A 91-year-old psychiatrist, once a close friend of Jeffrey Epstein, is facing a lawsuit from a former model who accuses him of facilitating Epstein’s sex trafficking operations and turning her into his “modern-day sex slave.”
The lawsuit, filed in Manhattan federal court under the pseudonym Jane Doe 11, alleges that Henry Jarecki, 91, raped her repeatedly starting in 2011, after Epstein referred her for mental health treatment following his own sexual abuses. Doe asserts that Jarecki was Epstein’s “go-to” doctor for young women with depression, sharing their confidential information with Epstein and shielding him from law enforcement.
“The allegations will be shown to be entirely false and baseless. Dr. Jarecki never engaged in any abusive conduct with the complainant or any other person”, Sarita Kedia, Jarecki’s lawyer, said. Doe’s civil lawsuit seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages for sexual battery, emotional distress, and violations of the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Act.
Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide in a Manhattan jail cell in August 2019 at the age of 66 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. His death did not halt the numerous legal battles against his associates, and Jarecki, a prominent figure in psychiatry and a former faculty member at Yale University, is the latest to be sued over connections to Epstein. Jarecki, who has also accumulated wealth through commodities trading and selling MovieFone, was listed in Epstein’s public address book.
The complaint states that Doe came to the United States in 2010, seeking a visa to work as a model, when another model suggested that Epstein could advance her career. Following Epstein’s sexual abuse, he referred Doe to Jarecki for mental health treatment, calling him “the best doctor in New York City.” Instead of helping, Jarecki allegedly promised to “save” Doe from Epstein, pushing her to move into an apartment near his own residence in Manhattan’s Gramercy Park neighborhood, where he could monitor her.
Doe alleges that Jarecki, then in his late 70s, used the apartment to coerce her into sexual acts, threatening to affect her work status or return her to Epstein if she did not comply. She recounts that Jarecki imposed strict rules, including a mandatory 10 p.m. bedtime, and monitored her compliance, expressing displeasure when she did not smile enough. The complaint accuses Jarecki of raping her by force on numerous occasions in New York and trafficking her to his private Caribbean island for further sexual abuse.
This case adds to the numerous lawsuits filed against individuals connected to Epstein, including his former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell. Maxwell is currently appealing her conviction and 20-year prison sentence for aiding Epstein’s sex trafficking. Brad Edwards, a lawyer representing Doe and more than 200 other Epstein accusers, emphasized the importance of this lawsuit in encouraging other survivors to come forward. “We want other survivors to know that it is safe to come forward,” Edwards said.
The case, Doe v Jarecki, is filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, No. 24-04208. The legal proceedings are expected to shed more light on the extensive network of abuse orchestrated by Epstein and facilitated by his associates.
