Three brothers, together with two of the nation’s most profitable luxurious actual property brokers, have been convicted of intercourse trafficking fees Monday after a five-week trial over accusations that they used medication and pressure to rape scores of ladies that they had dazzled with their wealth and opulent life-style.
The decision got here after 11 ladies 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 ladies say they have been raped by a number of of the brothers, in accordance with prosecutors.
Protection legal professionals prompt the accusers had defective recollections or have been hoping to money in on the brothers’ fortunes. The brothers, their legal professionals 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 personal safety agency.
In addition to 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 lavatory whereas she was in New York Metropolis for an actual property occasion.
When these lawsuits first started being filed, a number of ladies got here ahead claiming that they had additionally been sexually harassed or assaulted, and that the brothers’ misconduct with ladies had been an open secret in the true property world for years.
Throughout the trial, most of the ladies who testified mentioned 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 girl testified that she met the brothers in 2012 at a celebration at actor Zac Efron’s Manhattan residence. She mentioned she had virtually no interplay with the actor, who was not accused of any misdeeds, and went to a nightclub later within the evening 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 advised jurors, and each are rich themselves.
One girl who testified mentioned she was raped by Alon Alexander in Aspen, Colorado, in 2017, when she was 17 years previous. She mentioned she was the daughter of a billionaire.
“I don’t need their cash. I simply don’t need them to have it,” she advised 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 changing into so disoriented from ingesting lower than half a glass of wine that she felt paralyzed.
The lady, now 40, mentioned she sued Tal Alexander final yr despite the fact that she’s going to “by no means want their cash” as a result of she turned upset that the Alexanders “saved calling us gold diggers, shake down artists, con artists.”
“If there’s a child with a stick who retains hitting individuals, you are taking their stick away,” she advised the jury. “Cash is their stick, so you are taking it away to allow them to’t harm individuals anymore.”
The Related Press doesn’t usually establish individuals who say they’re victims of sexual assault except they select to return ahead publicly, as Acree and Tutor have carried out.
In addition to witness testimony, prosecutors tried to show their case by textual content and electronic mail messages through which the brothers appeared to boast about their sexual exploits and their data of the results numerous medication can have on a lady’s inhibitions, together with a weblog that included a submit titled: “It’s not rape if …”
Prosecutors mentioned the brothers emailed about sneaking medication — or “get together favors” — onto a cruise ship, recorded a minimum of one assault on video and shared pictures of victims.
