Psychiatrist Henry Jarecki says he had a ‘consensual’ relationship with a victim of Jeffrey Epstein – NBC Chicago

• Psychiatrist, former commodities trader and entrepreneur Henry Jarecki said he had a “consensual, open and mutually respectful relationship” with one of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims.
• The woman is now suing Jarecki in federal court in New York for alleged rape and sex trafficking.
• The lawsuit accuses Jarecki of “forcing her to be his modern-day sex slave” after Epstein sent her to him for treatment for depression, which she says was the result of Epstein’s sexual abuse.

Well-known psychiatrist and former commodities trader Henry Jarecki said Wednesday that he had a “consensual, open and mutually respectful relationship” with a victim of Jeffrey Epstein who is now suing Jarecki for alleged rape and sex trafficking.

Jarecki, 91, said the consensual relationship with the woman took place more than a decade ago.

His accuser was among a group of women who received compensation from a fund set up for victims of convicted sex offender Epstein, her lawyer told CNBC.

Jarecki’s statement, provided to CNBC by his attorney Sarita Kedia, came two days after the Epstein victim, identified as Jane Doe 11, filed a civil lawsuit against the married psychiatrist in federal court in Manhattan.

That lawsuit accuses Jarecki of “forcing her to be his modern-day sex slave” after wealthy money manager Epstein sent her to his “close” friend Jarecki to treat her for depression that she says was a result of Epstein’s sexual abuse.

The lawsuit alleges that Jarecki was Epstein’s “family doctor” for his sexual abuse victims, and that Jarecki, then about 80 years old, raped the plaintiff during her first visit to him.

In his statement on Wednesday’s lawsuit, Jarecki said: “Attorneys have made false allegations against me and demanded money on behalf of a woman with whom I had a consensual, open and mutually respectful relationship over a decade ago when she was a successful professional in her late 20s.”

“I have not been offensive to her or anyone else,” Jarecki said. “I will challenge these demonstrably false allegations in the appropriate forum.”

Brad Edwards, a lawyer for the plaintiff, wrote in an email to CNBC: “A ‘consensual’ relationship to describe a patient 60 years younger than him, referred by Jeffrey Epstein and known to be a victim of sexual abuse, is at least a creative ‘defense.'”

The indictment against Jarecki alleges that he repeatedly raped the plaintiff from 2011 to December 2014 and eventually forced her to have sexual intercourse with other men in front of him.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages for sexual assault, sex trafficking and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Jarecki, associate professor at the Yale School of Medicine, received
the Pardes Humanitarian Prize in Mental Health from the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation.

He and his son Andrew Jarecki, a documentary filmmaker, sold the online ticket website Moviefone, which they co-founded, to AOL in 1999 for nearly $390 million in stock.

Epstein, 66, committed suicide in a federal prison in Manhattan in August 2019, a month after he was arrested in New York on child sex trafficking charges.

Numerous women have accused Epstein of sexually abusing them in his lavish townhouse on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, on his private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands and at his residence in New Mexico.

Epstein was a former friend of Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, Britain’s Prince Andrew and other wealthy celebrities and businessmen.