Michael Thomas

Michael Thomas is a former employee of the Federal Bureau of Prisons at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, New York who, working an overtime shift in the Special Housing Unit with the correctional officer Tova Noel, found Jeffrey Epstein hanged in his cell at about 6:30 a.m. on August 10, 2019. He and Noel were indicted in November 2019 for falsifying the records of inmate counts and rounds that night; the charges were dismissed in December 2021 after both completed deferred prosecution agreements, and both were fired. Thomas told the Inspector General that no one entered or left Epstein's cell during his shift and denied that he or Noel had any role in the death.¹²³

Background

Thomas was 41 when he was charged. He joined the Bureau of Prisons at MCC New York in 2007 and most recently worked as a materials handler supervisor, while often taking overnight shifts as a correctional officer. He told the Inspector General that he had worked in the Special Housing Unit "fairly regularly" since 2007 and knew its procedures, including that an inmate coming off suicide watch or psychological observation should be assigned a cellmate, and that he knew Epstein had been on both.¹²

Thomas had also responded on the night of Epstein's first injury. In a memorandum dated July 23, 2019 and signed "M. Thomas, Material Handler Supervisor," he wrote that at about 1:27 a.m. the Control Center called for assistance in the Special Housing Unit, that on arriving he found Epstein "lying on the floor of his cell handcuffed," and that he helped carry Epstein on a stretcher to the unit where he "was dressed in a suicide smock and placed on Suicide Watch observation with staff."⁴

August 10, 2019

Thomas did not work his regular post on August 10 and instead took an overtime shift in the Special Housing Unit from midnight to 8 a.m.; he had worked an eight-hour shift ending at 8 a.m. the previous day, and Noel's lawyer later described him as working a triple shift. Neither officer conducted the midnight, 3 a.m., or 5 a.m. counts or the required 30-minute rounds. Thomas told the Inspector General that the round sheets were signed but the rounds not done "because he was tired that day," and recalled "dozing off from here and there." Noel's lawyer wrote that Thomas told her the rounds were not necessary and slept most of the shift with a hoodie pulled over his head. The FBI's forensic examination of the officers' workstations found that Thomas had been looking at motorcycles online.²⁵⁶

At about 6:30 a.m. Thomas knocked on Epstein's cell door while delivering breakfast, got no response, unlocked the cell, and found Epstein hanged with "an orange string, presumably from a sheet or a shirt," tied to the top bunk. He said he ripped it away, lowered Epstein to the floor, and began chest compressions without checking for a pulse, until medical staff took over. He told a lieutenant, "Oh, it's not her fault, we fucked up," and "We didn't do the rounds. We messed up." He said anyone reaching Epstein's tier would have had to walk directly past the officers' station where he sat and that no one did.²

The MCC New York Daily Assignment Roster for Saturday, August 10, 2019 lists "Thomas, M" on SHU post 2 for the midnight to 8 a.m. shift, marked "OT (NC)," beside "Noel, T" on SHU post 1. Warden Lamine N'Diaye's Form 583 Report of Incident, NYM-19-0082, which dates the incident to 6:33 a.m., lists Thomas among the staff involved.⁴

Prosecution

On November 19, 2019 a federal grand jury in the Southern District of New York indicted Thomas and Noel on conspiracy and making false records, in a case announced by U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman. Each was released on a 100,000 dollar bond, and a magistrate judge told Thomas to abstain from "excessive use of alcohol." On May 25, 2021 both entered deferred prosecution agreements that included admissions that they had falsely certified counts and rounds, cooperation with the Inspector General, the FBI, and prosecutors, and 100 hours of community service; the court dismissed the charges on December 13, 2021. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York declined to prosecute other Special Housing Unit staff who also falsified count slips and round sheets on August 9 and 10.¹²³

In the 2026 Epstein file releases, the bank records flagged in a suspicious activity report concerned Noel, not Thomas. CNN's requests for comment to attorneys for both officers in March 2026 went unanswered.³