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Case 1:19-cr-00830-AT Document 1 Filed 11/19/19 Page 1 of 20 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK UNITED STATES OF AMERICA -v. - TOVA NOEL and MICHAEL THOMAS, Defendants. ---X - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - X INTRODUCTION INDICTMENT 830 1. On or about August 10, 2019, TOVA NOEL and MICHAEL THOMAS, the defendants, in dereliction of their duties as correctional officers at the Metropolitan Correctional Center ("MCC"), repeatedly failed to perform mandated counts of prisoners under their watch in the MCC' s Special Housing Unit ("SHU"). Instead, for substantial portions of their shifts, NOEL and THOMAS sat at their desk, browsed the internet, and moved around the common area of the SHU. To conceal their failure to perform their duties, NOEL and THOMAS repeatedly signed false certifications attesting to having conducted multiple counts of inmates when, in truth and in fact, they never conducted such counts. As a result of those false statements, the MCC believed prisoners in the SHU were being regularly monitored and accounted for when, in fact, as a result of the defendants' conduct, no correctional officer conducted any count or round of the SHU from approximately 10:30 Case 1:19-cr-00830-AT Document 1 Filed 11/19/19 Page 2 of 20 p.m. on August 9 until approximately 6:30 a.m. on August 10, at which time, as alleged herein, NOEL and THOMAS discovered the body of an MCC inmate, Jeffrey Epstein, who had committed suicide overnight while unobserved. RELEVANT INDIVIDUALS AND ENTITIES 2. The MCC is a federal administrative detention facility located in Manhattan that is run by the Federal Bureau of Prisons ("BOP"). The MCC is one of several facilities used to house inmates who have been charged with federal crimes in the Southern District of New York and are awaiting trial. The MCC employs correctional officers, whose primary duty is to ensure the care, custody, and control of the inmate population of the MCC. 3. TOVA NOEL, the defendant, has been employed as a correctional officer at the MCC since approximately 2016. As of August 2019, NOEL's primary assignment was the SHU. On August 9, 2019, NOEL worked a regular shift from 4 p.m. to 12 a.m. in the SHU, and then worked an overtime shift from 12 a.m. to 8 a.m. on August 10, 2019, also in the SHU. NOEL had also worked a regular shift in the SHU the day before, August 8, 2019, from 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. 4. MICHAEL THOMAS, the defendant, has been employed as a correctional officer at the MCC since approximately 2007. Beginning in approximately 2013, THOMAS was assigned to work as a 2 Case 1:19-cr-00830-AT Document 1 Filed 11/19/19 Page 3 of 20 materials handler supervisor, al though THOMAS regularly worked overtime shifts as a correctional officer, including in the SHU. THOMAS worked an overtime shift in the SHU on August 10, 2019, from 12 a.m. to 8 a.m. THOMAS did not work his regular shift on August 8 or August 9, 2019, but did work an overtime shift in the SHU on August 9, 2019 from 12 a.m. to 8 a.m. 5. As detailed herein, Jeffrey Epstein was incarcerated at the MCC between his arrest on July 6, 2019, and his suicide on August 10, 2019. Epstein was detained pending trial in the Southern District of New York on sex trafficking charges. THE MCC AND INSTITUTIONAL COUNTS 6. The MCC, which houses approximately 750 inmates at any given time, assigns inmates to various housing units within the MCC. The SHU is a housing unit within the MCC where inmates are securely separated from the general inmate population to ensure their own safety as well as the safety of staff and other inmates. The SHU is located on the ninth floor of the MCC, and access to that floor is controlled by a locked door that can be opened remotely only by an officer in the MCC's centralized control center (the "Control Centern), which is located on the first floor of the MCC. Access into the SHU is also controlled by a second locked door to which only correctional officers assigned to the SHU have 3 Case 1:19-cr-00830-AT Document 1 Filed 11/19/19 Page 4 of 20 keys while on duty. Within the SHU, inmates are assigned to six separate tiers, each of which can be accessed only via a single locked door to which the correctional officers assigned to the SHU have keys while on duty. Each tier has eight cells, each of which can house either one or two prisoners, and each individual cell - which is made of cement and metal -is accessed only through a single locked door, to which only correctional officers assigned to the SHU have keys while on duty. 7. The BOP requires correctional officers assigned to guard inmates at the MCC to conduct institution-wide counts of inmates at regular, scheduled intervals to ensure that each inmate is alive and accounted for within the MCC (the "institutional count") On weekdays, the MCC conducts five institutional counts at 4 p.m., 10 p.m., 12 a.m., 3 a.m., and 5 a.m. Performing an institutional count is one of the most basic and essential aspects of a correctional officer's job, and the count is one of the most basic and essential functions of daily operation of the MCC. Two officers are required to perform the institutional count for each housing unit, including the SHU, and are further required to document their performance of the count on an official MCC form called a count slip. To perform the institutional count in the SHU, two officers must walk from tier to tier to observe and count each individual inmate. 4 Case 1:19-cr-00830-AT Document 1 Filed 11/19/19 Page 5 of 20 8. On the count slip, both correctional officers are required to fill in the date and time the count was performed, write the total number of inmates physically present in the unit counted, and then sign the count slip. Once the correctional officers have completed and signed the count slips, the count slips are then collected and delivered to the Control Center, where officers within the Control Center are responsible for comparing the count slips from each housing unit to the institution's inmate roster to ensure that each inmate is accounted for. Only after all the count slips are collected from each housing unit, and the numbers on the slips are matched to the institution's inmate roster, can the institutional count be deemed "cleared" or completed. incomplete, If a housing unit's count slip is incorrect or then the institution cannot "clear" the count. Instead, the count must be completely redone in that housing unit via a more-intensive version of the institutional count called a "bed book count," in which officers must compare every individual inmate to the institution's inmate roster. Records of each institutional count, including the count slips, are provided to a supervising official and retained by the MCC. 9. In addition to the institutional count, the BOP requires correctional officers assigned to the SHU to walk each of the tiers of the SHU -which is called a "round" -every thirty 5 Case 1:19-cr-00830-AT Document 1 Filed 11/19/19 Page 6 of 20 minutes ("30-minute rounds"). Like the institutional counts, correctional officers conduct 30-minute rounds to ensure that each inmate is alive and accounted for within his cell. Correctional officers working in the SHU are required to complete a form, which is reviewed and signed by their supervisor, documenting the date and time of each 30-minute round in each tier of the SHU. EPSTEIN'S PRIOR APPARENT SUICIDE ATTEMPT 10. On July 6, 2019, inmate Jeffrey Epstein was arrested and detained at the MCC on sex trafficking charges. On July 10, 2019, Epstein was assigned to the SHU due to, among other things, risk factors for suicidality and safety concerns relating to housing him with the MCC's ge