EPSTEIN’S CELL MATE BEGS TO BE MOVED: Fears there will be “price to pay” if he talks

NEW YORK — A former cellmate of accused pedophile Jeffrey Epstein is begging to be transferred to another prison out of fear that he will be harmed if he speaks out.

Ex-cop Nicholas Tartaglione, who shared a cell with Epstein during his first suicide attempt, is requesting to be transferred because he says prison guards have threatened his safety and told him to “stop talking.”

Epstein, who was found dead in his cell on August 10, had been under suicide watch before his alleged suicide.

The coroner who performed the autopsy on Epstein found that the billionaire business tycoon had sustained numerous broken neck bones. The injuries, said the coroner, was more consistent with a victim of homicide than suicide.

“Among the bones broken in Epstein’s neck was the hyoid bone, which in men is near the Adam’s apple,” the Washington Post reported. “Such breaks can occur in those who hang themselves, particularly if they are older, according to forensics experts and studies on the subject. But they are more common in victims of homicide by strangulation, the experts said.”

The coroner’s findings have only made Tartaglione more fearful that his life may too be in danger.

“The clear message Mr. Tartaglione has received is that if he conveys information about the facility or about [Epstein’s] recent suicide, there will be a price to pay,” reads a letter from Tartaglione’s lawyer Bruce Barket. “Whether or not the investigators into the suicide chose to interview Mr. Tartaglione about the attempted suicide to which he was witness or about how the facility is run and the conditions under which the inmates are forced to live, the correction officers know he has information potentially very damaging to the very people now charged with guarding him or their coworkers.”

Attorney General Barr, in the wake of the controversy surrounding Epstein’s death, has called for a formal investigation.