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Palm Beach Sheriff Orders Investigation Into Agency's Handling Of Jeffrey Epstein Work Release

PALM BEACH (CBSMiami/CNN) - Palm Beach Sheriff Ric Bradshaw has ordered an internal affairs investigation into how his agency handled Jeffrey Epstein's case while he was on a work-release program more than a decade ago.

"Sheriff Bradshaw takes these matters very seriously and wants to determine if any actions taken by deputies assigned to monitor Epstein during his work release violated any agency rules and regulations, during the time he was on a PBSO work release program," according to a statement from the sheriff's office.

In 2008, after Epstein, 66, pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor, he was sentenced to 13 months in jail. Most of that time was spent on work release at a downtown West Palm Beach office building. He was also required to reach financial settlements with dozens of his alleged victims and register as a sex offender.

A November 2018 Miami Herald investigation explored how Epstein used his powerhouse legal team and massive wealth to secure that agreement, which the Herald called the "deal of a lifetime." Labor Secretary Alex Acosta, who was the top federal prosecutor in Miami at the time, resigned from President Donald Trump's Cabinet on Friday amid criticism over the deal.

Epstein is now facing new charges - one count of sex trafficking of minors and one count of conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking of minors related to alleged conduct that occurred between 2002 and 2005. He has pleaded not guilty.

He is accused of having paid girls as young as 14 to have sex with him at his Upper East Side home and his estate in Palm Beach, Florida, between 2002 and 2005. Prosecutors say he used employees and associates to lure the girls to his residences and then paid some of his victims to recruit other girls for him to abuse.

On Thursday, a New York judge agreed with prosecutors that he was an "extreme flight risk" and denied him bond.

(©2019 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company, contributed to this report.)

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