On her first day at a high-rise office building in downtown Palm Beach in the summer of 2009, Roza Gilles walked in to find a woman giving Jeffrey Epstein a foot massage.
At 18 years old, Gilles had recently arrived in the United States to follow her dream of modeling. An agent from her native Uzbekistan, connected to Epstein, had approached her backstage. The modeling agency quickly burdened her with debt, charging her thousands for her visa and accommodation. Feeling overwhelmed, Gilles contemplated returning to Asia, where she had previously modeled successfully. However, Epstein offered her a part-time receptionist role at his office to help with her finances.
In that 14th-floor office, the woman invited Gilles to sit beside her. As Epstein handed his foot to Gilles, she spotted a black plastic band around his ankle connected to a small, blinking device. When she inquired about it, Gilles recalls Epstein and the woman sharing a laugh. Epstein then instructed her to remove her shirt.
“I was paralyzed,” Gilles said. “The woman came over and started to unbutton my blouse. She took it off, removed my bra, and then left.”
That day marked the beginning of Gilles’s years of sexual assault by Epstein. It took her time to understand that the device Epstein had been wearing was an ankle monitor, indicating he was on probation for soliciting prostitution from a minor.
Gilles represents one of many women victimized by the deceased convicted sex offender. Her account, shared with CNN for the first time, provides insight into the peculiar terms of Epstein’s controversial 2008 plea agreement in Florida, which allowed him to spend a significant portion of his sentence outside jail. This arrangement facilitated his continued abuse of young women, including foreign models like Gilles, sometimes occurring while a Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputy was present in an adjacent room, according to survivors who spoke with USdaily.
“He continued his actions without stopping during his conviction. He showed no remorse. The things he did to me caused immense pain and left lasting scars, and I will never be able to move past this, no matter how hard I try,” Gilles stated.
Two women, who requested anonymity, also recounted their abuse by Epstein at the Florida Science Foundation office. Established in November 2007, just before Epstein’s guilty plea, this non-profit claimed to support science and research organizations financially. The women described the 14th-floor office as frequently bustling with activity and accessible via an elevator. One of them recalled the presence of several white noise machines that resembled white, mushroom-like domes scattered throughout the office.
According to these women, Epstein had established a routine during his time at the Florida Science Foundation. His mornings started with coffee and a muffin, and he often complained about his poor sleep at the Palm Beach Stockade, a minimum-security prison. He would frequently nap on a futon in a conference room. One woman recalled how Epstein’s ankle monitor would sometimes beep, prompting him to dash outside to reset it.
Throughout this period, Epstein’s behavior was audacious. Survivors reported that he sometimes sexually assaulted them both at his West Palm Beach residence and in the office, even when a uniformed officer was present, ostensibly to monitor the registered sex offender. At the Florida Science Foundation, a rotating group of officers would be stationed near the office entrance. Two women mentioned feeling that the officers appeared intimidated by Epstein, affirming his position of power in the situation.
For Gilles, a notable encounter with a man in uniform occurred one morning at Epstein’s mansion in West Palm Beach, where she was asked to come weekly during the summer of 2009. She walked downstairs one day and saw the officer in the kitchen, and a fleeting hope surged in her mind. “I thought, ‘Finally, this is the day it stops,’” she recounted to USdaily.
However, she watched as the officer joked and laughed with Epstein before saying goodbye and leaving without acknowledging her.
“At that moment, I realized that no matter what happened, this man would never face arrest,” Gilles said. “He would never be stopped, and no matter how loud I screamed, nobody would care.”
Epstein’s contentious work-release program
The testimonies from Gilles and other victims who allege they were mistreated by Epstein during his 13-month sentence raise significant concerns regarding the controversial 2008 plea deal Epstein made with former U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta.
Epstein began his role as the president of the Florida Science Foundation in October 2008, according to a 2021 evaluation of his work-release program by Florida authorities. Initially, he was permitted to be at the foundation’s office from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., Monday through Saturday. In May 2009, his hours were increased, limiting his jail time to just eight hours a day. By the next month, Epstein’s work release hours were further extended to allow him to work seven days a week at the foundation.
In the final two weeks before his transition to house arrest, Epstein was also allowed to visit his mansion in West Palm Beach for two-hour sessions in the afternoons.
His work-release program included several stipulations, such as only being allowed to meet with business associates and wearing an ankle monitor until July 2009. He was prohibited from interacting with family, friends, girlfriends, or minors.
Epstein’s legal team and the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office (PBSO) also reached an agreement that allowed Epstein to hire off-duty deputies—known as “permit” deputies—to be present at his office to log visitor activity. Epstein’s attorney, representing the Florida Science Foundation, paid the sheriff’s office a total of $128,136 for these deputies during Epstein’s work-release period, according to a report from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE). The report indicated that PBSO reviewed 494 visitor logs and found no violations of unauthorized contact, and these records were subsequently destroyed in accordance with policy.
