--- alias: - Chief Michael Reiter - Michael S. Reiter - Chief Reiter category: Law Enforcement & Legal created: 2026-09-25 location: Palm Beach, Florida relations: - end: 2009 fn: 1 role: chief of police start: 2001-03 type: head_of with: '[[Palm Beach Police Department]]' - end: 2001 fn: 1 role: officer and commander start: 1981 type: employed_by with: '[[Palm Beach Police Department]]' - end: 2006-07 fn: 3 start: 2005-03 type: investigated with: '[[Jeffrey Epstein]]' - fn: 1 start: 2009 type: founded with: '[[Michael Reiter and Associates]]' summary: Michael Reiter was the Palm Beach police chief from 2001 to 2009 who opened the 2005 Epstein investigation, sought the State Attorney's disqualification, and referred the case to the FBI. tags: - Person - MichaelReiter - JeffreyEpstein - PalmBeach - PalmBeachPoliceDepartment - Police - NonProsecutionAgreement updated: 2026-09-25 --- Michael Reiter is an American former police officer who served as chief of the [Palm Beach Police Department](/organizations/palm-beach-police-department/) in [Palm Beach, Florida](/places/palm-beach-florida/), from 2001 to 2009. His department opened the March 2005 investigation of [Jeffrey Epstein](/people/jeffrey-epstein/), and after State Attorney [Barry Krischer](/people/barry-krischer/)'s grand jury returned a single solicitation count in 2006, Reiter asked for Krischer's disqualification and took the case to the [Federal Bureau of Investigation](/organizations/federal-bureau-of-investigation/). When federal prosecutors concluded the [Epstein non-prosecution agreement](/events/epstein-non-prosecution-agreement/) in September 2007, they instructed the official briefing him not to tell him about its money provisions.[^1][^2][^3] ### Career Reiter joined the Palm Beach Police Department in 1981, serving 28 years there, the last eight as chief after his appointment in March 2001. His firm's published biography states that he served on the executive board of the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force and directed countywide election security planning, and that he is a graduate of the FBI National Academy and of the Harvard Kennedy School program for senior executives in state and local government. After leaving the department in 2009 he founded Michael Reiter and Associates, a Palm Beach security consulting firm.[^1][^4] ### The Donation On the Palm Beach Post's account, Epstein gave the Palm Beach Police Department 90,000 dollars before the investigation began, and the money was returned after his arrest. Reiter, answering 2026 statements by Representative Melanie Stansbury about the police handling of the case, said she was "clearly misinformed about the facts of this case" and said his department "stood alone among local criminal justice agencies in advocating for a full prosecution of Jeffrey Epstein, one that should have resulted in hundreds of felony counts and a life sentence."[^5] ### The Investigation In March 2005 the parents of a 14-year-old girl complained to the department that Epstein had paid her for a massage at [358 El Brillo Way](/places/358-el-brillo-way/). Detective [Joseph Recarey](/people/joseph-recarey/) led the inquiry, which took sworn taped statements from five victims and seventeen witnesses, subpoenaed telephone records, and matched calls from Epstein's assistant [Sarah Kellen](/people/sarah-kellen/) to victims against the arrival records of [Epstein's plane](/concepts/lolita-express/) at Palm Beach International Airport. Reiter told NBC News that when police executed their search warrant the house had been cleaned and a surveillance computer removed, "with all the wires left hanging there," and that Epstein's lawyers seemed to know "minute details that nobody else knew" before they had been disclosed.[^2][^4] On May 1, 2006 Recarey swore a probable cause affidavit recommending five second-degree felony counts. That year Reiter wrote to Krischer that the State Attorney's handling of the case was "highly unusual" and asked him to consider whether "good and sufficient reason exists to require your disqualification from prosecution of these cases." On July 19, 2006 the grand jury returned one count of felony solicitation of prostitution. Because the police chief and the lead detective "were dissatisfied with the State Attorney's handling of the case," the [Justice Department](/organizations/department-of-justice/) later recorded, "they referred the matter to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in West Palm Beach." Reiter said the agents called it "an easy case."[^2][^3][^4][^6] ### The Referral to the FBI Reiter testified in a 2009 civil deposition that when his department first brought the case to the State Attorney's Office in 2005, Barry Krischer told him "Let's go for it," because Epstein was "somebody we have to stop"; in 2006, he said, Krischer suggested that the police issue Epstein a notice to appear on misdemeanor charges. "I knew that it didn't really matter what the facts were in this case, it was pretty clear to me that Mr. Krischer did not want to prosecute this case." On May 1, 2006 he sent Krischer probable cause affidavits and a case filing package covering Epstein, one of his personal assistants, and a young local woman whom Epstein had first victimized and then used to recruit other girls, with a transmittal letter urging Krischer "to examine the unusual course that your office's handling of this matter has taken." Asked about favoritism to the defense, Krischer later told the Justice Department's [Office of Professional Responsibility](/organizations/office-of-professional-responsibility/): "I just don't play that way."