R R: Your Honor, I accept what Mr. Scarola tr ng to clarify, but I also accept your nvita ion to come up with our own instruction tirmilv thi point.
19 20 MR. SCAROLA: I just want to be sure our
21 22 23 24 i7l>Nkt_groposal is on the table. And that's what it is. THE COURT: However, the prohibition against drawing an adverse inference -- so we'll eliminate the word "protection" and substitute "prohibition against drawing an adverse inference."
25 MR. SCAROLA: Yes, sir, which I believe is an
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and your team. But again, your invitation remains. I'll be glad to take into consideration any propose It instruction that you provide me, Mr. Go
absolutely exact statement of the law.
THE COURT: All right. I certainly can live with that more so than I could letting that sentence stand as it was.
0 But again, I'm ruling that ad{(ersg instruction is abundantly necessary, with uestion. And, therefore, one will be giv,
But again, I will you to prepare one for the Court's co i ion.
MR. GOLDBE hanks, Judge. That's obviously s o relevancy. Obviously.
THE I'll put on the record for you so that where \`s no equivocation, I understand that nket objection is to giving an adverse uction at all. That is recognized, and it's verruled.
However, as I said, as a substitute, my understanding of the law to be is it will be necessary now that the Court has ruled, unless you simply want to stand on your blanket objection, that an alternative instruction must be given for
1 2 the Court to consider so as to preserve further your objection.
3 4 So at this time -- again, I'm going to give the instruction. An instruction. The instruction is still up in the air in terms of the wording.
6 7 8 9 I'm comfortable with actually the firs sentence, I'm comfortable with the seco paragraph. It's the second sentence first paragraph that will need to be cha
10 11 12 13 14 15 MR. SCAROLA: May I sugg language change, your Honor, because I thirt y erstand - although your Honor ha col fl ticulated the concern, I think i ing that second sentence, I understand ho E 't uld be of concern. The Fifth Ag Amendment - -
16 17 18 19 t%') THE OU The concern potentially is the blan t sta ement that protection that applies in a cy4min proceeding does not apply in a civil it.
20 21 22 23 24 25 MR. SCAROLA: Yes, sir. I understand that. what I suggest for consideration by the Court and opposing counsel, instead of the instruction reading, "However, the protection that applies in a criminal proceeding does not apply," it should read, "However, the prohibition against drawing an
1 2 3 adverse inference that applies in a criminal proceeding does not apply in a civil lawsuit," et cetera. That's the part that does not apply
4 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 You still have your Fifth Amendment protection; however, you don't have protection against an adverse inference. That's what intended to say. It's not said as clear s t should be, so I suggest that the lang ad, "However, the prohibition against adverse inference that applie a ng an criminal proceeding does not apply vil lawsuit," ACe' et cetera.
13 14 15 16 ASc MR. GOLDBERGE . o t Honor, I accept what Mr. Scarola is tryi to larify, but I also accept Acre your invita o come up with our own instruction at this
17 18 R. SCAROLA: I just want to be sure our c ;rpv p pos is on the table. And that's what it is.
19 20 21 22 ? l — THE COURT: However, the prohibition against Ls...drawing an adverse inference -- so we'll eliminate the word "protection" and substitute "prohibition against drawing an adverse inference."
23 24 MR. SCAROLA: Yes, sir, which I believe is an absolutely exact statement of the law.
25 THE COURT: All right. I certainly can live
1 2 with that more so than I could letting that sentence stand as it was.
3 4 6 But again, your invitation remains. I'll be glad to take into consideration any proposed instruction that you provide me, Mr. Goldberger, and your team.
7 8 9 But again, I'm ruling that adverse ru tion is abundantly necessary, without ques io And, therefore, one will be given.
10 11 But again, I will invite to prepare one for the Court's considera
12 13 14 A MR. SCAROLA: You 1 7 we thank you very much for your gene u a, otment of time today. Look forward to ei you on Tuesday.
15 THE CO s my pleasure.
16 17 18 19 20 21 22 Aga all have done a superb job in both your written and oral presentations. I appreciate ilent argument. As I've mentioned in the C5 if I had the pleasure of dealing with ttorneys of all of your caliber each and every day, I wouldn't have the headaches that I do physically and figuratively.
23 24 25 MR. SCAROLA: Your Honor, for planning purposes, are we going to be conducting an initial screening on Tuesday, having jurors fill out the
questionnaire and then returning for voir dire on Wednesday? The initial screening I would think would include hardship challenges and also questions with regard to anyone's familiarity with the underlying circumstances of this case.
