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A federal judge said Sarah Kellen was “criminally responsible” for Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking scheme.
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Witnesses at Ghislaine Maxwell’s trial said Kellen had planned sexual “massages” with him.
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Prosecutors have not charged Kellen, who has described herself as a victim.
In the process of Ghislaine Maxwell at the end of last year, a name kept popping up.
It was another woman who, witnesses said, played an important role in facilitating Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse of teenage girls: Sarah Kellen.
Kellen, multiple witnesses said at the trial, played a similar role to Maxwell in Epstein’s sex trafficking scheme. As of 2002, she worked in Epstein’s office building on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. One of Epstein’s private pilots said she worked as a personal assistant for both Epstein and Maxwell.
She arranged flights on Epstein’s private jets and arranged for his victims to sit on them, witnesses said. Kellen also arranged “massages” — up to three a day — in which Epstein would rape his victims, witnesses testify. One of the victims in the trial, Carolyn, testified that Kellen took nude photos of her at least once for a sexualized massage appointment with Epstein for which she was paid hundreds of dollars.
Kellen’s name came up again in court on Tuesday, during a hearing where U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan sentenced Maxwell to 20 years in prison†
When discussing the scope of Maxwell’s role in Epstein’s sex trafficking scheme, Nathan identified Kellen as “a knowing participant in the criminal conspiracy” and said she was “a criminally responsible participant”.
“The defendant was Epstein’s No. 2 and the lady of the house,” Nathan said, referring to Maxwell. “At some point, Kellen took over some of the defendant’s duties. But even after that time, the defendant maintained her leadership position, as shown by Carolyn’s testimony.’
Today, Kellen lives in Manhattan, a short walk from the courthouse where Maxwell was convicted.
She was Photographed Friday in SoHo by photographers for The Daily Mail, who reported living in a $5.2 million penthouse nearby with her husband, race car driver Brian Vickers. (Kellen has also used the names Sarah Vickers and Sarah Kensington). She also owns a $6.2 million penthouse in Miami, The Daily Mail reported.
It is not clear why prosecutors have not filed criminal charges against Kellen.
They didn’t call her as a witness at Maxwell’s trial, in which… Maxwell’s lawyers argued that their client was a scapegoat for Epstein and Kellen. in 2019, The New York Times reported: that prosecutors were considering charges against her.
Kellen has said she was a victim
In an interview with the sun in 2020Kellen described herself as a “victim” of Epstein who was “raped and abused weekly”.
But during a discussion at Tuesday’s hearing about how to apply the sentencing guidelines for Maxwell, assistant US attorney Alison Moe said Kellen’s involvement in working for her and Epstein illustrated the scope of the criminal conspiracy.
“If you look at the defendant’s role in previous years, she did things like calling victims and arranging massage appointments,” Moe said. “As the schema shifted, they brought another member of the schema into the schema’s structure and hierarchy. The defendant remained a close associate. She often traveled with them, often with Kellen. So when Kellen took it up some of the duties subsequently delegated to a lower-ranking member of the conspiracy, the defendant was higher up in the leadership structure.”
Kellen could not be reached for comment.
She was mentioned in the infamous non-prosecution agreement Epstein made with federal prosecutors in Florida in 2007, where he pleaded guilty to state-level prostitution charges. As part of the agreement, the prosecutors also agreed not to bring charges against Kellen and three of Epstein’s other female employees.
A compensation fund (established after Epstein died in prison awaiting trial over his own series of sex trafficking charges) also refused to “remove” Kellen from the release form, protecting her from civil lawsuits against one of the plaintiffs who took money. from the program, as Insider previously reported†
Epstein Victims’ Compensation Program identified a total of 225 of its victims†
While Maxwell’s attorneys argued that Florida’s 2007 no-prosecution agreement protected her from federal charges, Nathan sided with the prosecutors and rejected that argument† It’s not clear whether her ruling would also apply to other charges that federal prosecutors in Manhattan could bring against other Epstein employees.
Lesley Groff, another former Epstein aide named in the 2007 non-prosecution agreement, will not face criminal charges, her lawyers told Insider late last year† Groff has been portrayed as one of Epstein’s enablers in civil lawsuits that have since been dropped.
After Maxwell’s conviction, one of her victims, Annie Farmer, told reporters that she hoped the 20-year sentence would send a signal to abusers that they will be punished.
“I just hope this sentence is another sign that victims are coming together and saying ‘no more,'” Farmer said. “If you commit these crimes, you will be punished. If you facilitate these crimes, you will be punished. If you are a bystander looking the other way, you should no longer be placed in a position of power.”
Read the original article Insider