Epstein’s Former Cellmate Asks for Move From Manhattan Jail

(Bloomberg) -- The former cellmate of Jeffrey Epstein asked a judge to move him from a Manhattan jail because of “deplorable” conditions and alleged threats by guards to keep his mouth shut about the facility and the disgraced financier’s suicide.

Lawyers for Nicholas Tartaglione, a former police officer charged in a quadruple homicide, asked a federal judge in White Plains, New York, to have their client moved from the Metropolitan Correctional Center. The “continuing and seemingly unresolvable problems” with the conditions of Tartaglione’s confinement make his detention there inappropriate, they said in a letter. Tartaglione has pleaded not guilty to the murder charges.

Rodents and insects infest the jail and there is mold on the sink in his cell, the lawyers said. Tartaglione isn’t allowed to shower or go outside on a regular basis, and water leaks into his cell whenever the showers are used, they said. Tartaglione isn’t receiving mail or newspapers, is allowed to review legal papers only before and after meeting with his attorneys in a visiting room, and visitors are often made to wait for an hour or more, they said.

Guards also have told Tartaglione that he and his lawyers should “shut up,” “stop talking” or “stop complaining,” according to the letter. The comments send a “clear message” that if Tartaglione provides information about the facility or Epstein’s suicide, “there will be a price to pay,” his lawyers said. The financier’s death has sparked outrage and multiple investigations into the jail’s personnel and procedures.

“Whether or not the investigators into the suicide chose to interview Mr. Tartaglione about the attempted suicide to which he was witness or about how the facility is run and the conditions under which the inmates are forced to live, the correction officers know he had information potentially very damaging to the very people now charged with guarding him or their coworkers,” Tartaglione’s lawyers said.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan declined to comment on the letter.

Epstein and Tartaglione were briefly cellmates until Epstein was found injured and unresponsive on the morning of July 23. Authorities were investigating whether Epstein was assaulted, possibly by another inmate, or if the injuries were self-inflicted.

Tartaglione was questioned and cleared of any wrongdoing, NBC News reported Aug. 16, citing his lawyer and a person familiar with the matter.

The 66-year-old Epstein was found dead Aug. 10 in what the city’s chief medical examiner ruled a suicide. Attorney General William Barr has reassigned the warden of the jail pending the outcome of investigations into what Barr has called “serious irregularities,” and earlier this week appointed a new U.S. prisons chief.

To contact the reporter on this story: Chris Dolmetsch in Federal Court in Manhattan at cdolmetsch@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Steve Stroth, Peter Jeffrey

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