THE COURT: That's something that we'r oing to have to discuss, and I guess the bes e o do it is now. Take a little bit more ti
Madam court reporter, are you oka with a few more minutes?
THE REPORTER: Sure.
THE COURT: My th S Tis that likely it will h " be necessary to pr i 'nS ily individually question the venire pane q going to have a hundred.
A4. 7eYes, sir. MR. SC
THE I know that will be time cons ing, but based upon the Dippolito case, and t 's h oing some parallels as far as the publicity a s7ects are concerned and the nature of the llegations and admissions that we're dealing with here, that it's incumbent upon the Court to individually question each of the initial venire members as to their knowledge of the individuals involved in this case. Those are my thoughts preliminarily.
1 MR. SCAROLA: May I make a suggestion?
2 3 4 THE COURT: Sure. Whoever is going to primarily conduct voir dire, why don't you come up to the podium so I can hear from you and you don't have to jump up and down.
6 7 8 9 MR. SCAROLA: We've proposed a juror questionnaire and I think that we're pro y ose in terms of the content of that juror questionnaire.
10 THE COURT: I haven't se .
11 12 13 MR. SCAROLA: If we' ere already, we're close in terms oh ontents of that questionnaire.
14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 THE COURT: (\<4SK h : en't seen it yet, so that's a bit of a di a age for me because this is somethin th t goes unmentioned, but certainly it is m hilosophy in most of the cases that I handle of the cases when I'm dealing with C5 xogptionally competent lawyers, once voir dire is ver, there's little that the jury hears from me. You are the ones who are going to be essentially steering this trial, and I leave it to competent, experienced attorneys when it comes to stipulations.
25 And the Fourth has reiterated that in a recent
interim order relinquishing jurisdiction on an unrelated case -- a case that goes back to 1995, actually -- and emphasize in that interim order the significance of counsel's stipulation. And so I'm here to make determinations of law, rule, where necessary, but the conduct of the trial is go ng to largely depend upon lead counsel.
So if you guys formulate a quest on il e of a preliminary manner that you can ag ee n, you got it. I'm more than willing to de to that. And if that is sufficient in w to satisfy the SO issue of pretrial publ' t 'knowledge of the S' circumstances, kno e f any the participants, things of that tur that are critical to the analysis, tk n t 's satisfactory to me.
MR. is t t once the group is assembled, the Court deal dship issues in whichever way your Honor arily deals with hardship issues. Anyone who s not asserting a hardship for which they are seeking to be excused and anyone who does not express any knowledge with regard to Epstein or Rothstein, which I think are the two broad categories that we need to address. : Well, my suggestion, your Honor,
THE COURT: I'm not as concerned with
1 2 3 Rothstein particularly now as I am, as I was - really -- I've never really been concerned with Rothstein.
4 6 7 MR. SCAROLA: From my perspective, we can limit it to any knowledge with regard to Epstein. And I would think this is the defense's prima concern as well.
8 9 THE COURT: Or Mr. The ne million hits, apparently.
10 11 12 13 14 C.) MR. SCAROLA: Well, that' ue. I think those names should be mad to the jurors. Anyone who recognizes mes and anyone who has a hardship rem be individually questioned.
15 16 17 18 19 20 21 With r a question ire li l)and they are asked to fill out those e the others, they are given ques onnaires, and then they are excused for the b Ianc of the day. If someone survives individual a ue~tioning, they're given a copy of the uestionnaire, they fill that out, and they're excused for the balance of the day.
22 23 24 25 THE COURT: All right. So let me stop you there so I'm understanding. The questionnaire that you're proposing would be after the initial issues regarding knowledge of any of the participants in
1 this case?
2 3 4 MR. LINK: That's what I envisioned, your Honor. And I think Rothstein, Epstein all have to be part of that dialogue.
6 MR. SCAROLA: I don't have a problem either way.
7 8 9 10 THE COURT: That's fine. Certainl '117have the opportunity to question them furt f they say they have heard of Scott Roths ein we will be able to drill down further in at inquiry.
11 12 13 14 15 MR. SCAROLA: Yes, s one who has not heard of any of those eople and does not have a hardship fi the questionnaire, leaves with instructio to eturn the following morning. Everybody e e i ubject to individual voir dire.
16 17 18 19 20 THE I'm thinking about it the other way, nd I'm thinking the individual voir dire has tp.com at the initial point of whether or not any Cif hese people have any knowledge of the rotagonists here.
