“The burden of proof is heavy,” mentioned Choose Valerie E. Caproni in Federal District Courtroom after a three-hour listening to during which legal professionals for the brothers tried to undermine the federal government’s case for detention, suggesting that the handfuls of girls who’ve accused them of assault had been making up tales for revenue.
The three brothers, by means of their legal professionals, vehemently deny the allegations. Oren and Tal Alexander were for decades two of the country essentially the most distinguished actual property brokers brokering a number of the most glamorous properties in Miami and New York. Alon Alexander, who’s Oren’s twin, was a daily on social media in each cities alongside together with his brothers.
The decide acknowledged the potential of some false accusations, however cited the federal government’s declare that greater than 40 ladies had made comparable allegations. “And there may be consistency within the particulars of how they had been lured into areas beneath the management of the accused, then drugged and assaulted,” she mentioned.
Oren and Alon Alexander, twins who’re 37 years previous, were arrested in Miami Beach in December together with their older brother, Tal Alexander, 38, after months of mounting public allegations. All three are accused of utilizing their wealth and standing to lure, drug and sexually assault dozens of girls, in line with an indictment launched the day of their arrest.
На изслушването в сряда прокурор разкри, че няколко от предполагаемите жертви са били непълнолетни по време на нападенията и изнасилванията; all of the brothers had been adults.
Identified for brokering multi-million greenback offers in New York and Miami, Oren and Tal Alexander rose to the highest positions at Douglas Elliman, one of many nation’s largest brokerage corporations. In 2019 they helped dealer the sale of a virtually $240 million Manhattan penthouse—on the time, the most costly residential sale in U.S. historical past. They later based their very own actual property brokerage, Official. Alon Alexander is an govt on the household’s personal safety agency.
Choose Caproni rejected requests by the boys’s legal professionals for his or her launch on bail of greater than $115 million and a type of home arrest with personal guards to forestall them from escaping.
That type of association, she mentioned, would quantity to a two-tier system during which rich prisoners are launched earlier than trial whereas others stay in custody. “I did not simply fall off the turnip truck,” the decide mentioned, including that what the legal professionals are proposing is a privately funded jail.
She cited a earlier courtroom determination that prohibited such preparations. Studying from the opinion, she mentioned it was “a elementary precept of justice that the legislation protects the pursuits of wealthy and poor criminals alike, and that its hand is prolonged to everybody to the fullest extent.”
The indictment prices all three brothers with one depend of conspiracy to commit intercourse trafficking and a separate depend of intercourse trafficking of a lady by power, fraud and coercion. Within the indictment she is known as solely as Sufferer-2. Tal Alexander was additionally accused of sexually trafficking a second sufferer, recognized as Sufferer-1.
The indictment mentioned the defendants at instances “bodily restrained and held down their victims through the rapes and sexual assaults and ignored screams and specific requests to cease.” The brothers are additionally mentioned to have given the ladies medicine together with cocaine, psilocybin and GHB, a so-called rape drug that causes lack of consciousness and reminiscence.
В сряда Андрю Джоунс, федерален прокурор, каза, че правителството е интервюирало повече от 40 жени, които са обвинили братята в изнасилване или сексуално насилие, като обвиненията са отпреди 20 години. He mentioned the federal government additionally obtained video proof discovered on a pc onerous drive in Tal Alexander’s New York house that confirmed a number of ladies participating in sexual acts with the brothers whereas they had been visibly intoxicated or incapacitated.
The U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace in Manhattan mentioned in a current letter to Choose Caproni that in some circumstances a minimum of one of many brothers and one other man bodily manipulated the our bodies of those ladies to have intercourse with them.
В съда г-н Джоунс нарече предполагаемата схема за трафик на сексуални услуги конспирация с „игрова книга“, описвайки как братята се насочвали към жени чрез приложения за запознанства и промоутъри на клубове, примамвали ги с обещания за луксозни пътувания и след това ги упоявали, earlier than they assault them.
At the very least two-thirds of the ladies who had been interviewed, the prosecutor mentioned, described ranges of intoxication that had been “grossly disproportionate” to the quantity of alcohol they’d consumed, and lots of mentioned they’d been pressed and forcibly penetrated.
“A few of these ladies say, ‘I could not even scream,'” Mr Jones added.
Според обвинителния акт Орен, Тал и Алон Александър са участвали в схемата за сексуален трафик в продължение на най-малко 14 години. Coordinating with different males, they organized occasions and home and worldwide journeys as bait to recruit, lure and transport ladies they later raped, the indictment mentioned.
Deanna Paul, Tal Alexander’s legal professional, acknowledged the allegations are critical. “That does not make them true,” she mentioned. По-късно тя посочи обвиненията като „оркестрирано усилие, насърчаващо жените да се възползват от минали сексуални преживявания с братята“.
The Alexander household’s wealth was on the heart of a lot of the dialogue through the listening to. Howard Srebnik, Alon Alexander’s legal professional, launched the brothers’ dad and mom, Shlomo and Orli Alexander, who had been current within the courtroom. The dad and mom have pledged all their possessions to assist safe the discharge of their sons earlier than the trial.
“They’re prepared to danger all the things,” Mr. Srebnik mentioned, waving on the couple.
The dad and mom immigrated to the US from Israel earlier than their sons had been born and have become self-made millionaires. They personal a waterfront mansion in Miami’s unique Bal Harbor neighborhood that’s estimated to be price round $14 million.
At a number of factors through the listening to, Choose Caproni requested the defendants’ legal professionals to restrict their arguments to the slim query of whether or not the brothers, if launched on bail, pose a hazard or flight danger.
She reminded them that they had been in detention, not on trial.
