Jeffrey Epstein accuser sues prominent psychiatrist for making her a ‘sex slave’ | WSAU News/Talk 550 AM · 99.9 FM

By Jonathan Stamp

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A well-known 91-year-old psychiatrist who was once close friends with Jeffrey Epstein was sued on Monday by a former model, with the court saying he facilitated the late financier’s sex trafficking and turned her into his “modern-day sex slave.”

In a lawsuit filed in federal court in Manhattan, the plaintiff, who goes by the pseudonym Jane Doe 11, alleged that Henry Jarecki repeatedly raped her beginning in 2011 after Epstein referred her for psychiatric treatment following his own sexual assaults.

Doe also said Jarecki was Epstein’s “go-to guy” for young women with depression, that he passed on victims’ confidential medical information to Epstein and that he shielded Epstein from law enforcement.

“The allegations will prove to be completely false and baseless,” said Sarita Kedia, a lawyer for Jarecki. “Dr. Jarecki has never behaved in an offensive manner toward the plaintiff or any other person.”

In her civil lawsuit, Does seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages for sexual assault, emotional distress and violations of the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Act.

Epstein committed suicide in a Manhattan jail cell in August 2019 at the age of 66 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

Jarecki, of Rye, New York, is the latest of numerous people to be charged over their connection to the registered sex offender.

He is a long-time faculty member at Yale University and is the author of, among other things, the book “Modern Psychiatric Treatment.”

Jarecki also became rich through commodities trading and in 1999 sold MovieFone, a company he founded with his son, to America Online for about $388 million in stock.

Although Jarecki was in Epstein’s public address book, Monday’s lawsuit appears to be the first to address their relationship.

“BEST DOCTOR IN NEW YORK CITY”

Monday’s lawsuit says Doe came to the U.S. in 2010 to apply for a visa to work as a model when another model told her Epstein could help her career.

She said Epstein sent her to Jarecki when she became depressed and called him “the best doctor in New York City.”

But instead of helping, Jarecki allegedly promised to “save” Doe from Epstein by pushing her to move into an apartment around the corner in Manhattan’s Gramercy Park neighborhood that he could monitor from his own bedroom.

Doe said Jarecki, then in his late 70s, began using the apartment to coerce her into having sex, threatening to suspend her job or hand her over to Epstein if she did not cooperate.

She also said that Jarecki ordered her to go to bed at 10 p.m., and that if he saw the light on at 10:15 p.m., he would call her and tell her to go to sleep. He also expressed his displeasure if she didn’t smile enough.

The indictment accuses Jarecki of “violently raping Jane Doe 11 dozens of times in New York” and smuggling her to his private Caribbean island where he sexually abused her.

Others who have been charged for their ties to Epstein include his ex-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell. A U.S. appeals court is considering whether to overturn her conviction and 20-year prison sentence for aiding and abetting Epstein’s sex trafficking.

Brad Edwards, a lawyer for Doe and more than 200 other Epstein accusers, declined to comment further on the lawsuit on Monday, but said: “We want other survivors to know that it is safe to come forward.”

The case is Doe v. Jarecki, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, No. 24-04208.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Nick Zieminski)