Newly revealed surveillance footage from the night Jeffrey Epstein died shows correctional officers Tova Noel and Michael Thomas lounging in front of the officer station in the Special Housing Unit of Manhattan's Metropolitan Correctional Center at around 3:15 a.m., instead of conducting the mandatory 3 a.m. rounds. Epstein's cell was the first on the block, just a few feet away.
The video, unearthed from a trove of DOJ documents recently released, captures the officers writing on paper, walking back and forth, and talking on the phone. What it does not capture is anyone checking on the highest-profile inmate in federal custody.
According to the New York Post, Epstein is believed to have killed himself sometime between 10:30 p.m. on August 9 and 6:30 a.m. on August 10, 2019. That eight-hour window exists because 10:30 p.m. was the last time Noel checked on inmates. The next contact came when Noel and Thomas discovered his lifeless body while serving breakfast.
Lt. Roberto Grijalva, the officer in charge of the Special Housing Unit, told DOJ investigators he had done everything short of tattooing the instructions on his staff's foreheads. He plastered a bright orange sheet with black lettering on their computer station. Its message was not subtle:
"Manadatory [sic] rounds must be conducted every 30 minutes on Epstein, as per God!!!"
Grijalva said the sign was placed right next to the screen, hanging on the PC. He told investigators what happened next:
"Whoever was there, they watched — saw that paper. Monday, I came in and that paper wasn't there anymore."
Someone removed it. Grijalva said he left those instructions sometime before he went home for the weekend at 2 p.m. on August 9. By the time anyone who mattered returned, Epstein was dead, and the sign had vanished.
The timeline is damning in its simplicity.
Around 8 a.m. on August 9, Grijalva brought Epstein and his cellmate, convicted drug dealer Efrain Reyes, downstairs. Reyes had all his belongings with him and was likely heading home. Grijalva recalled telling Epstein he would get a new cellmate. Epstein's response: "No, I'm good."
Grijalva described the exchange as unremarkable. He said Epstein seemed calm, even lighthearted:
"He joked around because he asked for a new jumper and I told him, 'No.' And he said, 'Why not?' I was like, 'It's a jail, this is what you got to do. Nobody else gets a jumper, it's not Versace,' you know. He's, 'Ha, ha, ha, ha,' he laughed and that's it."
Before leaving for the weekend, Grijalva said he told staff multiple times that Epstein would need a new cellmate. Officers also failed to remove Reyes' sheets when he was discharged, leaving extra bedding in the cell of a man who had already been on suicide watch.
Epstein was meeting with his lawyers all day on August 9. By 10:30 p.m., Noel conducted what would be her final check. Then nothing until breakfast.
Noel and Thomas failed to do the 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. rounds. Both were working double shifts. Neither checked.
Both officers were accused of falsifying records and were eventually fired. But criminal charges against both were dropped in 2021 by Obama-appointed U.S. District Court Judge Analisa Torres.
Consider what that means. Two federal corrections officers failed to check on the most important inmate in America for eight consecutive hours, falsified the paperwork to cover it, and walked away from criminal prosecution. The system designed to deliver justice for Epstein's victims could not even deliver consequences for the guards who let the case die with him.
Meanwhile, Grijalva, who by all accounts did his job and left clear instructions that were ignored, is still employed. He has been promoted to deputy captain.
The Post reported that Noel googled Epstein shortly before he took his life and banked mysterious cash deposits. The House Oversight Committee Chair has now called Noel in for an interview on March 26.
None of this requires conspiracy theories to be outrageous. The known facts are sufficient. The most closely watched prisoner in the federal system was left unmonitored for eight hours by guards who were feet away from his cell and couldn't be bothered to walk over. The mandatory protocols were spelled out in misspelled block letters and still ignored. The extra bedding that should have been removed stayed. The charges that should have stuck were dropped.
Every institutional safeguard failed in the same direction, at the same time, for the same inmate.
Grijalva's assessment of his colleagues was blunt:
"They f–ked up. Sorry. That's a big no go."
That much is beyond dispute. The question that has haunted this case for nearly seven years is whether "messed up" covers it, or whether the collapse was too complete, too convenient, and too perfectly timed to be explained by mere incompetence. The newly released video doesn't answer that question. But it makes it harder to ignore.