EFTA00141230.pdf

Questions for My name is and I am a Senior Special Agent with the U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General, New York Field Office, and these are my credentials (Show credentials} This interview with Federal Bureau of Prisons employee is being conducted as part of an official U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General (Dal OIG) investigation. Today's date is September 29, 2021. The time is This interview is being conducted at O16 New York Field Office located at One Battery Park Plaza, New York. NY. Also present is DOJ OIG ASAC Ryan Geach in person and Special Agent Lyeson by telephone. This interview will be recorded by me, SSA Could everyone please identify themselves for the record and spell your last name? To start, again, I am DOJ OIG Senior Special Agent Dennis Matulewcz (spell last name) ASAC Geach and SA SUBJECT This is an official DOJ OIG investigation into the death of inmate Jeffrey Epstein and the surrounding circumstances and you are being asked to voluntarily provide answers our questions. Will you agree to a voluntary interview with the DOJ OIG? Please review DOJ OIG Form III - 226/2. (Read the form aloud and allow the interviewee and her representative time to read it.) Do you understand the OIG form? OATH Before starting the interview, I would like to place you under oath. Mr. can you please raise your right hand? Do you swear to tell the truth and nothing but the truth during this interview? EFTA00141230 Were you previously interviewed by the O16 at the MCC on July 15, 2019? Is it correct that the MCC cameras were not working properly in August 2019? When did you first learn that the MCC cameras were not working properly? How did you learn that the cameras were not working properly? Did the cameras stop recording on July 29, 2019? How do you know? When did you first find out? What stopped them from recording? What happened on August 8, 2019? Did you have a conversation with SIS Lt and AW about the cameras not recording on August 8, 2019? If so, please explain in detail (who, what, when, where, and why). Did you know that the cameras weren't recording prior to that time? If so, how and when? If not, why not? (i.e. Don't staff members have to review video on a regular occurrence?) Had you checked on the cameras/camera servers prior to that time? Did LT AW =, or Captain tell you to fix the cameras immediately? EFTA00141231 Did you? If not, why not? What steps did you take to resolve the issue? Was anybody else in the camera room with you when you were attempting to fix the cameras? When you realized that you could not resolve the issue on August 8, 2019, did you notify anyone that you needed more time? Who and how? What was your understanding about how important it was that the camera issue was resolved before you went home? What instructions did you receive from Lt. MI, AWIMI, or Captain regarding the camera issue being resolved asap? Did Lt relay that she spoke with the Captain and he wanted the cameras to be fixed immediately? (Lt. spoke with the Captain and wrote memo regarding cameras not working. Captain told her the issue must be resolved asap. She relayed that to and agreed to work overtime to resolve it.) Did you agree to work overtime on August 8, 2019, to resolve the issue before you went home? Why did you go home? What happened on August 9, 2019? Did you attempt to gain access to the SIS Office? If so, how? If not, why not? Did you ask anyone to provide you access to the 515 Office? Did you ask the Captain, any AWs, or the Warden? During your last interview, why did you tell us that you first learned of the cameras going down on August 9, 2019? EFTA00141232 When and why did you decide to work on Saturday, August 10, 2019? Who provided you authorization to work overtime? When did they provide it? And how? Did they provide it on August 8, 2019, or August 9, 2019? If you couldn't gain access to the SIS Office on Friday, August 9, 2019, how would have you gained access to the SIS Office on Saturday, August 10, 2019? On August 10, 2019, did anyone, such as LT or AW =, question you on why you had not fixed the cameras on August 8, 2019? Explain. What happened on August 10, 2019? Explain in detail the steps that were taken? Did you have the new camera equipment already ready, or did you have to go get it? Where did you get the camera equipment and when? When did the FBI show up? What actions did they take? Go over all documentation and communication and ask for clarifications and explanations. SIGNET Did you contact SIGNET to assist you in resolving the issue? (Go over SigNet docs) SIGNET Service Request #24975: Detailed Description "Raid is showing 2 "S"s on the display" What does this mean? EFTA00141233 Comment by on August 14, 2019, 8:02pm called us on Thursday August 8th stating that he had 2 bad drives on his raid unit of the NICE Vision Pro Unit NVR. We advised him to get replacement drives. Once they ore replaced they should start to initialize to become available for the raid array. Hughwon did not have drives readily available. He checked with his local am to see if they had any spare replacement drives." Is this accurate? Who or what is CSM? Why could you not locate the replacement drives? Did they have to be ordered? Comment by on August 14, 2019, 8:02pm CONTINUED: "Once he located replacement drives on Friday August 9th, he did not have access to the DVR room to replace them. He called Signet for phone support on Saturday August lath when he gained access to the DVR room. He attempted to replace the drives and they started to rebuild. During the rebuild process of the drives, the drives were required to be taken out of the raid on DVR 2. Once the drives are removed without proper shutdown of the recorder, the video database becomes corrupted. Typically, any time the raid on a raid 5 configuration loses 2 drives, the raid needs to be rebuilt and all data is wiped from the raid." Is this accurate? What did the rebuild process entail? Did you, personally, pull out the drives from the raid? How many did you pull out? Did you pull out both the bad drives at same time and replace them both? Is it true that if two drives are pulled out at the same time it will get corrupted? stated that if two drives are pulled out at the same time then it will get corrupted) Did you know that? After you replaced