A YouTuber who recently ventured to a private island once owned by pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein claims he was hogtied and thrown into a dungeon blindfolded. Benjamin Owen, 44, of Memphis, traveled to infamous Little St James in the Caribbean on April 25 with his friend Ryan Dalton and a third unidentified individual. But when the trio was spotted by a group, Owen said he was hogtied, blindfolded, and thrown into a room he called a 'dungeon.' Several hours later, he said, Virgin Islands police arrived and arrested him.
'I don't believe I was supposed to leave that island alive,' Owen told CBS News. Police now claim those working on the island for its new owner, Stephen Deckoff, were trying to take justice into their own hands amid a surge of influencers flocking to the notorious Caribbean island.
A lawsuit filed by the island's holding company against Owen and his associates also alleges that they are 'Internet-fame seekers' and 'conspiracy theorists' who acted with 'wanton and reckless indifference.' The suit claims the group are part of a 'rapidly growing subculture of so-called "urban explorers," social media influencers, YouTubers and internet publicity seekers who... capitalize financially on the island's notoriety and association with Jeffrey Epstein.'
It also claims Owen, who describes himself as a recovered 'crackhead,' is 'detached from reality' due to his long history of substance abuse, and is 'prone to embracing and pursuing wild conspiracy theories.' The suit then notes that the trespassers posted about their trip online, 'providing them fame and financial reward.' It further claims that Owen and Dalton 'revel in their insane conspiracy theories and use those theories to justify their criminal conduct.'
The lawsuit is one of three such civil suits seeking damages against alleged trespassers by an LLC tied to Deckoff, the billionaire founder of Black Diamond Capital Management. Owen has posted videos online sharing his theory that Epstein is still alive - a view Dalton said he shares. 'We didn't see any evidence that he was still alive there, but this is part of the pursuit to this truth,' he explained to WREG.
Owen also said he was 'attempting to do some research to get that story back in the spotlight and raise awareness for our nonprofit We Fight Monsters, which combats human trafficking and exploitation.' He added that he also wanted to plant a flag on the island representing the Memphis nonprofit organization. But the moment they reached a structure dubbed 'the temple,' Owen said his group was spotted.
Dalton and the third man they were with then started running down the cliff and escaped, swimming back out to the boat. Owen, though, said he couldn't keep up and felt like he might have an asthma attack, so he decided to just sit down. That is when, he said, a group started approaching him screaming and tied his hands behind his back without warning.
He said he was then transported to a dock, where he was zip tied and then up the hill, where he was brought to a pair of double doors built into a cliff. 'The roof is dirt on top of it,' Owen recounted. 'And it's like this 10-by-20 cement room. There's nothing in there.' He said he was then thrown inside the room, which he described as a 'dungeon,' where security guards duct-taped his ankles, knees and wrists behind his back.
'I'm tied with rope, I'm tied with zip ties, I'm tied with duct tape. I'm like, "I'm not going anywhere,"' Owen said. As he was stuck in the room, Owen said he heard the woman and men debating whether to contact the island's owner. Instead, he said, a woman arrived and entered the room where Owen was being held. She then ordered the men watching over him to push him into the corner, screaming angrily, and Owen was then blindfolded. When the doors slammed shut behind her, Owen was once again left alone.
He said the 'dungeon' was so hot he thought he might die, and told CBS News how he was in desperate need of some water. But eventually the doors burst open and Virgin Islands police ripped off his blindfold. They then brought him to a local police station and arrested him for trespassing, but he was released on a $500 bond, according to ABC 24.
At an ensuing probable cause hearing, Owen said he learned that police believe the woman who directed he be blindfolded was Ann Rodriguez, whose name appears frequently in the millions of files about Epstein that were released by the Department of Justice. She apparently still manages Little St James, as Owen said she told him on the island that she was the property supervisor.
One of Rodriguez's daughters, Emery Poleon, who is five months pregnant, was also on the island and claimed to police Owen pushed her to the ground, causing her some pain. But Owen disputes the claim, saying nobody pushed Poleon as he claimed there was video of their interaction. Meanwhile, Poleon's boyfriend was arrested in a scuffle with Owen. He told officers Owen was 'restrained by island personnel in an effort to detain him and protect the island.'
Rodriguez, herself, was also arrested one day after the encounter with Owen in connection with a separate incident from March 1 in which another trespasser was hogtied and stripped naked. The trespasser, Elio Gil Sancho, was later found in a boat by a US Coast Guard member, CBS News reports. He told authorities in the aftermath that he and his brother were filming on the island for a documentary when a drone they were flying landed on the island's beach. When they then went to retrieve it on their Jet Skis, he said, a boat started aggressively pursuing them. It eventually caught up with his brother, Marcel, whom Rodriguez allegedly ordered to kneel and place his hands behind his head while she pointed a handgun at him.
Rodriguez was arrested on charges of false imprisonment and kidnapping, assault in the third degree and destruction of property. She has not been arrested in connection with the incident involving Owen, however. Epstein initially bought Little Saint James in 1998 and then purchased a neighboring island, Great Saint James, in 2016. Witnesses have said they never noticed any wrongdoing on the island, but after Epstein's 2019 arrest on federal sex trafficking charges and his death in jail one month later, the Virgin Islands filed a civil suit against his estate accusing him of ferrying underage girls to the island to sexually abuse them. The case was settled in 2022, with $105 million paying to the Virgin Islands. That same year, Epstein's estate put the island up for sale, and one year later billionaire Stephen Deckoff purchased the two islands for $60 million.
The Gil Sancho brothers, meanwhile, are among the other alleged trespassers that are now facing a civil suit from the island's holding company. It claims they recklessly endangered personnel when they refused a demand to 'stop' and 'identify themselves.' In a statement to CBS News, a spokesperson for Deckoff's island property, which he plans to develop into a 'state-of-the-art, five-star, world-class luxury 25-room resort,' said: 'There has been an alarming increase of individuals trespassing on private property on Little St James Island. Accessing the property beyond the beach, including by entering or tampering with any of the island's structures - as these intruders have been doing - is a clear violation of law and will be treated as such without exception.'
