Former Guard Tova Noel, Charged in Epstein Suicide Watch Failure, Testifies Before House Oversight Committee

Org reported. Noel was one of two prison guards working on August 9, 2019, at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York. Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in his cell the morning after that night.

New York City's medical examiner ruled Epstein's death a suicide. Noel previously told federal investigators she believes she was the last person to have seen Jeffrey Epstein alive. m.

M. Noel said she saw the other officer on duty, Michael Thomas, perform CPR on Epstein. m.

And when he was found unresponsive. "I didn't hear anything from his cell," she stated in the deposition. Federal investigators charged Noel and Thomas in 2019 with falsifying records. The pair indicated on prison log entries that they had completed check-ins of prisoners the night Epstein died when neither had done so.

Epstein was in the MCC's Special Housing Unit, where prisoner checks are required every 30 minutes. Investigators said no checks on prisoners were done overnight. In her 2021 deposition, Noel countered that she recalled completing a majority of checks during her shift.

She added that guards typically performed checks while doing routine tasks like restocking toilet paper, picking up trays and giving food. Noel and Thomas were accused of sleeping and surfing the web in the hours before Epstein's body was found. In her testimony, Noel denied that she fell asleep that night.

Noel said she did use the internet though she didn't know if she was authorized to do so. Noel told investigators she only had one interaction with Epstein earlier on August 9. She recalled telling Epstein he needed to wait to leave a shower cell until other prisoners had left.

She described that interaction as regular and did not think it was out of the ordinary. , Epstein asked Noel to plug in his CPAP machine. Noel plugged in Epstein's CPAP machine. She noted that other prisoners are not supposed to have CPAP machines because of their long cords but exceptions were made for Epstein because it's Epstein.

Noel said no one had discussed whether she needed to pay closer attention to Epstein, a high-profile person in the news at the time. The testimony forms part of the House Oversight Committee's ongoing investigation into the federal government's handling of cases involving Epstein and his former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell.

Noel and Thomas entered a plea deal that involved hours of community service and cooperation with the probe.

They were spared jail time after agreeing to the deal with federal prosecutors. Noel had already testified for the Department of Justice inspector general's office before this upcoming appearance. U.S.

Army and was honorably discharged in 2014. Noel received a bachelor's degree from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in 2017 and started working for the federal Bureau of Prisons the following year.