The former cellmate of sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein called for an investigation into the destruction of prison video from the night of Epstein’s first suicide attempt. In a Monday filing, accused killer ex-cop Nicholas Tartaglione’s attorney called for an “evidentiary hearing” to examine “the circumstances” of the video’s destruction—which captured the hallway outside the Metropolitan Correctional Center cell Epstein and Tartaglione shared. The video would show that Tartaglione was acting “appropriately” during the incident and would prove that he didn’t harm Epstein, his lawyer wrote. Tartaglione asked that the hearing be conducted in order to figure out how the video was destroyed, whether the video’s destruction was “deliberate,” and if there was any “bad faith” on the government’s part.
In December, prosecutors revealed to the court that the video no longer existed. They further elaborated earlier this month, saying MCC staff “inadvertently preserved video from the wrong tier” and that the correct video no longer existed.
