“Why do billionaires get house arrest anyway?”
As we learned from the OJ trial, the rich are different from us. They have more money.
The legal system is not just laws, and a huge number of them, at that. It’s also case law. If you can afford to hire smart, well-connected lawyers they can find enough cases and laws to argue anything from any standpoint. Throw in that they themselves are rich and well connected and judges, who are probably always on the lookout for what they might do if they lose their position, and judges are tempted to rule in favor; possibly hoping they will get a favor back sometime in the future. I was really pissed off to find that the lawyer for the guy I was suing was the judge’s regular golfing partner.
The legal profession is incestuous. They trade favors in what you and I would call an unethical relationship.
All this means that people with money get house arrest instead of jail time. Although, this case is being so closely watched by so many people that the judge will not want to be embarrassed by having Epstein go failure-to-appear (FTA.) That might actually lose him his judgeship.
It’s rare for the Legal System to provide more Justice to you than you have paid for.