A woman who says she was victimized by Jeffrey Epstein has initiated legal action against Henry Jarecki, a prominent psychiatrist. She alleges that he raped and sex trafficked her after Epstein referred her to him for psychiatric care.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court by a Manhattan resident, asserts that the 91-year-old psychiatrist was “close friends” with Epstein, a convicted pedophile who died in his Brooklyn jail cell in 2019.
The lawsuit alleges that Epstein also sent other young women to Jarecki for confidential “treatment.” In return, Jarecki allegedly shielded Epstein from law enforcement, prescribed potent medications to the women, and discussed their cases with Epstein. The suit claims that Jarecki exploited his friendship with Epstein to procure women for his own sexual abuse, as reported by the Wall Street Journal here.
“Jarecki also understood that the females Epstein was sending were under Epstein’s control and Jarecki could himself attempt to sexually abuse them without risk of being reported,” the suit alleges.
“While Jarecki was elderly, his sexual desires were frequent and depraved,” the complaint added, noting that the psychiatrist showed the woman “pills that he said were testosterone pills that kept his sexual drive equal to that of a 25-year-old.”
“As Jane Doe 11 began showing more signs of depression and stress, Jarecki increased the sexual torture and control of her,” the suit alleges.
Jarecki appeared in Epstein’s now-public black book and in flight logs on Epstein’s private planes, but his connections with the convicted felon were not previously known.
Jarecki’s lawyer, Sarita Kedia, dismissed the allegations as “entirely false and baseless.”
“Dr. Jarecki never engaged in any abusive conduct with the complainant or any other person,” she said.
Jarecki is a longtime Yale University faculty member and recipient of the Pardes Humanitarian Prize in Mental Health. He also amassed a fortune as a commodities trader and entrepreneur, running and selling several investment firms between the 1970s and 1990s. He co-founded and chaired Moviefone, which he sold to AOL in 1999 for $388 million in stock.
The lawsuit claims that the unnamed woman came to the United States in 2010 through a modeling agency and was introduced to Epstein by another model. Epstein, known at the time for his philanthropic efforts, allegedly promised to help her obtain a work visa and advance her modeling career.
The woman met Epstein at his New York mansion, where he offered to assist with her career and education. However, she soon became a target of Epstein, who began sexually abusing her. When she experienced mental health issues, Epstein allegedly arranged for her to receive “treatment” from Jarecki at his home.
Instead of providing help, the lawsuit alleges Jarecki gave her an expensive gift and a home tour that ended in his bedroom where he raped her.
The woman reported the incident to Epstein, who allegedly told her to endure it and made arrangements for her to continue seeing Jarecki.
The lawsuit claims Jarecki kept her in an apartment in Gramercy Park, controlled her life with medication, forced her to have sex with other men, and imposed a strict 10 p.m. bedtime. When she resisted, he threatened her immigration status.
It remains unclear when or how the abuse ended.
Epstein, convicted of sex offenses and accused of sex trafficking, reportedly had assets worth $559 million before his death. He was accused of luring dozens of women, many from Russia and Eastern Europe, with promises of jobs, careers, and other opportunities through his powerful connections.
