Lawyer for Epstein guard has shouting match with judge over vacation plans
A lawyer for one of the corrections officers accused of falsifying records the night Jeffrey Epstein died got into a shouting match Thursday with a Manhattan federal judge — because she set a trial date that landed right in the middle of a trip to Italy.
Tova Noel’s lawyer Jason Foy objected when Judge Analisa Torres scheduled trial for his client and Michael Thomas to begin June 22, saying his daughter would be in Italy and his family was planning to join her, but hadn’t actually booked anything yet.
“Counsel, use Skype,” Torres told him curtly after Foy expressed displeasure at the trial date.
“No, no, no,” he responded, his voice rising. “I will not use Skype.”
The back-and-forth escalated, with Torres repeatedly telling Foy to “sit down” while he argued over her, saying “this is not just about vacation.”
“You will sit down, counsel,” the judge ordered, prompting Foy to respond, “And be heard from my seat?”
Foy finally plunked himself down after Torres, her head in her hands, threatened: “You are trying my patience, counsel.”
Noel and Thomas are accused of surfing the web and dozing at their Metropolitan Correctional Center posts during the graveyard shift between Aug. 9 and 10, instead of checking on Epstein every 30 minutes, as required. The two were charged with falsifying documents claiming they’d completed the checks.
The duo discovered the notorious pedophile hanging in his cell around 6:30 a.m. the next day, according to court papers.
Earlier Thursday, Thomas’ lawyer Montell Figgins said he was mulling filing a motion for selective prosecution of his client.
Outside court, Figgins said Thomas and Noel had been indicted “to cover for all the inadequacies of the Bureau of Prisons.”
“People in similar positions have not been treated the same,” Figgins told reporters. “No one is on the hook except these two people. None of those people are in this case, and the question is why.”
Foy declined to comment outside court.
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