← The Epstein Chronicles
The Epstein Chronicles
The Captain Of Security Operations At MCC And His OIG Deposition (Part 12) (6/5/26)
00:15:13
The document is a sworn OIG interview transcript from June 15, 2021, involving the Bureau of Prisons captain who oversaw security operations at MCC New York during the period surrounding Jeffrey Epstein’s death. The captain described the command...
Loading summary
Transcript1 lines
- [00:00]
A
What's up everyone? And welcome to another episode of the Epstein Chronicles. In this episode, we're getting right back to the unnamed CO captain and his interview with the OIG investigators. Question. All right. Okay. Answer. And then on the morning watch, there is only two people in the unit. Question. Right. Answer so they're both complicit. Answer and I know I said bad count officer should come down. How often should. I mean, a lieutenant should come down. How often should lieutenants be observing the counts? And we're talking about in the shoe. Answer well, in the shoe. In the shoe, a lieutenant would have been monitoring what I believe that 10 South. Count. Question 10 South. What about like where Epstein was in regular shoe? Answer well, no, but we didn't implement that until after Epstein's incident. Question alright, so up to August 10, lieutenants were not observing counts. No question. They were simply taking the count in the control room. That is Control. That is correct. Question okay, redacted. Was aware that the camera system in the shoe was down. He left early on Thursday when the discussion about the camera system would have occurred. Mr. What is Mr. Redacted's first name? I can't remember his first name. Question now, is he like a CO though, or like he gets cut off by the guard? No, he would be. He's a Comtech employee. Question comtech, but a BoP employee? Answer yeah. Question the camera technician notified redacted that he was working on the system earlier that week. But redacted. Did not know specifics and was not informed that the cameras were not functioning. Since the. Since you don't know or didn't know that any of the true cameras may have been out? No. Question okay. Since the. And who would have been responsible? Was he the one responsible for that? Yeah. Question so if he's notified that the camera is now out, how soon thereafter should he get that up and running? No. If he was aware that the camera system was down and was not working, he should have contacted me. And then I immediately contact the AW and the warden because that's a security situation. Question and in this instance. So in this instance he didn't do that. Answer no. Question. All right. And would anyone else have known that a shoe camera was down? Answer I don't know. Question no. Okay. I can't remember. I don't even. That's. I don't remember. Do you know if a camera in the shoe was ever down? Yeah. Question okay, what camera? Answer I know that there were issues with the cameras, but because we had done a program review before then, and There was cameras down in 10 south, so we had got those fixed, you know, in the individual cells. And then there was a camera system that was down because I believe they was doing some type of maintenance on the ranges or something like that that everyone was aware of. That's all I can remember. Question okay. Answer and I don't remember specifics and time frames. Question all right, but you don't know specifically if like for instance, the range that Epstein was on that camera was out or not that I don't know for sure. You're not sure? Yeah, no. Question okay, but again, if it was, it would have been redacted. And what did you say the last name was redacted? Christopher Redacted. Question and how do you spell the last name? Redacted Question can you say that one more time? Answer Redacted. Question Perfect. The other investigator jumps in. Now, just had a quick question. Who was that conversation about the discussion? You mentioned that there was a discussion. He gets cut off by the guard. Mr. Redacted. He gets cut off now by the other investigator. No, when you said that the discussion would have happened. Answer oh, question Right. I think that's the date of indiscernible. Question well, no, it says Mr. Redacted. The camera technician notified redacted that he was working on the system earlier the week. He's saying that he left early on Thursday when the discussion about the camera system would have occurred. Answer Would have. So he should have known. Question if. If there was a conversation, but you don't know that there was. Answer no, because like in closeout or if there was something with the warden that day. Normally on Thursdays at times, you know, it was for my. I have a disease. So I would go for blood work on Thursdays when I could. If an institution emergency, you know. But normally on Thursday, I would leave early on Thursday. I would take a half a day to go to my medical appointments. So if there was a meeting that was convened about the camera systems, I wasn't present at that meeting. However, I know that a camera project was going on during that time which Mr. Adapted was responsible for installing the new. I don't know what, I can't remember what you call it, but it's a system because our system was an antique. So they was doing camera repairs. There was certain cameras down in certain areas of the institution, but he was actively working on that. Question. So if there was a meeting that you were not aware of on Thursday, who would have been present for it for a meeting with the warden? It would have been with the warden? Yeah, it would have been. I mean the warden would have known if someone had a meeting about the camera system being down and then probably the facility's manager, which is redacted. It would have been the aw of custody at that time, which would have been Ms. Redacted and of course it would have been the warden. Question didn't you say it was actually somebody else Redacted was no longer the custody. Answer misredacted. Ms. Redacted was there, but she had just got there. She was over another discipline. So that would have been the meeting with the executive staff. Question okay, so it was the executive staff meeting. Would that meeting also have taken place if the cameras are still down on Friday? Would it have taken place on Friday as well? Answer that would have been Friday as well. Question but you weren't involved with a meeting like that. Answer no. Question and you don't know of a meeting taking place? Answer no Question okay, would it have just taken place every day that the camera was down or just the first day there would have been an update because the person that falls under that the contact is redacted. So the aw over facilities would have wanted an update weekly report as well as the captain because that's a security issue. So we would have wanted but the camera system was down because I think it was down for some routine maintenance that they was doing anyway. Question now, would any lieutenant or shoe staff have known that the camera was down? Answer Some. I mean they don't have the ability to monitor. But you know, of course the ones in 10 south, you know, he gets cut off by the guard. Yeah, they were live monitoring. Answer yeah, the live monitoring. So of course. Question and do you know and you don't know though, even to this date if a camera was in fact down? Answer I can't remember. Question in fact. Answer I don't know. Question