21 22 23 24 MR. SCAROLA: Well, it would. The only people who are excused are those who have no hardship concern to raise and don't know any of the three people.
25 THE COURT: But the knowledge of the people
has to come first.
MR. LINK: It does, your Honor. You have the sequence correct.
THE COURT: Because then hardship becomes a non-issue.
MR. SCAROLA: That's fine.
THE COURT: Okay? It's the degree he r knowledge, if any, that will have to t with first. If they have knowledge of na ure that results in an immediate cause lenge, then we no longer have to get into a e other issues.
MR. SCAROLA: But a our Honor envision two separate individual/ ires?
THE COURT:
MR. SC So you would want to identify everybod ho, as knowledge and everybody who is clai pg a 7iardship.
c5c . fivalification ncorrect, forgive me for the late hour. COURT: Has knowledge of a nature. And if the grammar is
So, yes, it would be only those who would be -- who would have knowledge that would subject them to disqualification.
MR. SCAROLA: Yes, sir.
THE COURT: After that, I see no issue because
the group. "Sdone MR. SCAROLA: I agree that needs C
The bottom line is that initial screening process screening process is n who survive the ecause the ssary for them or they have come in, been vDdually questioned and they still qualify, se eople all fill out a juror me tie re they leave for the day and ed after filling out the questionnai they're ques onnaire to return the following morning.
I have done it before and have had remarkable results using now Chief Judge Gerber's, then Judge Gerber here in the Circuit Court, his voir dire colloquy on hardship. It's excellent. And it is one that I've had very, very good success utilizing. And I have done it in a group. d the group setting is actually better.
COURT: What are you envisioning -- what ou both envisioning on this questionnaire?
MR. SCAROLA: All of the basic information that takes a long time to gather on an individual basis that we won't need to gather individually; demographic information, marital status, job history --
THE COURT: So you think it would be better
1 2 3 with 100 -- let's use 80 as a round number -- 80 people -- it would be better -- and, Mr. Link, I want your thoughts on the subject, too.
4 MR. LINK: Yes, sir.
6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 THE COURT: It would be better to give them k l the questionnaire, have them fill it out in o r 443-osio at you all could evaluate this informati opposed to going through the standard ques ion aire that I have here, which is one we al with demographic information, the name, pl omicile, occupation, marital st s ouse's occupation, adult child occupa for jury service, parties to any pending pa law suits, similar criminal, A . ., knowing any e S the courtroom -- we'll basically take tha outl f the equation -- and can you and will ou be a fair juror in the case? presence and then dismiss them for the
18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 me SCAROLA: Yes. We include all that 16 \<4;r. n rmation. We request some additional 0 iti ?6\_ nformation as well. They fill out the questionnaires, the questionnaires are gathered, multiple copies are made, the Court has one, each side has a copy or more, if they choose to order them, and we then have a chance to look at them overnight and come back the following day and focus
1 2 our voir dire on those questions that need to be asked.
3 4 THE COURT: I'd like to reserve my right to ask the fairness question, so I don't want that included in the questionnaire.
6 MR. SCAROLA: That's fine.
7 8 9 10 MR. GOLDBERGER: Just procedurally, r Honor, I just did this in a case rece i this circuit, and the procedure request d b Mr. Scarola is close to what we did.
11 12 13 14 15 16 After the individual ough, they A survived the cut, they lied out the questionnaire, act 1 wn in the jury assembly room. They col to the questionnaires for us, they gave u pies overnight, and we came back the next it worked pretty well.
17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 COURT: Okay. So that will be fine. So 11 do on Tuesday is the 100 people that be assembled -- we'll be doing jury selection so report there at 9:30 on Tuesday morning -- we will go ahead and individually speak to the jurors outside the presence of the remainder. I don't want to do it with the noise. As I said, that would be headache producing within minutes. 11A,
MR. SCAROLA: Easiest is just go into the jury room.
THE COURT: I think that's the best way to do it.
And you'll individually question each of the panel after I have introduced everyone, aft r I've had the opportunity to make them as comf bl as possible and to explain what we're do why - want to hint at anything -- some may nize the name right off the bat -- but to them that we have agreed that we wig ion each of you individually so as out only preliminary information con ni the matter at hand, and leave it pr t ch at that. not why we're doing it, because I
And he e'll go over with them if they have any owle ge of Mr. , Mr. Epstein or the hst 'n matter. And I think that's the better to do it.
