Epstein Met First Known Victim At MI Summer Camp: Court Docs

New court documents released last Friday by the U.S. Department of Justice show that Jeffrey Epstein met his first victim at a Michigan summer camp.

The 13-year-old girl was a voice student at Interlochen Arts Academy in Interlochen when she met Epstein in the summer of 1994, according to the documents.

The girl was sitting alone on a bench between classes when Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell approached her, according to the documents.

Epstein, who spent time at the camp both as a student and later as a donor, bragged to the girl about being a patron of the arts and giving scholarships to talented young artists like her, according to the documents.

Epstein and Maxwell probed her at length about her background, family situation and where she lived, before requesting her mother’s phone number when she got up to leave, according to the documents.

"She was alarmed by his request, but also feared that she could not refuse the older man's request so she complied and provided him with the phone number," officials wrote.

Several weeks later, once the girl returned to Florida, Epstein called her home and spoke to her mother about how he mentors young kids and provides scholarships for the arts, according to the documents.

He then invited the girl and her mother to his mansion in Palm Beach, and sent a driver across town to pick them up, according to the documents.

Over the next several months, Epstein and Maxwell attempted to "groom and mentor" the girl, while taking her to the movies and lounging around Epstein's estate, according to the documents.

It wasn't long after that when Epstein and Maxwell started to make sexual references when they were with her, and Epstein would send her home with two- or three one-hundred-dollar bills to give her mother since "she’s having a hard time and struggling as a widow," according to the documents.

Epstein also started to pay for her voice lessons and insisted that she could not advance her career without him, according to the documents.

"While these visits made Doe extremely uncomfortable, Epstein and Maxwell made her feel she could not refuse them," officials wrote.

The documents also show Epstein also took her to Mar-a-Lago, where he introduced her to its owner, now-U.S. President Donald Trump. The girl claimed that Epstein elbowed Trump playfully and asked him, "This is a good one, right," referring to the girl, as Trump smiled and nodded in agreement, according to the documents.

Additionally, when the girl hesitated about spending time with Epstein and Maxwell, Epstein would often scold her for being "ungrateful," according to the documents.

The girl claimed the sexual abuse then began toward the end of 1994, when Epstein invited her into his pool house, where he grabbed her, put her on his lap and started masturbating. He told her that was what to expect from photographers who were soon going to be taking modeling pictures of her, according to the documents.

Over the next few years, the sexual abuse escalate on a regular basis, as Epstein would digitally penetrate her, force her to perform sexual acts on him and apply vibrators to different parts of her body, according to the documents.

When she turned 16 years old in 1996, Epstein placed her in a New York City apartment and paid her tuition at a private high school in Manhattan, according to the documents.

As the girl and her family eventually became financially dependent on Epstein, he escalated the sexual abuse and raped her multiple times starting in 1997, according to the documents.

In 1999, she moved to Los Angeles to start a career, according to the documents.

"Being physically away from Epstein and Maxwell, Doe finally felt like she could escape Epstein's abuse and stopped returning his frequent calls where he would threaten and berate her for not appreciating him," officials wrote.

Epstein died in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges. He was convicted in Florida of soliciting sex from a minor in 2008. Over the intervening decade, dozens of victims came forward with accusations and lawsuits.

Interlochen Arts Academy told UpNorthLive News they cut ties with Epstein in 2008 when he was convicted in Florida.

"All donor recognition in his name was removed from campus at that time. Subsequent to Epstein’s second arrest in July 2019, we again reviewed our records and found no report or complaint involving Epstein within our records," the academy said.