Two women who claim they were sexually assaulted by Jeffrey Epstein sued the late financier’s estate under a New York law that lets victims of sexual abuse sue for monetary damages no matter how long ago the alleged acts occurred.
Epstein’s estate is the latest to be sued by alleged sexual abuse victims under provisions of the Adult Survivors Act, which took effect Nov. 24. Former President Donald Trump, comedian Bill Cosby and billionaire Leon Black also face lawsuits from women who claim to have been sexually assaulted.
The women, who used pseudonyms in their lawsuits, accused Epstein of assaulting them in 2003 and 2005. Both said, in separate complaints filed Tuesday in New York state court, that they were recruited by young female acquaintances to give massages to Epstein at his Manhattan mansion.
“Mia Doe” says she was 18 when Epstein touched her sexually as she and an acquaintance were giving him a massage. She said she fled and never returned.
“Naomi Doe” said the same thing happened to her when she was 20 but that she returned to the mansion 10 times, during which Epstein’s sexual demands escalated to intercourse.
A lawyer for Epstein’s estate didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.
The women are asking the court to order Epstein’s estate to pay them unspecified compensatory and general damages.
Epstein was charged by U.S. prosecutors in July 2019 with sex trafficking. He was found dead in his federal jail cell a month later while awaiting trial, in what authorities ruled a suicide. Ghislaine Maxwell, his former girlfriend, was sentenced in June to almost 20 years in prison after being convicted of sex trafficking last year.
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(Staff writer Patricia Hurtado contributed to this story.)
