Jeffrey Epstein donated more than $400,000 to the Interlochen Center for the Arts between 1990 and 2003. The prestigious Michigan boarding school named a lodge after him. Two former students told investigators Epstein engaged in sexual conduct with them — one of them at that very lodge.
He wasn't even the worst of the predators who preyed on students if you can believe it.
A 97-page report released this week by the Sanghavi Law Office documents allegations from 70 former students against 47 adults spanning from the 1950s through the 2010s.
The investigation, conducted over two years and based on 180 interviews, paints a picture of systemic institutional failure at one of America's most elite arts academies, located in Green Lake Township in Grand Traverse County, Michigan. The investigators themselves didn't mince words. "The information gathered during this investigation is, simply, devastating," the Sanghavi Law Office wrote in its findings.
Among the accused whose names were released — the report only identifies the deceased or already convicted — is Byron Hanson, a faculty member and administrator who worked at Interlochen from 1960 to 2015. Seven independent reports of sexual misconduct were filed against Hanson, all dating to the 1960s and 1970s. He stayed on staff for another four decades after the alleged abuse.
John "Jack" Hood, another faculty member and administrator, served from 1963 to 1979, with seasonal roles continuing until 2004. Four independent reports were filed against him. Charlie McWhorter, a former trustee who served from 1970 to 1999, had two independent reports. Both men are now deceased.
Thomas Clower, an arts faculty member from 2003 to 2005, was criminally convicted in 2005. To its credit, Interlochen reported that one to law enforcement and terminated him. That's one out of 47.
Matthew Curtis, a senior shareholder at the law firm Sommers Schwartz who represents survivors, described the environment in terms that should make every parent's blood run cold. "It was basically a free for all there," Curtis told reporters. "It was the same thing over and over again."
Investigators attempted to interview all 47 accused individuals. Four agreed to participate. More than one-third have since died. The names of every person identified in the report have been provided to the Grand Traverse County Prosecuting Attorney's Office for review.
Interlochen President Trey Devey called the findings "shocking" and said the abuse described was "absolutely heartbreaking. It's contrary to everything this institution stands for." He noted that none of the 47 accused are currently employed by the school.
The Epstein connection alone would make this a national story. One former student told investigators that Epstein offered to pay her tuition, then withdrew financial support after she refused his sexual advances. Another said Epstein paid for her to travel to New York to visit him and Ghislaine Maxwell, where he allegedly asked her to remove her top while giving him a massage. Epstein had attended Interlochen's summer camp himself in 1967 as a bassoon player — then returned decades later with a checkbook and access.
But focusing only on Epstein lets the institution off the hook. The report reveals something uglier than one famous predator exploiting his connections. It reveals a system that absorbed complaint after complaint, across generation after generation, and kept the machinery running. Hanson accumulated seven reports and worked there for 55 years. Hood had four reports and stayed on in seasonal roles for another quarter century. The investigation originally focused on the 1960s and 1970s but had to expand because the problem never stopped.
Curtis is pushing for Michigan to extend its statute of limitations for survivors. Given that some of these allegations stretch back to the Eisenhower administration, the legal clock ran out on accountability a long time ago for most of these cases.