them, did the raid start the rebuild process? Was it successful? What did you do with the two drives you pulled from the raid? EFTA00141234 Did you explain to the FBI SA that the cameras were not recording and that you had pulled the two drives out that morning to in an attempt to fix the issue? Did you tell the SA that the drives were currently rebuilding and that shutting it down would cause it to become corrupted? Is it true that you were previously interviewed by the FBI on this matter? REVIEW FBI 302: The FBI interview report reads as follows: t advised that only one hard drive of the camera system was working at the time of the incident on August 10, 2019. When a DVR went bad, none of the cameras recorded. There was a system failure of DVR 2 on July 29, 2019, and the motherboard failed on DVR 2 on August 8, 2019. The hard drive failure occurred on August 10, 2019." Is this accurate? What does "there was a system failure" mean? Per from SigNet, this looks to be an error coming from the Video Management Server. There is an application within the Video Management System software called "Supervision." This application monitors connection between the main Application server which manages authentication for users to access live, recorded video, and ability to export video along with many other customizable features, and system devices such as DVRs, cameras, video encoders, or video decoders. If this is the case, then this would have been the message from the "Supervision" application showing that there was a lost connection to DVR 2. Is this accurate? What caused the system failure and what effect did it have? Per this situation could be caused by a power outage or improper shutdown of the DVR. Is this accurate? Did either occur? When and how did he learn about this system failure? Did you have access to the application "Supervision"? EFTA00141235 Did you ever utilize the application? Did you ever access the application and see that there was an issue with the cameras? Explain the application and when you utilized it. Who else had access to the Application "Supervision"? Could someone have stopped the cameras from recording by accessing the Application? If so, did you or they? What does "the motherboard failed on DVR 2" mean? Per In the case of a motherboard failure, this would cause the Operating System, such as Windows, to shut down or fail. When this happens, it would stop recording to the hard drives because the recorder software requires Windows operating system to be operational to record data to the hard drives. Also when the motherboard fails, the network connectivity is lost because the network card is dependent on the motherboard to be functioning and Windows to be running for the network card driver to be operational. If and when the motherboard failed, this would have caused the network card to shut off thus triggering the above message of a "system failure of DVR 2" because it can no longer communicate with the DVR. Is this accurate? What caused the motherboard failure and what effect did it have? Per the motherboard failure could have been caused by a power outage or improper shutdown of the DVR. Is this accurate? Did either happen? What does it mean that the hard drive failure occurred on August 10, 2019? Per if there was a message that stated this in the "Supervision" application of the Video Management System, this would indicate that the "Failed Motherboard" had been either recovered, EFTA00141236 repaired, or replaced and now functioning because this would allow Windows operating system to run, allowing recording to be in operation, and communication to the Application Management Server restored. If there is one hard drive failure, the system is recoverable by replacing the drive and letting it rebuild. If there were 2 drives simultaneously failed, then the recorded video data is lost and unrecoverable due to the raid array needing new configuration as new drives are added. Is this accurate? Is this what happened? What caused the hard drive failure? Per this could be caused by normal "wear and tear" and age of the hard drives. Is this accurate? Is this what happened? What effect did the hard drive failure have? Did the hard drives fail when you replaced the two drives? Are you the one who replaced the two drives? The FBI report also reads: "After the incident, was asked about the cameras. There were two new hard drives to install but installing the new hard drives would mean that oil prior data would be lost. The Warden wonted video and so was told to start working on the system. started removing the bad drives in order to rebuild the DVR. advised that an FBI Agent was the one who pulled out the DVR. also advised that he knew that by replacing both hard drives, the system would be wiped and that he had advised personnel at MCC of that" Is this accurate? It says that the Warden wanted video so you started working on the system. What exactly did you do? Who replaced both of the hard drives? Did you know at the time that replacing both the hard drives would cause the system to be wiped? Did you tell anyone that this would happen? EFTA00141237 Explain the full conversation you had. Who gave the ok to move forward with replacing the drives? Around what time did this conversation happen? What time did the FBI show up at the MCC? Was the FBI made aware that by replacing the two drives that morning, you might have wiped the system? Service Request #22855 Created February 28, 2019 : "Raid just crashed" "Problem Description: Raid needs rebuilt. I need any documentation that you may have pertaining to rebuilding the raid from the front LCD" Is this the same issue that also happened between July 29th and August 10, 2019? Did the cameras stop recording back in February? Did the system lose any of the video footage? Who was notified about this issue back in February 2019? Were any corrective measures taken to ensure that the Raid did not fail again and data become lost or corrupted? If the proper steps were taken to ensure safety measures after the February 2019 failure, could the August 2019 system failure have been avoided? Go over email. You wrote this email to =I on August 9, 2019, regarding issues that need to be addressed at the MCC. Why was the camera issue not listed on your email? Should the issue have been listed? Go over notes from previous interview EFTA00141238