Jeffrey Epstein's Ex-Employee Says Late Sex Offender Had Young Girls at Palm Beach Estate While Ghislaine Maxwell Was the 'Lady of the House'
Jeffrey Epstein's former employee, Juan Alessi, took the stand Thursday to talk about his employment under the late sex offender and his working relationship with Ghislaine Maxwell.
At Maxwell's trial, Alessi said he understood that Maxwell was the lady of the house and described her as "the girlfriend of Mr. Epstein" when he met her, The Rolling Stone reported.
Alessi, who managed Epstein's Palm Beach property in Florida from 1991 to 2002, noted that Maxwell told him that she was going to be "the lady of the house."
Jeffrey Epstein Had Underage Guests at Palm Beach Estate in Florida
Juan Alessi said he repeatedly drove two girls who appeared to be 14 to 15 to Jeffrey Epstein's Palm Beach estate, according to Reuters.
Alessi noted that "Jane," the woman now in her early 40s who also testified against Ghislaine Maxwell, appeared to be 14 or 15 years old when she first came to the house with her mother in 1994.
The former employee said he would drive Jane alone to the house, where she spent time with Maxwell and Epstein. According to Alessi, he saw Jane's name in a director of massage therapists and would call to schedule massages for the late sex offender, sometimes at Maxwell's direction.
Jane testified during the trial that many of her sexual encounters with Jeffrey Epstein would start as messages before escalating to something more.
Prosecutor Lara Pomerantz said the massages were a tactic created to get young girls to touch Epstein. Alessi noted that he had a Rolodex with all the massage therapists, adding that he would call whoever Epstein and Maxwell told him to call.
When he started working for Epstein, Alessi said the late financier would get one massage a day, but years later, he would often get three.
Prosecutors noted that Ghislaine Maxwell recruited and groomed underage girls between 1994 and 2004 for Jeffrey Epstein to abuse and participated in several of the sexual encounters.
Ghislaine Maxwell's Household Manual
Juan Alessi detailed that some of the demands at Jeffrey Epstein's Palm Beach estate include keeping the property "stocked with cash," with one particular direction of putting "$100 bills in every car."
He noted that Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein "ran the house like a five-star hotel." Alessi said that Maxwell even gave him a booklet of instructions, which he described as "degrading" since it "was work for 10 people," and "not for one and half."
One of the directives includes a statement like, "see nothing, hear nothing, say nothing, except to answer a question directed at you."
The booklet made its courtroom debut as a sealed exhibit. Alessi said he recognized the cover and binding and some of the contacts it contained.
However, it was thinner and printed with a smaller font compared to when he worked there. The defense argued that it could mean that the book could have been tampered with.
Alessi further noted that he would be asked to clean after Epstein's massages, and he'd sometimes find unexpected items on the massage table or Epstein's table such as a "large dildo," Fox News reported
The former employer said it looked "like a huge man's penis with two heads." He recalled that he would then put on his gloves, run the dildo under water," and put it in "Maxwell's closet in a basket."
When asked why he would put it there, he replied that it was the place where it was kept all the time. Alessi also testified that he found "pornographic tapes," as well as a "black vinyl or leather costume."
When he was asked to identify the accused, Alessi paused as his eyes met with Maxwell, who appeared to nod before the former employer correctly referred to her, New York Post reported.
Alessi also testified that Maxwell, who has pleaded not guilty to eight counts of sex trafficking and other charges, once told him that Epstein did not like being looked in the eyes.
The former employee said Jeffrey Epstein was at his Palm Beach home almost every weekend, and Ghislaine Maxwell was there "95 percent of the times."
Maxwell's lawyers said prosecutors are scapegoating the British socialite because Epstein is no longer alive. Jeffrey Epstein killed himself in a Manhattan jail cell while awaiting trial on sex abuse charges in 2019.
This article is owned by Latin Post.
Written by: Mary Webber
WATCH: Former Housekeeper Testifies at Ghislaine Maxwell Trial - From NBC New York
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