[^7] The federal prosecutors' own chronology of the case opens with Reiter's May 2006 letter and his August 2, 2006 letter stating that he was unhappy with the State Attorney's handling of the case and was referring it to the FBI; the federal case file, code-named "Operation Leap Year," was opened in late July 2006. On August 16, 2006 the Fox News host Bill O'Reilly told viewers that Reiter believed Krischer was "in the tank for Epstein" and had "handed his evidence over to the FBI because he believes Krischer will not prosecute the case honestly"; a transcript of the segment was kept among Epstein's papers.[^8][^9] ### Kept Out of the Agreement The U.S. Attorney's Office under [Alexander Acosta](/people/alexander-acosta/) signed the non-prosecution agreement on September 24, 2007. That day the line prosecutor, [A. Marie Villafaña](/people/ann-marie-villafana/), wrote to Epstein's lawyer [Jay Lefkowitz](/people/jay-lefkowitz/): "I know that Andy promised Chief Reiter an update when a resolution was achieved.... Rolando is calling, but Rolando knows not to tell Chief Reiter about the money issue, just about what crimes Mr. Epstein is pleading guilty to and the amount of time that has been agreed to. Rolando also is telling Chief Reiter not to disclose the outcome to anyone." "Andy" was [Andrew Lourie](/people/andrew-lourie/), manager of the office's West Palm Beach branch.[^3] ### The Plea Hearing and the Victim List When Epstein changed his plea in state court on June 30, 2008, the U.S. Attorney's Office decided that victim notification could come only from a state investigator, and First Assistant [Jeffrey Sloman](/people/jeffrey-sloman/) asked Reiter to help; on June 28 the line prosecutor reported that Reiter "is going to notify victims about the plea." She told OPR that she sent Reiter a list of the victims with their telephone numbers and asked him to destroy it. Reiter testified that he had asked for the list because the state indictment did not include all the victims his department had identified and he "wanted to make sure that some prosecution body had considered all of our victims"; he showed it to the lead detective, who said "they're all there," and then destroyed it. In her 2008 declaration the prosecutor conceded that "all known victims were not notified."[^8][^10] ### Later Statements Reiter described the Epstein outcome to NBC News in September 2019 as "the worst failure of the criminal justice system" in modern times, said "I've never seen anything like it," and said he was "embarrassed" by how the system had treated the victims while maintaining that his department "did our job." When Recarey died in May 2018 Reiter said: "Joe Recarey was among the best people I ever knew." In 2026 he said the department had been "the only law enforcement agency to successfully investigate Epstein in a manner that resulted in his felony conviction, incarceration and registration as a sexual offender," because it "refused to allow the rest of the local criminal justice system to look the other way."[^4][^5][^11] [^1]: Michael Reiter and Associates, "About" (firm-published biography of Michael Reiter). https://www.michaelreiterandassociates.com/ [^2]: Palm Beach Police Department, probable cause affidavit of Detective Joseph Recarey regarding Jeffrey Epstein, sworn May 1, 2006 (redacted). https://archive.org/stream/JeffreyEpstein/Jeffrey%20Epstein%20Redacted%20Probable%20Cause%20Affadavit_djvu.txt [^3]: Opinion and Order, *Jane Doe 1 and Jane Doe 2 v. United States*, No. 9:08-cv-80736-KAM (S.D. Fla. Feb. 21, 2019), ECF No. 435, at 9 (Marra, J.), quoting ECF No. 407 at paragraph 52; U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Professional Responsibility, Executive Summary, November 2020, p. i. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.flsd.317867/gov.uscourts.flsd.317867.435.0.pdf ; https://www.justice.gov/opr/page/file/1336471/dl [^4]: Sarah Fitzpatrick and Rich Schapiro, "Ex-Florida police chief: Epstein case 'the worst failure of the criminal justice system' in modern times," *NBC News,* September 20, 2019. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ex-florida-police-chief-epstein-case-worst-failure-criminal-justice-n1057226 [^5]: Hannah Phillips, "Congresswoman's claims about Epstein police probe were misleading," *Palm Beach Post* (via AOL), May 13, 2026. https://www.aol.com/articles/congresswomans-claims-epstein-police-probe-181112537.html [^6]: Holly Baltz, "Who is Jeffrey Epstein's first prosecutor? It's not his first rodeo in the national glare," *Palm Beach Post* (via Yahoo News), July 10, 2024. https://www.yahoo.com/news/jeffrey-epsteins-first-prosecutor-not-090053542.html [^7]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA02847284, Prior DOJ Disclosures, Office of Professional Responsibility report on the Southern District of Florida's resolution of the Epstein investigation, November 2020, pp. 14 to 16 and n. 17. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/Prior%20DOJ%20Disclosures/Memos.%20&%20Correspondence/EFTA02847284.pdf [^8]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA00224943, DataSet 9, "Epstein Investigation Timeline," Exhibit A-1, privileged chronology of the federal investigation, pp. 1, 37. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00224943.pdf [^9]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA00214226, DataSet 9, FoxNews.com transcript, "The O'Reilly Factor," Talking Points Memo, August 16, 2006. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00214226.pdf [^10]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA02847284 (see note 8), pp. 231 to 232 and n. 353. [^11]: "Joseph Recarey Obituary (1967-2018)," *Palm Beach Post* via Legacy.com, 2018. https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/palmbeachpost/name/joseph-recarey-obituary?id=11914024