In 2019, just days after fresh charges against Epstein were made public, Acosta resigned from his role as Labor Secretary in the Trump administration. A subsequent Justice Department review of the 2008 agreement concluded that Acosta had demonstrated “poor judgment,” particularly in his failure to inform the underage girls who accused Epstein of sexual abuse about the decision not to pursue federal charges against him. However, the review did not find any evidence of professional misconduct by Acosta or other prosecutors.
In December 2019, mere months after Epstein’s suicide in a New York City jail, the PBSO terminated its work-release program. The FDLE’s 2021 report stated that “no criminal activity was identified on the part of any PBSO member concerning their involvement in Epstein’s PBSO work-release or permit detail programs.”
The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office did not respond to USdaily’s request for comment regarding this story.
At the mercy of a modeling agency
The terms of Epstein’s work-release program rendered young, international models such as Gilles particularly vulnerable following his conviction.
Gilles recounted being approached in 2008 by French modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel during a fashion show in Uzbekistan. He introduced himself as the owner of MC2 Model Management in New York City and presented her with a contract immediately. Gilles would later discover that Epstein was a major financial supporter of this agency.
The contract Gilles signed with MC2 effectively granted the agency control over her entire life. She was immediately in debt for $4,000 for her visa and $1,500 monthly for rent at a cramped model apartment in Manhattan, where several girls shared bunk beds. Her financial obligations quickly escalated to amounts her family in Uzbekistan could never have imagined earning in a year.
A few months after relocating, Gilles found herself in tears at the MC2 Miami office in front of Brunel. Her family relied on her income, but by then, she had accrued around $10,000 in debt and was struggling to find modeling opportunities. Although she had suggested returning to Asia, where she had previously thrived in modeling, MC2 dismissed the idea.
“Brunel looked at me and said, ‘I see you’re upset, just wait,’” Gilles recounted. “He picked up the phone, made a call, and then said, ‘I’ve sorted it out. I just sent $600 to your parents.’”
To her surprise, within minutes, a person delivered $600 to her family in Uzbekistan. “I was astounded: What just happened?” Gilles said. “Did he call an American friend or someone in the government to help out?”
The implication was clear: she was completely at the agency’s mercy, and that included Epstein. Brunel was found dead in his prison cell in 2022 after being arrested on charges of rape and sexual assault.
In the summer of 2009, Gilles was directed to West Palm Beach for a photoshoot. The large, white mansion where this took place belonged to Epstein, and following her initial brief interaction with him, Gilles was soon set to move permanently to Miami. Epstein’s proposal for her to model during the week while working at the Florida Science Foundation on weekends seemed illogical to her.
“To succeed in modeling, I need to attend auditions, build my portfolio, and pursue various opportunities, but you’re offering me an office job that won’t further my career,” she noted. “I was isolated, broke, and being told I needed to take another job to do my main work.”
After Epstein’s initial assault at the Florida Science Foundation, Gilles reports that she was regularly molested and raped every weekend in West Palm Beach. The abuse persisted even after she returned to New York City in 2010, following the conclusion of Epstein’s house arrest in Florida.
The Justice Department’s recently released Epstein files are filled with emails from modeling scouts reaching out to the convicted sex offender, offering models from across the globe.
Two women filed complaints in 2019, claiming that Epstein had sexually abused them during his work-release program. One of the anonymous women, referred to as Katlyn Doe, stated that she was “forced to engage in sexual acts” with Epstein at the Foundation office.
“While at Jeffrey Epstein’s ‘office’ at the Florida Science Center, the plaintiff was compelled to engage in sexual encounters with Epstein—both alone and also on one occasion with another young female,” the complaint detailed.
Breaking free from Epstein
Gilles believes she has encountered some of Epstein’s other victims: she recalls walking through his Florida mansion and seeing girls who spoke little or no English. “They were immigrants, people with accents, those who spoke Russian,” she reflected. “They were experiencing the same fate.”
It was only after Gilles’s modeling career flourished in New York and she achieved financial independence that she finally escaped the clutches of Epstein. She moved to the Midwest, and after meeting her husband, Pat, she found a new purpose as a fitness coach and trainer.
Gilles had kept her traumatic past hidden from nearly everyone, including her parents, until recently. Despite assurances from the Justice Department to safeguard survivors, she was shocked to find her name—and years of correspondence with Epstein—publicly released in the Epstein files earlier this year.
“It was my story to share. I didn’t want anyone else to read it,” she expressed.
Over the past year, Gilles has observed Epstein survivors publicly advocate for the release of the Epstein files and demand the Justice Department investigate his accomplices. Although she has received invitations to join their efforts, Gilles feels unprepared to participate. Last year, when a group of survivors gathered on Capitol Hill, Gilles flew to Washington, D.C. to support them, but she remained on the sidelines.
“Hearing their stories was profoundly painful for me,” she explained. “It was unjust for the government to fail to protect me.”
Nevertheless, as Gilles continues to navigate her trauma, she is beginning to envision a future where she can unite with other survivors.
“I can see a time when I will come together with them,” she said. “I am incredibly proud of their actions, and I recognize their pain, which is contagious. Courage truly is infectious, isn’t it?”
USdaily’s Dugald McConnell contributed to this story.
