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Aug. 21 (UPI) -- A federal judge ordered a hearing next week to discuss prosecutors' requests to dismiss a criminal case against Jeffrey Epstein after his death. U.S. District Court Judge Richard Berman scheduled a public hearing on Aug. 27 at 10:30 a.m. to provide insight into the case accusing Epstein of sex trafficking.
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"The court believes that where, as here, a defendant has died before any judgment has been entered against him, the public may still have an informational interest in the process by which the prosecutor seeks dismissal of an indictment," Berman wrote.
Berman also invited Epstein's victims and their attorneys to the hearing and offered them the opportunity to speak if they wished.
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York filed a motion on Monday asking Berman to drop the charges against Epstein after his death.
On Tuesday three women filed three new lawsuits against Epstein's estate, detailing more allegations of sex trafficking -- the same crime for which he was jailed and the reason why officials believe he ultimately killed himself in jail.
The lawsuits were filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan by anonymous women listed in court documents as Katlyn, Lisa and Priscilla Doe.
One accuses Epstein of blackmailing one woman when she was 17, promising to pay for an expensive surgery and threatening to make sure she never got the surgery if she refused to cooperate.
The suit says she repeatedly engaged in sexual activity with Epstein in hopes of receiving money for the surgery. It also says a non-U.S. citizen worked for Epstein as a sex recruiter, and the billionaire arranged for the victim to marry her in New York after same-sex marriage was legalized, to allow the recruiter to legally remain in the United States.
The suit says Epstein manipulated the victim into flying to Florida while he was on a work-release from prison in a separate case in 2009, and that she was forced to have sex with him inside the office of a nonprofit there.
"Jeffrey Epstein, through his brazen and powerful organization, was quite literally able to commit federal sex trafficking offenses at his work release office, during his jail sentence," the suit states.
The other suits make similar accusations, saying Epstein promised gifts, money and careers. Some also said he'd threatened them. One of the victims said she traveled to Epstein's private Caribbean island, where he took her passport away.
The suits name Epstein and seven businesses and foundations as defendants. Officials said this week Epstein bequeathed his estate to a trust he created two days before his suicide.
"The main and in many instances only function of each of the associates who acted at the instruction or direction of Epstein was to recruit, entice, harbor, transport, provide, obtain, maintain or solicit young females, knowing that fraud or coercion would be used to cause each female, including Plaintiff, to engage in a commercial sex act," one of the suits states. "This team of individuals included chefs, butlers, receptionists, schedulers, secretaries, flight attendants, pilots, housekeepers, maids, sex recruiters, drivers and other staff members."
The court documents say all three women continued to have sex with Epstein after he reached a deal with federal prosecutors in Florida in 2008.
