What you need to know for Friday and the weekend.
The Women Accused of Helping Epstein Run His Sex-Trafficking Ring |
By Andrea Salcedo metro reporter |
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It's Friday. We're off Monday for Labor Day. |
Weather: Today, mostly sunny and in the mid- to upper 80s. A pleasant weekend is ahead, but showers might interrupt Labor Day picnics. |
Alternate-side parking: In effect until Sunday; suspended Monday for Labor Day. |
 | | Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.Joe Schildhorn/Patrick McMullan, via Getty Images |
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Haley Robson said she was wearing only a thong when she first gave Jeffrey Epstein a massage. |
Ms. Robson, then 16, had been approached by an acquaintance who asked if she was interested in getting paid to massage Mr. Epstein, a billionaire, in his Florida mansion, according to her statements in a 2009 deposition. |
She later visited his home, in Palm Beach, about a dozen times — but as a recruiter of other teenagers, according to the deposition. |
Now, after Mr. Epstein's suicide in a Manhattan jail cell this month, the federal authorities are looking into more than a half-dozen employees, girlfriends and associates of Mr. Epstein, who prosecutors say helped lure girls and organize his encounters with them, a person briefed on the inquiry told The Times. |
Ms. Robson, 33, is one of them. |
The inquiry is garnering urgency as others who say they were abused by Mr. Epstein have asked prosecutors to investigate the women who were close to him. These women recruited and threatened them, the accusers allege. |
The woman accused of leading the recruiting |
Ghislaine Maxwell, the daughter of the publishing magnate Robert Maxwell, has been accused in several lawsuits of overseeing efforts to lure girls and young women for Mr. Epstein, a charge she has denied. |
Ms. Maxwell, Mr. Epstein's onetime girlfriend, managed recruiters and helped create a playbook for procuring girls, the accusers contend in court papers. Recruiters were to target young women who were financially desperate and promise them help in advancing their studies and careers. |
Other women accused of playing a role |
A woman named Sarah Kellen reported to Ms. Maxwell, and one of her responsibilities, lawyers for the accusers said, was to schedule sex for Mr. Epstein. |
Ms. Kellen kept the names and numbers of girls and young women who gave Mr. Epstein massages, according to police records and lawsuits. Whenever Mr. Epstein was in Palm Beach, she called girls and young women to ask if they could "work." |
Lesley Groff, one of Mr. Epstein's assistants for almost 20 years, arranged travel and lodging for the recruits, according to a lawsuit. |
Adriana Ross, another assistant, was also named as a possible co-conspirator in a plea deal that Mr. Epstein struck with Miami prosecutors in 2008. |
Nadia Marcinkova was a former model who arranged and took part in sexual acts with at least one underage girl, according to police records. She may have been a victim herself, police records indicate. |
The challenge of prosecutions |
Prosecutors could face difficult legal questions if they charge associates who were also victims. |
Lauren Hersh, a former sex-crimes prosecutor in Brooklyn who heads the anti-trafficking group World Without Exploitation, said that determining criminal liability would be difficult if the defendant had also been exploited. |
"It becomes really, really tricky," Ms. Hersh said. |
De Blasio fails to make third presidential debate |
The Times's Azi Paybarah writes: |
Mayor de Blasio spoke for a total of 15 minutes and 11 seconds at the first two Democratic presidential debates. At the third debate, he won't speak at all. |
The Democratic National Committee raised the bar for appearing at the next debate, to be held in Houston on Sept. 12. Candidates had until 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday to meet the committee's qualification requirements: having 130,000 individual donors and receiving 2 percent support in at least four qualifying polls. |
Mr. de Blasio did not make the cut. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York ended her campaign on Wednesday after it was clear that she, too, would not qualify. |
The mayor, however, had struck an optimistic note before the debate lineup was announced, saying on MSNBC, "You can go from being obscure to famous in 48 to 72 hours." |
FROM THE TIMES Explore news from New York and around the region |
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El Chapo and Jeffrey Epstein were a 26-year-old lawyer's first clients. [New York magazine] |
Amazon kept a Microsoft Word document of mean things New Yorkers said about the company, according to a copy viewed by The Wall Street Journal. [Wall Street Journal] |
Dude, what's your damage? The police were searching for a man who smashed $40,000 worth of digital subway ad screens. [Gothamist] |
The Richmond County Fair has a culture crawl, beer garden and more at Historic Richmond Town on Staten Island. Noon-6 p.m. [Ticket prices vary] |
Events are subject to change, so double-check before heading out. For more events, see the going-out guides from The Times's culture pages. |
And finally: Tales of La Guardia Airport hell |
 | | Jason Minnis |
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The Times's Aaron Randle writes: |
Spending two and a half hours in an Uber to travel a quarter-mile. Dragging luggage up a gridlocked highway ramp in a frantic attempt to make a flight. |
If you're one of the 30 million passengers who pass through La Guardia Airport each year, these harrowing tales may be familiar. If you're heading there over Labor Day weekend for the first time, prepare and beware. |
La Guardia, one of the few major airports in the world that is not served by a rail link, is undergoing a much-needed $8 billion renovation. But the construction, in addition to making the Queens airport seem unpleasant, has also on some days worsened the gridlock around the terminals. |
The plan is that by 2022, the airport will be New York's new billion-dollar baby (but still, trains won't run there). |
For now, La Guardia is amid what Rick Cotton, the executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, called the "peak of the peak of construction." The Port Authority operates the airport. |
"We do not expect people to get used to it," Mr. Cotton said. "What we're asking people for is their patience." |
Metropolitan Diary: Uncaged |
It was 1982, and I was commuting by bicycle from Mount Vernon in Westchester County to 149th Street and Grand Concourse in the Bronx. I would often stop on my way home at a fruit stand and chat with fellow cyclists, trading stories and tips. |
One day, I was sitting there having a mango and talking to a couple of young guys there with their bikes. I told them I had started to get a bump on the back of my heel and that it was starting to get sore. |
One of the guys pointed at my pedals. |
"Your cage is too tight," he said. |
When I got home, I loosened the pedal cage. Sure enough, a week later, no more bump and no more soreness. |
Sound medical advice from a teenager. Who knew? |
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