Epstein Associate Accused of Raping Autistic Teenager

An associate of Jeffrey Epstein‘s has been sued in United States District Court in the Southern District of New York for allegedly raping a 16-year-old autistic girl.

Leon Black, the billionaire founder of the hedge fund Apollo Global Management, is accused of raping the then-16-year-old girl in 2002 at Epstein’s townhouse on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, according to the complaint. The victim, identified as Jane Doe, is autistic and was born with Mosaic Down Syndrome, a form of Down Syndrome that results in a select number of cells in the body having extra chromosomes. She has alleged that Black sexually assaulted her with sex toys in her vagina and anus, causing bleeding.

“Even as Black grabbed her hand so hard that she thought he broke bones, Jeffrey Epstein knew Jane Doe would never disobey,” the complaint, as filed by Wigdor Law, alleges. “Developmentally she is about 12, and when she was threatened to do as told because ‘bad girls’ get in ‘trouble,’ she did as she was told.”

A representative for Black denies the allegations, calling them “totally made up” and “entirely uncorroborated.”

According to the complaint, the alleged victim first met Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell at a party in Washington, D.C. in 2001. She was taken to the party by a woman identified only as “Elizabeth,” her youth cheerleading coach who is alleged to have abused and “sexually groom[ed]” the plaintiff.

At the party, the complaint alleges, Maxwell took an interest in Doe, referring to her as “a beautiful girl with the most beautiful bright blue eyes, blonde hair and perfect hair” and saying she looked like a living “doll.” “What Plaintiff did not realize at the time was that Maxwell was merely taking a page out of what had by then become a well-rehearsed script, making efforts to bond with a vulnerable young girl so that she would lower her guard by the time Maxwell introduced them to Epstein,” the complaint states.

The complaint then alleges that Doe was flown to Epstein’s home in Palm Beach, where she was instructed by Maxwell to give Epstein a massage and give him oral sex. From there, the complaint states, Doe was “shipped off” to various locales, including the U.S. Virgin Islands and Palm Beach, to engage in sexual activity with Epstein.

In 2002, the complaint states, Doe traveled to New York City to visit Epstein at his townhouse, where she was introduced to Black as Epstein’s “special friend” and told to give him a massage. Upon being taken to the massage room, the complaint states, “Black picked Plaintiff up and threw her over his shoulder and then threw her violently down on the massage table on her back, so hard he knocked the wind out of Plaintiff” before forcibly penetrating her with sex toys in her vagina and anus and then raping her, causing bleeding.

“To this day, Plaintiff often is triggered each month at the beginning of her menstrual cycle as the sight of blood from her body causes Plaintiff to suffer from panic attacks, reliving the attack that she endured ay Black’s hands,” the complaint reads.

A former prep school math teacher turned billionaire financier, Epstein was arrested in 2019 on charges of sex trafficking minors. He died in prison in an apparent suicide in the summer of 2019. Maxwell, a British heiress and socialite, was convicted of child sex trafficking charges in 2021 and is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence.

Black had previously sued Wigdor for defamation in response to a separate, 2021 claim from a Russian model alleging that he had raped her at Epstein’s townhouse in 2002. Black denied her allegations, claiming she had threatened to extort him following a consensual affair that he had with her. The woman countersued for defamation, which was dismissed earlier this year.

In response to a request for comment, an attorney for Black told Rolling Stone, “This is a frivolous and sanctionable lawsuit. Mr. Black has never met this individual. These vicious and defamatory lies, masquerading as allegations, have been intentionally manufactured by the Wigdor law firm as part of the firm’s vendetta against Mr. Black for vigorously and successfully defending himself over the past two years.”

Black stepped down as CEO of Apollo Global Management in 2021 following a New York Times report that he had close ties to Epstein. He is currently under investigation by the Senate Finance Committee due to various payments he made to Epstein between 2012 and 2017, totaling about $158 million.