(Bloomberg) -- Jeffrey Epstein’s estate was sued by a woman who says he raped her when she was a teenager, the first case against his estate under a New York law taking effect Wednesday that gives victims of sexual abuse a year to file lawsuits over older claims.
The lawsuit was filed in state court in Manhattan by Jennifer Araoz, who says Epstein raped her when she was a New York City high school student. The same law is behind dozens of cases that were also filed against the Archdiocese of New York in the same court this morning.
The 66-year-old Epstein died in an apparent suicide Saturday in his Manhattan jail cell. The women who say he sexually abused them have vowed to sue his estate and help prosecutions of his enablers, and Araoz’s filing is likely the first of a wave of similar complaints that will set the stage for a long battle over his assets.
Araoz says she was approached as a 14-year-old by an unnamed woman, identified as "The Recruiter," on the sidewalk outside her Upper East Side high school. She was lured to Epstein’s nearby mansion, where the financier allegedly raped her.
Epstein’s attorneys didn’t immediately respond to emails seeking comment on the suit.
--With assistance from Kaye Wiggins.
To contact the reporter on this story: Chris Dolmetsch in Federal Court in Manhattan at cdolmetsch@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Christopher Elser at celser@bloomberg.net
©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
Advertisement