Two people accuse Jeffrey Epstein of sexual conduct at Michigan fine arts school
An investigation at Interlochen Center for the Arts uncovered 70 allegations of sexual misconduct against 47 staff members, including two against major donor Jeffrey Epstein.
Investigation reveals decades of abuse
Interlochen Center for the Arts, a prestigious summer camp and fine arts school in Michigan, hired a law firm in 2024 to investigate reports of sexual abuse by faculty and staff. The scope was later expanded to include information about Jeffrey Epstein, the financier who killed himself in jail in 2019 and had been a donor and former camper.
The Sanghavi law office collected 70 accounts from alumni alleging “physical conduct of a sexual nature” by 47 individuals affiliated with Interlochen from the 1950s through the 2010s, most before 2000. The 97-page report describes grooming, flirting, sexual touching, and intercourse, calling the findings “devastating.”
Epstein's involvement
Epstein, who played the bassoon, attended Interlochen as a camper in 1967. He donated more than $400,000 to the school between 1990 and 2003. After his 2008 conviction for sex offenses in Florida, Interlochen removed Epstein's name from a lodge, which was later demolished.
Two women told investigators about sexual conduct by Epstein. One recounted that he brushed against her body “over her clothes, in a manner in which he indicated was accidental” while they were in the lodge that bore his name. He also paid for her to visit him in New York while she was a student; she said “every time he was ‘handsy’ with her, she would freeze until he would stop.”
The second woman said she gave Epstein a massage at his home, and he may have asked her to remove her top. She had no further contact with Epstein or his girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell.
Separately, at least two Interlochen alumnae made allegations of grooming and abuse against Epstein and Maxwell, according to federal records and media reports. One testified against Maxwell at her 2021 sex trafficking trial.
School's response
Interlochen president Trey Davey and board chair Barrett Rollins issued a public apology, stating: “Sexual abuse committed by an adult in a position of power or trust against a student is wrong, then and now.” They noted that most incidents occurred decades ago and that the school now has comprehensive safety policies.
The school has provided names of accused individuals to local authorities in Grand Traverse County. None are currently employed, and more than a third are deceased.
