Credit: CBS Miami
The Pulitzer Prize committee has awarded a special citation to investigative reporter Julie K. Brown, a former Bucks Countian, for her reporting on financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
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Brown, a reporter with the Miami Herald, was honored for her “Perversion of Justice” series that was initially published in November 2018. The investigation reexamined a decade-old plea deal that had shielded the convicted sex offender from federal sex trafficking charges.
A native of Chalfont and Sellersville, Brown is a graduate of Pennridge High School and Temple University, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Before joining the Miami Herald, her journalism career included stints at the Bucks County Courier Times and the Philadelphia Daily News.
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The committee credited Brown’s work with exposing a “systematic abuse” of young women and the justice system that protected Epstein.
Marjorie Miller, administrator of the Pulitzer Prizes, said at the announcement that Brown’s reporting “gave a platform for the scores of victims who had been groomed and abused.”
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The committee noted that Brown’s work documented the experiences of scores of victims and revealed a powerful network of associates and enablers.
“Her work, and the release of the government’s Epstein files, continue to reverberate around the world,” the Pulitzer Prize committee said in its announcement last week.
Months after Brown’s series began, federal prosecutors arrested Epstein on new sex trafficking charges. He died by suicide in federal custody in 2019.
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The citation comes years after the Miami Herald originally submitted the series for Pulitzer consideration.
Despite the impact of the reporting, the work did not win an award in 2018 or 2019.
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According to reporting from Semafor, that initial omission was due to significant concerns raised by at least one Pulitzer judge, a decision that has since drawn renewed controversy.
