Cops put sex abuser in jail Prosecutors let him go

Cops worked to put serial sex abuser in prison. Prosecutors worked to cut him a break


John Mark Dougan, a former police officer, fled to Moscow after being investigated for computer hacking and extortion. He is now a key player in Russia's global disinformation network. Dougan had been critical of Ric Bradshaw, the sheriff of Palm Beach County, Florida.

While living in Russia, Dougan has made a number of claims. In 2019, he told media that he had compromising material (including sex tapes of famous people) that he claimed came from Jeffrey Epstein, who was arrested by the Palm Beach Police in 2006. Police Chief Joseph Recarey (who died unexpectedly shortly afterward) is said to have handed these over to Dougan, who copied them and later brought them to Russia.[6][7] He claims to have been behind the cyberattack on the Democratic National Committee in July 2016, which resulted in numerous internal emails from the Democrats being published on WikiLeaks. Outside sources have not verified this claim.[8][3]

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Decorated former Palm Beach detective who led Epstein investigation dies at 50
Ian Cohenicohen@pbdailynews.com

In this 2013 photo, Joseph Recarey leaves the Palm Beach Police Department after 23 years to pursue a career in the private sector.
He solved murders, obtained confessions, worked overtime, fell in love and brought coworkers lunch.

And he still had time to crack some jokes.

Joseph Recarey, a former Palm Beach detective who had a knack for making others smile, who tackled the island’s largest and most important investigations, and who cared deeply for his family and friends, died Friday, May 25, 2018, after a brief illness. He was 50.

RELATED: ‘Go-to guy’ leaves police force after 23 years

“In my opinion, an excellent police officer has to be a good person,” said former Palm Beach Police Chief Michael Reiter. “And Joe Recarey was among the best people I ever knew.”

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Recarey was born in Queens, N.Y., before coming to Florida with his family when he was 13. He lived in Royal Palm Beach and worked for the Palm Beach Police Department for more than 20 years beginning in 1991.

Recarey was one of the most decorated police officers in the history of the department with more than 150 commendations, 11 officer-of-the-month awards and a 2013 Palm Beach Police Foundation Officer of the Year award, Reiter said. He worked in several units, including the Organized Crime Vice and Narcotics Unit and the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Public Integrity Unit. He was a lead detective in many major investigations, including the high-profile solicitation-of-minors case against billionaire Jeffrey Epstein.


“He was one of the best police officers I ever had the pleasure of working with,” said former chief and current Town Manager Kirk Blouin.Friends recalled Recarey as a relentless worker. Once, while working in the organized crime office, Recarey accumulated so many hours that other officers told him to take a week off, former Chief Dan Szarszewski said. Recarey went home, but soon he got a call from a witness.He was back working the next day.

“He was an amazing man,” said Mike Mason, one of Recarey’s closest friends and a former Palm Beach police officer.

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Among police employees, Recarey was known for more than just his work ethic and thorough investigations — he also made coworkers laugh with practical jokes and impressions of bosses.

Before department meetings began, Recarey entertained officers with spot-on impressions of the chief, impressions that sometimes lasted too long. At least one time, Recarey turned around to find the chief standing behind him.

“It was a riot,” Szarszewski said. “He made work extremely fun to be at.”

Chief Ann-Marie Taylor, who worked with Recarey in the organized crime unit, said he was “a tenacious investigator, hungry for the truth” who had a gift for making others laugh. He also was extremely giving, Taylor said, both with friends and strangers, occasionally bringing Taylor lunch when she was busy.

“Probably the most generous person I’ve ever met,” Taylor said.

After leaving the department in 2013, Recarey went to work with Mason at Gold Coast Holdings, a local beer distributor, eventually becoming the director of facilities.

Mason said he relished his time working with one of his best friends.

“Everyone who worked with Joe respected Joe and loved Joe,” Mason said. “He was just a rare human being.”

Mason said he last saw Recarey on a recent Thursday. Recarey took off work the next day to spend time with his family.

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“As hard of a worker as he was, he was a family man,” Szarszewski said. “His wife and his kids were the world to him.”

No other information about the cause of death was released.

Recarey is survived by his wife, Jennifer, who he met while both worked for the Palm Beach Police Department; and his children, Isis, Joseph, Jack and Peter. He is also survived by his parents, Elva and Jose Recarey of Palm Springs, and his sister, Liz Castellanos of Lake Worth.

The family will receive friends from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Friday followed by a wake at 7 p.m. at Quattlebaum Funeral, Cremation and Event Center at 5411 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach. A funeral mass will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday at St. Rita’s Catholic Church at 13645 Paddock Drive in Wellington.

Memorial donations may be made to Jennifer Recarey at any Chase Bank branch to benefit Jack and Peter. Reference account ending in 0539.


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Did the Detective Who Led Jeffrey Epstein Investigation Die after a ‘Brief Illness’ At 50 in September 2019?
/ Disinformation, Fact Checks / By Kim LaCapria / September 10, 2019
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In early September 2019, a large number of Facebook users shared an article (archived here), compellingly titled “Detective Who Led Epstein Investigation Died After ‘Brief Illness’ At 50.”

Based on the visible shares to Facebook alone, readers found the title and excerpt so convincing they may not have opened the page at all. When it was shared on Facebook, users saw (and subsequently shared) the following:

_2__detective_who_led_epstein_-_died after brief illness 50
Readers who did click through would also see a date on the article through all the ads: September 3 2019.

