New York (Associated Press) — Three brothers, together with two of the nation’s most profitable luxurious real estate brokers, have been convicted of sex trafficking expenses Monday after a five-week trial over accusations they used medication and power to rape scores of ladies that they had dazzled with their wealth and opulent lifestyle.
The verdict 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. More than 60 ladies say they have been raped by a number of of the brothers, according to prosecutors.
Defense attorneys instructed 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 sex was consensual.
The jury began deliberating Thursday.
Oren and Tal Alexander have been brokers at real estate powerhouse Douglas Elliman earlier than beginning their very own agency, Official. Alon Alexander labored on the household’s non-public safety agency.
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 rest room whereas she was in New York City for a real estate 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 real estate world for years.
During the trial, many of the ladies who testified mentioned they believed they’d been drugged after they have been handed alcohol by one of the 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 woman testified that she met the brothers in 2012 at a celebration at actor Zac Efron’s Manhattan condominium. She mentioned she had nearly no interplay with the actor, who was not accused of any misdeeds, and went to a nightclub later in 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. 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 in the Hamptons in the summer time 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 though she is going to “never need their money” as a result of she turned 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 sometimes determine individuals who say they are victims of sexual assault until they select to return ahead publicly, as Acree and Tutor have performed.
Besides witness testimony, prosecutors tried to show their case via textual content and e mail messages in which the brothers appeared to boast about their sexual exploits and their information 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 “party favors” — onto a cruise ship, recorded at the least one assault on video and shared images of victims.