Alexander brothers discovered responsible of intercourse trafficking following 11 girls’s testimony | EUROtoday

Following a five-week trial, three brothers have been convicted of intercourse trafficking fees over accusations they used medication and drive to rape scores of ladies that they had impressed with their wealth and opulent way of life.

Two of the brothers have been the nation’s most profitable actual property brokers.

The verdict 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 girls 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. More than 60 girls say they have been raped by a number of of the brothers, in accordance with prosecutors.

Defense 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. But 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.

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Besides the felony case, the trio confronted about two dozen lawsuits, together with one filed Thursday by Tracy Tutor, a star of “Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles” on Bravo. She alleges Oren Alexander drugged and assaulted her in a restaurant toilet whereas she was in New York City 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 actual property world for years.

During the trial, lots of the girls 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 courting 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 mentioned 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 the accusers have been hoping to money in on lawsuits. Only two have lawsuits pending, prosecutor Elizabeth Espinosa instructed jurors, and each are rich themselves.

One lady 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 want their money. I just don’t want them to have it,” she instructed 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 lady, now 40, mentioned she sued Tal Alexander final yr despite the fact that she is going to “never need their money” as a result of she grew to become upset that the Alexanders “kept calling us gold diggers, shake down artists, con artists.”

“If there’s a kid with a stick who keeps hitting people, you take their stick away,” she instructed the jury. “Money is their stick, so you take it away so they can’t hurt people anymore.”

The Associated Press doesn’t usually determine individuals who say they’re victims of sexual assault until they select to come back ahead publicly, as Acree and Tutor have finished.

Besides witness testimony, prosecutors tried to show their case by means of textual content and electronic mail messages during which the brothers appeared to boast about their sexual exploits and their data of the consequences varied medication can have on a lady’s inhibitions, together with a weblog that included a publish titled: “It’s not rape if …”

Prosecutors mentioned the brothers emailed about sneaking medication — or “party favors” — onto a cruise ship, recorded at the least one assault on video and shared photographs of victims.