NEW YORK — Jeffrey Epstein’s former longtime employee dished Thursday in court about what it was like to work for the pedophile financier’s former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, who is on trial for sex trafficking minor girls for Epstein to sexually abuse.
Juan Alessi, who managed Epstein’s Palm Beach house from 1990 to 2002, said he would often clean up Epstein’s private bathroom after the late convicted sex offender’s frequent “massages.”
At least four or five times, Alessi found a “huge” dildo, which he washed in the sink and put in a wicker basket in Maxwell’s private bathroom, which also contained “pornographic tapes” and a woman’s black costume. Several times he also found a massage “arm” with a ball at the end that vibrated. When Alessi was hired, Epstein was getting one massage a day, but he was up to three a day by the time Alessi quit, he said.
Maxwell was the one who primarily directed Alessi in his job at Epstein’s house, giving him “many, many instructions,” he says.
One of those instructions involved eye contact with Epstein.
“Jeffrey doesn’t like to be looked at in his eyes,” Alessi said Maxwell told him, adding that he should “look at another part of the room” when speaking to him.
When Epstein stayed at the house, Alessi said he had to make “extensive preparations,” which included making sure Epstein’s cars had $100 bills in them.
Maxwell was with Epstein 95% of the time when he stayed at the Palm Beach house, Alessi said. She slept in Epstein’s master bedroom with him and had her own bathroom just off the bedroom.
At one point, Maxwell gave Alessi a detailed book of rules for his job with “enough work for 10 people.”
“I’m sorry to say, but it was very degrading to me,” Alessi said of the rule book, calling it “unbelievable to me.”
“I wasn’t hired to do that type of work,” he said. “I told her that I will not do it.”
Maxwell’s rule book told staff to “anticipate the needs of Mr. Epstein, Ms. Maxwell, and their guests.”
The book also ordered staff to “never disclose” Epstein’s whereabouts to anyone.
“Remember that you see nothing, hear nothing, and say nothing except when there’s a question directed to you,” the rule book said.
The prosecution has accused Maxwell of fostering a “culture of silence” among Epstein’s staff.
The rule book also included instructions on how to care for Maxwell’s Yorkie dog, who traveled with Maxwell all the time and would “shake” when Maxwell took her on Epstein’s planes because she “hated it,” Alessi said.
A wall Epstein’s staff called the “Berlin Wall” obstructed their view of the Palm Beach house’s pool area from the staff house, Alessi told the court. The wall was built while Epstein was living there.
Near Maxwell’s desk there were “many” photos of topless females that appeared to have been taken near Epstein’s pool. Maxwell was the only one who used to take photos around the Palm Beach house, Alessi said.
Around the house were photos of Epstein with the Pope and Fidel Castro.
Over the years, Alessi saw females by the pool “hundreds of times,” he said. “Many females” visited Epstein at his house, and “most of them appeared to be in their late 20s,” he said. About 75 to 80% of the time, females in Epstein’s pool area were topless, Alessi said.
Epstein’s “little black book” with the phone numbers of his friends was shown in court on Thursday. The book included the numbers of people who would come to give Epstein massages, 98% of whom were female, Alessi said. The phone number of “Jane,” the Maxwell accuser who testified this week under a pseudonym, was in the little black book, he testified.
Alessi says he saw two females who “appeared to be underage” at Epstein’s house, “Jane” and Virginia Roberts, both of whom appeared 14 or 15 when he met them, he said.
Alessi and his wife, who also worked for Epstein, were sent by Maxwell and Epstein on several occasions to pick “Jane” up from school or her house and bring her to Epstein’s house.
Maxwell instructed him to make everyone he drove sit in the back of the car.
Alessi drove both “Jane” and Virginia Roberts to the airport and watched both of them get on Epstein’s private plane, he said.
Alessi says he met Roberts one day when he and Maxwell were driving around to different spas in the Palm Beach area. At the Mar-a-Lago spa, Maxwell told him to stop the car and got out and went to talk to Roberts in the Mar-a-Lago parking lot.
Later, Alessi said he remembers Maxwell telling him one time to kick Roberts’ boyfriend out of Epstein’s kitchen, saying he had to wait in the car.
Alessi quit working for Epstein when he got sick and was “very, very tired with the job.” He signed an agreement not to talk about Epstein or Maxwell’s lives.
Also testifying on Thursday was Dr. Lisa Rocchio, a clinical psychologist and expert in traumatic stress and interpersonal violence. She described “grooming” by child sexual abusers, saying children will try to “understand why” the abuse happened.
“The more they trusted the individual, the more betrayal they feel,” she said.
Maxwell’s defense team brought up “grooming by proxy,” suggesting Maxwell could have been grooming underage girls for Epstein’s abuse but never personally abused them. The defense also suggested Maxwell herself may have been groomed by Epstein and quizzed psychologist Rocchio on whether “grooming” behaviors could actually be innocent.
“Being nice to someone is not grooming, correct?” the defense asked Rocchio.
Maxwell appeared in court Thursday wearing a black sweater and black face mask. She rested her chin on her hands as she listened to testimony and chatted with her sister Isabel during a break.
At one point after the prosecution and defense team clashed, she leaned over to stare intensely at Assistant U.S. Attorney Alison Moe for at least a minute.