Breaking news from The New York Times on Monday morning read that two prison guards on duty the night of Jeffrey Epstein's arkancide suicide were to be taken into custody and charged for not checking in on the high-risk inmate the night his life ended.

Sure enough, a few hours later, guards Tova Noel and her supervisor, Michael Thomas, saw a federal judge for the Southern District of New York after a grand jury indicted them on six counts of fraud and forgery.  Both were arrested and then released Tuesday on $100,000 bonds.

Also released was the indictment, which outlined the correctional officers' actions the night Epstein died.  Noel, who was clocked in on a 16-hour shift, and Thomas, also receiving overtime pay, browsed the internet for furniture, motorcycle sales, sports news, and benefit programs — and supposedly took a two-hour nap together.

The wording about this mid-shift slumber in the indictment as an assumption stands out, considering the certainty with which all other information is expressed.  With other cameras mysteriously malfunctioning within the prison on the night of Epstein's death, and known problems with security CCTV, even napping guards move, and footage can freeze, continuously recording one moment.  This only fuels theories that an outside force possibly interfered and ended Epstein's life.

Initial reports following the incident in August exposed that the two MCC workers  were tasked with checking in on prisoners in the "special housing unit" (SHU) at 30-minute intervals but fell asleep for three hours.  The new indictment document adds that they never completed even one of these rounds and additional "institutional checks" (which specifically call for making sure prisoners are accounted for and alive) for an eight-hour period.  Being the only two guards on duty in the unit with the most at-risk prisoners in MCC, the pair agreed to falsify and signed documents stating that they completed these checks more than 75 times.

Also revealed in the indictment is new information pertaining to Epstein's prior "suicide attempt."  On July 23, Epstein was found on the floor in his cell with a torn bedsheet around his neck.  One of the officers who responded to the emergency was also Michael Thomas.  Epstein then remained on some form of psychological suicide watch for a week before being transferred to the SHU.  Part of the release from the psych unit mandated that Epstein was to have another inmate housed with him at all times.  But on the morning of August 9, his roommate was removed and after a long attorney visit, Epstein returned to an empty cell.  This broke the prison's own protocols and psychological staff's requirements.

Michael Thomas.  Photo credit: CBS Evening News screen shot.

Because of Jeffrey Epstein's high-risk status, he was placed in the closest cell to the guard control room, so at the time of his death, Noel and Thomas were no more than 15 feet away.  At 6:30 A.M., the guards finally began checking on the inmates for the first time since 10 P.M. the prior evening, and just three minutes later, an emergency was called in to the prison's dispatch.

When a supervisor arrives, Noel tells him that "Epstein hung himself," and Thomas states, "We messed up."  The captured audio also shows that Thomas told his supervisor they missed only two institutional checks, understating the five that were never conducted — and coincidently specifying that those two checks were during the hours they were "not moving" on camera.

According to a CNN article last Friday, at least one of the guards was engaging in plea deal negotiations with prosecutors and the DOJ relating to these charges.  However, as of now, both have been charged with six federal counts, including defrauding the United States of America and falsifying department documents.

Tova Noel.  Photo credit: CBS Evening News screen shot.

On October 30, Dr. Michael Baden, the esteemed former NYC medical examiner who was hired by Epstein's family to give a second opinion on the autopsy, revealed that in his expertise, he doesn't believe that the rags-to-riches "financier" killed himself.  The bones that were broken in his neck, while fragile, rarely fracture under pressure from a low hanging in someone with Epstein's health.  The position he was found in and those broken neck bones may indicate additional pressure from another person, or, in Dr. Baden's term, homicidal strangulation.

Either way, it was made to at least appear as though Epstein died from suicide, and thus ended the judicial case for his child sex-trafficking enterprise, leaving no justice for the 16 women who risked their safety when they testified against him. 

It is worth nothing that besides Jeffrey Epstein, these two correctional officers are the only other people charged in relation to Epstein.  Ghislaine Maxwell, countless (and some high-profile) Johns, and others who helped organize the elite child sex-trafficking ring are still escaping persecution and prosecution.

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