Investigation revealed 'devastating' reports of sexual misconduct at
school supported by Epstein
[July 30, 2026]
By ED WHITE
DETROIT (AP) — Two people who attended a prestigious Michigan fine arts
school reported conduct of a sexual nature by Jeffrey Epstein, a major
donor, according to an investigation that also uncovered dozens of
allegations spanning decades against nearly 50 other people.
Interlochen Center for the Arts operates a summer camp and performing
arts school that draws students from around the world. It hired a law
firm in 2024 to investigate reports of sexual abuse by faculty and
staff. Subsequently, it expanded the work to include information about
Epstein, the 66-year-old financier who killed himself in jail in 2019.
Interlochen removed Epstein's name from a lodge after he was convicted
of sex offenses in Florida in 2008. The building, renamed the Green Lake
Lodge, was recently demolished after the U.S. Justice Department
released millions of pages about him that had been compiled over the
years.
Sanghavi Law Office says it collected 70 accounts from alumni alleging
“physical conduct of a sexual nature” by 47 faculty and staff members
affiliated with Interlochen from the 1950s through the 2010s, most
before 2000.
“The information gathered during this investigation is, simply,
devastating,” the 97-page report says, noting that alumni reported
grooming, flirting, sexual touching and sex.
Interlochen said it has provided names of people accused of misconduct
to Grand Traverse County authorities in northern Michigan to determine
what steps, if any, might be taken. None are currently employed there,
and more than a third are dead.
“We are deeply sorry for the harm experienced by members of our
community and extend our apologies to those impacted by abuse at
Interlochen,” president Trey Davey and board chair Barrett Rollins said
in a letter to the community posted online.
“While the vast majority of the incidents described in the investigation
took place many decades ago, and reports of abuse at Interlochen have
significantly decreased over the past 25 years, the passage of time does
not diminish the experiences of our alumni,” they said. “Sexual abuse
committed by an adult in a position of power or trust against a student
is wrong, then and now.”
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This photo provided by Interlochen Public Radio shows a sign
directing visitors to the Interlochen Center for the Arts Tuesday,
July 28, 2026, in Interlochen, Mich. (Austin Rowlader/Interlochen
Public Radio via AP)
Interlochen today “is fundamentally different from the institution
described in this report,” Davey and Rollins wrote, with
comprehensive safety policies and a changed culture.
Epstein, who played the bassoon, was an Interlochen camper in 1967.
He donated more than $400,000 to the school between 1990 and 2003.
Two women told investigators that Epstein engaged in conduct of a
sexual nature with them, one of them at the Interlochen lodge that
bore his name.
He brushed against her body “over her clothes, in a manner in which
he indicated was accidental,” according to the report.
Epstein 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 report states.
The other woman said she gave Epstein a massage at his home,
according to the report, and he may have asked her to remove her
top. She never had any further contact with Epstein or his
girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell.
Outside of the school investigation, at least two Interlochen
alumnae made allegations of grooming and abuse against Epstein and
Maxwell, according to federal records and media reports. Their
identities were not made public.
One testified against Maxwell in 2021 when she was convicted of sex
trafficking. It’s unclear whether those women spoke to the law firm
hired for the Interlochen investigation.
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