When a Palm Beach County teenager first sat down with Brad Edwards and explained she’d been cooperating with the federal government in a massive investigation into sex trafficking allegations against local billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, the victims’ rights attorney had assumed his role would be straightforward.

The year was 2008, the teenager was Courtney Wild, and she was wondering why no one was answering her requests for information about the investigation. So, Edwards, a former prosecutor, thought, “I’ll make a telephone call and this is going to be easy.”