Three brothers, together with two of the nation’s most profitable luxurious actual property brokers, have been convicted of intercourse trafficking expenses Monday after a five-week trial over accusations that they used medicine and power to rape scores of ladies that they had dazzled with their wealth and opulent way of life.
The decision got here after 11 girls testified they have been sexually assaulted by a number of of the brothers: twins Oren and Alon Alexander, 38, and Tal Alexander, 39.
The ladies described assaults that occurred after they have been invited to trip locales together with the Hamptons, a Caribbean cruise and a ski journey in Aspen, Colorado. Greater than 60 girls say they have been raped by a number of of the brothers, in line with prosecutors.
Protection attorneys recommended the accusers had defective reminiscences or have been hoping to money in on the brothers’ fortunes. The brothers, their attorneys conceded, have been womanizers. However they insisted any intercourse was consensual.
The jury started deliberating Thursday.
Oren and Tal Alexander have been brokers at actual property powerhouse Douglas Elliman earlier than beginning their very own agency, Official. Alon Alexander labored on the household’s non-public safety agency.
Apart from the legal case, the trio confronted about two dozen lawsuits, together with one filed Thursday by Tracy Tutor, a star of “Million Greenback Itemizing Los Angeles” on Bravo. She alleges Oren Alexander drugged and assaulted her in a restaurant toilet whereas she was in New York Metropolis for an actual property occasion.
When these lawsuits first started being filed, a number of girls got here ahead claiming that they had additionally been sexually harassed or assaulted, and that the brothers’ misconduct with girls had been an open secret in the true property world for years.
Throughout the trial, most of the girls who testified stated they believed they’d been drugged after they have been handed alcohol by one of many brothers. Some described feeling like they’d misplaced management of their our bodies after lower than one drink.
The brothers met the ladies at nightclubs, events and on relationship apps, taking some on journeys to ritzy locales, and paying for flights and luxurious lodging. One lady testified that she met the brothers in 2012 at a celebration at actor Zac Efron’s Manhattan house. She stated she had nearly no interplay with the actor, who was not accused of any misdeeds, and went to a nightclub later within the night time earlier than waking up bare with a nude Alon Alexander standing over her.
Prosecutors pushed again on the concept that the accusers have been hoping to money in on lawsuits. Solely two have lawsuits pending, prosecutor Elizabeth Espinosa informed jurors, and each are rich themselves.
One lady who testified stated she was raped by Alon Alexander in Aspen, Colorado, in 2017, when she was 17 years outdated. She stated she was the daughter of a billionaire.
“I don’t need their cash. I simply don’t need them to have it,” she informed jurors.
Lindsey Acree, an artist and gallery proprietor in Brooklyn, testified she was raped by Tal Alexander and a second man at a house within the Hamptons in the summertime of 2011 after turning into so disoriented from ingesting lower than half a glass of wine that she felt paralyzed.
The girl, now 40, stated she sued Tal Alexander final 12 months despite the fact that she’s going to “by no means want their cash” as a result of she turned upset that the Alexanders “stored calling us gold diggers, shake down artists, con artists.”
“If there’s a child with a stick who retains hitting folks, you are taking their stick away,” she informed the jury. “Cash is their stick, so you are taking it away to allow them to’t harm folks anymore.”
The Related Press doesn’t sometimes establish individuals who say they’re victims of sexual assault except they select to come back ahead publicly, as Acree and Tutor have achieved.
Apart from witness testimony, prosecutors tried to show their case by way of textual content and e-mail messages during which the brothers appeared to boast about their sexual exploits and their data of the results varied medicine can have on a lady’s inhibitions, together with a weblog that included a submit titled: “It’s not rape if …”
Prosecutors stated the brothers emailed about sneaking medicine — or “celebration favors” — onto a cruise ship, recorded at the least one assault on video and shared pictures of victims.