Obviously, the reason for my doing it, even though it has not come under attack or objection, is because I don't want the entire 100 people to be tainted by one person spouting something that may be of the nature that could arise here. So to avoid that operation -- and, you know, it should be
pointed out and always keep in mind the cost to summon people to jury service is extraordinarily high, and so we don't want to waste the taxpayers' money in that respect as well.
All right. So again, I want to thank and commend each of you for your presentations o ay, all that participated either directly o ir ctly in the presentation of all of your Thank you to our courtroom personn 1, hank you to our staff attorney, who's bee isting me. And I wish you all a pleasant ev,
MS. ROCKENBACH: t or, you almost got SCS" away. I just have o bsed order on the motion S ( 0 to stay that yo Ho r denied earlier, can S AlZsme approach. v a copy to Mr. Scarola just a moment a if
CO RT: Yes. What you can do tomorrow on tantive motions -- I'll be at the Bench Bar C otfference and you have my permission to track me own. Our schedules are posted, so you'll know where I'll be. But I'll be doing the civil presentations during the afternoon. There's two of them. So I'll be able to be reached there.
MR. SCAROLA: Thank you very much, your Honor. THE COURT: Thank you again. Have a great
rest of the week. Thank you again to our courtroom\
personnel. We'll be in recess.
(Thereupon at 4:50 p.m., the hearing was\
concluded.)
NOT A CERTIFIED COPY
### CERTIFICATE
THE STATE OF FLORIDA, COUNTY OF PALM BEACH.
I, Elaine V. Registered Professional Reporter, State of Florida at large, do hereby cer ify that I was authorized to and did report the abov hearing at the time and place herein stated, an t it is a true and correct transcription of my st notes taken during said hearing.
I further certify that I am n a q ney or counsel of any of the parties, nor am I a r lative or employee of any attorney or counsel of connected with the action, nor am I financia nterested in the action.
The foregoing certi c n of this transcript does not apply to any repro t of the same by any means unless under the dime co trol and/or direction of the certifying repor .
IN WITNESS hand this 9th day F, I have hereunto set my h. 2018.
Elaine V. illiams Notary Pub n and for the State of Florida My Co ssi Expires 03/27/21 My CQ ssion #GG 72248
ORDERED a Is Southern District of Florida on 91) 1 O

c417?Valeia,
Raymond B. Ray. Judge United States Bankruptcy Court
### UNITED STATES BANKRUPTCY COU SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF FLO Fort Lauderdale Divisio www.11sb.uscourts.
IN RE:
ROTHSTEIN ROSENFELDT ADLER, P.A.,
Debtor.
. 09-34791-RBR
ER 11
### AGREED ORDER- LUNG HEARING ON MOTION FOR RELIEF FROM AMENDED RDER (DE 1068) AND TO COMPEL JEFFREY EPSTEIN TO PAY FOR THE.ERODUCTION OF ALL DOCUMENTS IN RESPONSE TO HI UESTS FILED B INTERESTED PARTY LEHRMAN P.L.
The S fo Rchef From Amended Order (D.E. #1068) and to Compel Jeffrey Epstein to Pay f ction of All Documents in Response to his Requests filed by Interested Party =, e, Weissing,S., Fistos & Lehrman, P.L a"), was adequately resolved by agreement of the parties as follows. The law firm of Burnett, P.A., will print a hard copy of all of the documents contained on the discs with numbers added, and will provide a set of copied, stamped documents to the Special MI and an identical set to
CASE NO.: 09-34791-RBR
who will use same to create its privilege log. 1= - agrees to prepare that portion of the privilege log relating to emails on or before December 15, 2010, with the remaining portion due thirty days from the date of this order, subject to other courtaa= will not retain any copies of the documents contained on the discs provided to it, nor shall any im caes,or copies of said documents be retained in the memory of = = co ielould it be determined that=a or Epstein retained images or copies of subj ct documents on its computer or otherwise, the Court retains jurisdiction to awa y ons in favor of=, Brad or his client.
As such, the Motion for Relief is deemed m e hearing set on the Motion for Relief [D.E. 1146] set for November 30, 2010%c reby cancelled. The court reserves jurisdiction to tax fees and costs related to the preparation of the privilege log upon filing of a proper motion and hearing thereon. t e,
# \#
Submitted by:
Seth Lehrman, Esq. , JAFFE, WEISSING, EDWARDS, FISTOS & LEHRMAN, P.L. 425 N. Andrews Ave., Suite 2 Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301 Tel.: 954-524-2820 Fax: 954-524-2822 sethri/Matlitoiustice.com
Seth Lehrman, Esq. who is directed to serve this Order to all parties of interest and to file a Certificate of Service.