MIAMI – Miami-Dade prosecutors formally dropped all charges against Joshua Epstein on Monday.
Local 10 News reported their decision to drop the case against the 18-year-old Surfside activist, accused of battering then-Vice Mayor Jeff Rose, on Thursday.
“It’s a huge relief,” Epstein said outside of court on Monday, thanking the Surfside community. “It doesn’t feel real.”
Epstein’s mother, former Surfside Commissioner Eliana Salzhauer, had called the charges politically-motivated and “Third World thuggery.”
Salzhauer was an outspoken critic of the previous town leadership, including Rose’s close political ally, then-Mayor Shlomo Danzinger. Both men were voted out of office in the March elections.
Epstein was accused of pushing Rose and was arrested on a charge of battery on an elected official — but there was no video of the alleged contact.
In a close-out memo, prosecutors said they determined that there is “conflicting evidence that a battery actually occurred.”
Even if it did, prosecutors wrote, based on witness testimony, Epstein “would have been justified in his actions.”
Prosecutors concluded that Rose had, in a “rage,” come up to a man Epstein was standing beside in an aggressive manner.
That man told officers that Rose came up to him, yelling accusations and took a “boxing stance.”
Read prosecutors’ memo:
“I haven’t slept probably more than three hours a night,” Epstein told Local 10 News. “I mean, the worst part is probably my parents. My parents have been traumatized.”
Surfside’s then-police chief, Antonio Marciante, defended the March 1 arrest. He resigned Friday.
“When you see them abusing the system the way that they did and arrested me with no evidence, seven witnesses saying I didn’t touch him, because I didn’t touch him, you don’t trust the system,” Epstein said.
The charges may be dropped, but the story is far from over.
“There was serious damage,” Epstein’s father, David, told Local 10 News. “(There were) possible crimes committed and anyone who had their hand in this will be held accountable. And I don’t mean just losing their jobs. They will be held accountable.”
He’s promising to take action.
“That is my only job, is to protect my son,” David Epstein said.
As for the now-former Surfside officials, Salzhauer had a message to send.
“I would like to say ‘good riddance,’” she said.
Rose told Local 10 News he plans to issue a statement on the matter on Monday afternoon.