okay, that's fine. I was just going to ask, even if it wasn't recording, do you know if it was like being a live monitor or anything like that? Or it could have been. Answer I'm unaware. Question okay, okay. So after receiving a phone call from redacted on the morning of Saturday, August 10, 2019. Redacted. Notified Associate Warden. Redacted. Who informed the warden. Redacted. Also attempted to call institution duty officer Nathaniel Redacted to chaplain and in the building to get more information. What does that mean by the building? Do you know? Answer so basically, you know, it was just. It was just a bunch of, you know, people that we tried to notify. I tried to notify. So I think I notified Ms. Redacted. Of course she notifies the warden. I notified the ido. I said hey, because in May death they needed me coming into the institution because that's one of their off times. So they needed to be making a. Because they're going to be responsible for making certain calls to the region. I notified the chaplain because chaplain made sure indiscernible. Also I believe I informed them to call redacted phonetic which was executive assistant, I think redacted. Or I may have called Mr. Johnson, the attorney for MCC. I'm trying to think who else. Question no, that's fine. And it says that he went to the MCC, arriving before 8am approximately upon arrival of redacted screened in and retrieved his gear from the third floor. He went to the shoe and signed the logbook. He gathered any records pertaining to Epstein, including the 30 minute round logbook, the attorney conference logbook, count slips and E1s. What are you ones? Answer so all this stuff right here. So you basically I walk through the building, I know the protocol because what happens is the these things will come up missing, then you have no evidence. So I secured count slips, the E1s. I went to the shoe, I got all the logbooks that I knew where Epstein had been. I grabbed those logbooks, I went to the shoe. I took his inmate shoe file from the special housing, plus all the round sheets. Indiscernible. Question this actually says he could not locate in Epstein's inmate file. Do you remember that? It was a file, but it had limited stuff in there. Question okay, so his actual file. Yeah, had his picture, had a couple things on there, but it wasn't anything in it. Question so when it says not locate a file, you located the file. It was just, it was empty. Question it was empty. And is that abnormal? No, it's not abnormal. Question oh, it's not normal. It's normal. No. Question and do you think that somebody removed things from it? Answer no, I'm not going to make that accusation. I don't know. I would just say that that's not a normal instance. That's being working as a former oic, being a correctional officer and all of that stuff. That's not normal. Question what stuff's usually in there? Answer I can tell you it would be all of his. The inmate screening stuff that we do on the inmates, the expectation cell assignment things that the inmate's supposed to sign, the clothing issue forms. It would be 292s in there. It would be the SRO. It would also be the psychology, where psychology comes down to see these guys. That notes should have been placed in there. And none of that was in there. None of that was in there. Where is that file located? It's supposed to be located in the oic. And when you say the oic, is that the shoe where the OIC sits? Answer yeah. Question and so anyone could have had access to that? Answer yes. Question and had you ever seen that file before that time? Answer no. Question did you ever locate it after that time? Answer no. Question so it's likely that someone took documents out if they should have been there and they're not there. Is that answer correct? Question so someone likely. I'm not saying who did it, but someone likely did it. Answer in my belief, yes, those documents were purposefully taken. Question and can you think of a reason why they would have been taken? Answer I don't know, sir. Question all right, but you had never seen them before? Answer no, sir. That was. That wouldn't be my purview to go through to audit those files. Who would be the person to ask about that? That would have been the lieutenant. So Lieutenant redacted. Lieutenant redacted or the Lieutenant. He would have been the one that audited those files. Question okay. Answer because they do SROs. Question and did you ask him where the file was? Of course I called him. Question and what did he say? Answer he didn't know. He had no knowledge. Question all right, so he claimed he didn't know anything about it. Did he ever say he looked at the files before? Answer no. I don't remember him saying that. But when I called him that Saturday, because I had conversations with Lt. Redacted on that Saturday and that Sunday, because he was supposed to come to work on that Sunday. So once he found out about the situation with Epstein, because I had called him and I said, hey, man, where is this inmate file? What are you talking about? I said, his shoe file's not up there, xyz. So I informed him of what happened Sunday. I get the call that he broke his leg, and then Lieutenant Redacted was out for like, six months. And did he really break his leg? I wouldn't know. Is there any reason to believe or had you heard that he actually. He gets cut off by the guard, and again, he was supposed to be in that training, like I said, right? What would you call it when you go for reserve training? You do it every month. Question yeah, he's in the military, right? Because of his Military training. So he tells me that they're doing the PT the next day, which was Sunday. He broke his leg. Question did he ever provide any kind of proof of an injured leg? Answer he did provide something, but it was from a doctor. I, I mean, and that was sent through. He provided documentation. I can't, I don't, I'm not a doctor, so I can't tell you what it is and I'm not going to call the doctor to verify if that was the situation. But basically it said that he had a substantial leg injury that prevented him from coming to work. Question so have you had any conversations with him since? Answer oh, he came back. So then. So redacted. Went out in August and September, October, November, December, October. I think he came back either December or January of 2019. So he came back and he went up to the shoe as oic. Question and ever any conversations about this matter? I had discussed it with him on the phone twice. Question and tell me about those discussions. Those discussions. So basically I asked him about the inmate file. I had talked to him about it that Sunday. He alerted me that he was injured. When he came back, we had discussions that the staff, when he told me and redacted were I go, I would say, out of all the lieutenants, me and redacted. We spoke a lot. I thought very highly of him. And he would talk and he was saying that he was having difficulties with the staff and his other peers because he, you know, the appearance was that he faked the injury and not to be part of what everybody else was going through during that Epstein situation. So he was getting it from the lieutenants. He was also getting it from the line staff. All right, folks, we're going to wrap up right here. And in the next episode dealing with the topic, we're going to pick up where we left off. All the information that goes with this episode can be found in the description box.