Even the first paragraph perpetuated the inaccurate notion the claim was a) new and b) being deliberately suppressed by the “mainstream” media. One blink-and-you’d-miss-it passage hinted at the nature of the story, but it was easy to overlook — particularly for those sharing based on headline and date alone:

Again, another story that didn’t quite make it into the mainstream news’ narrative involving Jeffrey Epstein. In June of last year, decorated former Palm Beach detective Joseph Recarey died after a “brief illness” at the age of 50, and that’s basically all we know, but do a search for him and you’ll barely see anything in the mainstream media, or even alternative media about his death.

[…]

Regardless, all we know is he had a sudden, brief illness and died as a result at the young age of 50.

That first excerpt concluded with a claim that readers attempting to double-check the story would “barely see anything in the mainstream media, or even alternative media” about the death of detective Joseph Recarey. Which was to be expected, as a careful reading would impart the knowledge that Recarey died in May (not June) 2018. Other bottom-feeder sites aggregated the September 2019 “news,” framing it as a “media blackout.”

TheWashingtonStandard.com (as with the far-right disinformation site from which this conspiracy theory was lifted, “Sons of Liberty Media“) then linked to and quoted a June 1 2018 Palm Beach Daily News obituary, “Decorated former Palm Beach detective who led Epstein investigation dies at 50.” Although no specific cause of death was disclosed by family members at the time of Recarey’s death, the paper reported:

Joseph Recarey, a former Palm Beach detective who had a knack for making others smile, who tackled the island’s largest and most important investigations, and who cared deeply for his family and friends, died Friday, May 25, 2018, after a brief illness. He was 50.

[…]

Recarey was one of the most decorated police officers in the history of the department with more than 150 commendations, 11 officer-of-the-month awards and a 2013 Palm Beach Police Foundation Officer of the Year award, Reiter said. He worked in several units, including the Organized Crime Vice and Narcotics Unit and the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Public Integrity Unit. He was a lead detective in many major investigations, including the high-profile solicitation-of-minors case against billionaire Jeffrey Epstein.

The final sentence of the excerpt contained a non-functional link, but a copy of the page was available via the Internet Archive. It simply linked to all articles related to the Epstein case published by Palm Beach Daily News. It did not appear that any articles had been deleted or moved from the original link.

Following Epstein’s August 2019 jailhouse suicide, news of the death of a detective associated with an investigation into his activities certainly looks suspicious — at least, if social media shares are anything to go by. But again, Joseph Recarey’s sudden passing at the relatively young age of 50 was in May 2018.

A massive piece of context this disinformation site left out concerned the trajectory of Epstein’s relationship with law enforcement and various brushes with prosecution. Palm Beach news organizations reported the death of a local law enforcement figure, citing his prior involvement with Epstein’s prosecution.

News in 2019 about Epstein percolated, appearing here and there in various mentions and in numerous places. But a key element of the context left out of this article involved the events leading up to Epstein’s jailhouse death in August 2019.

A summary of the timeline involving Epstein’s arrests was included in Vox.com coverage published after news of his suicide broke:

Jeffrey Epstein was found dead on August 10 [2019] in a Manhattan jail where he was awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. New York City’s medical examiner has ruled his death a suicide.

The money manager was accused of sexually abusing dozens of underage girls, bringing them to his home for massages during which he masturbated or had intercourse with them. [Epstein] was indicted in 2007, but as Julie K. Brown reported at the Miami Herald, he ultimately got just 13 months in a county jail, thanks to a deal signed by US attorney Alexander Acosta, who would later become secretary of labor under President Trump.

In July [2019], however, Epstein was arrested in New Jersey and charged with sex trafficking, in connection with allegations that he recruited young girls for abuse at his homes in New York and Palm Beach. If convicted, he could have faced 45 years in prison.

In February 2019 (several months after Joseph Recarey’s death), news broke that the Justice Department was opening an investigation into a plea deal brokered for Epstein in 2008, when he had most recently faced charges. (On a side note, we applaud the Guardian‘s responsible labeling of older articles; their February 2019 coverage of that news is clearly marked, “This article is more than 6 months old.”) That indictment included allegations beginning around 2002, hardly news to law enforcement in 2018 or 2019.

A Miami Herald piece published in November 2018 revisited the original accusations against Epstein — but once again, it appeared nearly six months after Recarey’s demise. Following that, media interest in Epstein’s original sentence continued with a December 2018 article published by the same newspaper and syndicated. To reiterate, Epstein’s arrest did not occur until July 2019 — more than a year after Recarey died — and interest in the case only started picking up again in late 2018.

As of September 2019, it was no secret that conspiracies around the death of Jeffrey Epstein equaled clicks and traffic to anyone willing to stretch the truth around them in the pursuit of a phony scoop. It is unfortunate that Joseph Recarey died unexpectedly at a relatively young age, and doubly so that his family was subject to conspiracy theorists’ harassment rubbing salt in the wounds left by his death. Recarey died well before the Justice Department opened an investigation into “light charges” in a case that was already ten years old when Recarey passed away, and he had been dead for more than a year by the time Epstein was arrested. Revisitation and reframing of the circumstances of the detective’s death are simply a cynical ploy by disinformation sites to cash in on the widespread interest in Epstein’s case, and these articles are in no way rooted in legitimately newsworthy developments in the investigation.

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