(This story has been updated due to an inaccuracy.)
The phone number to a Monroe area school appears in the files released by the U.S. Department of Justice of disgraced sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
In an email dated July 22, 2011, a redacted contact emailed Epstein, “Your very old friend, Cathy Calder, called to say hi! She was reading =he latest Vanity Fair and said your hair cut looks great…and that the =ord that popped out to her is “billionaire”…she said to relay this =11 to you with a big smile.”
The Monroe News copied the email text as it appeared in the file.
Catherine Calder is listed as the founder and head of Meadow Montessori School in Monroe.
On Aug. 2, 2011, Lesley Groff emailed Epstein, “Catherine Caldor: 734-241-9496” in response to emails under the subject “Call List.” The phone number goes to Meadow Montessori School.
The school was not named in the files.
Calder and school officials declined to speak to The Monroe News after two attempts were made in person, eight phone calls beginning Wednesday, Feb. 11, including leaving a journalist on hold for about 15 minutes Tuesday, Feb. 17 before the call was disconnected, and two emails to Calder and Pietrina Guy, the school’s director of communications, and messages to school board members Karin Koek and Heidi Burroughs.
Monroe County Sheriff Troy Goodnough said that the deputies increased patrols around the school from Wednesday to Friday, Feb. 11-13, with approval from Calder.
“I had a citizen call me that their kids attend school there and she was concerned for their safety,” Goodnough said. He added that the parent was concerned because of a social media post alleging a connection between Epstein and the school.
Epstein pleaded guilty in Florida state court in 2008 to one count each of soliciting minors for prostitution and soliciting a prostitute and served 13-months in county jail where he was regularly allowed to leave as part of a work release program.
Epstein was again arrested in 2019 on sex-trafficking charges. He pleaded not guilty but died in his cell while awaiting trial.
— Contact reporter Connor Veenstra at CVeenstra@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Were ties to a Monroe area school included in the Epstein files?
Reporting by Connor Veenstra, The Monroe News / The Monroe News
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