Prosecutors are expected to finish arguing their case against the Alexander brothers on Monday as the sex trafficking trial in Manhattan enters its fifth week.
Over 30 witnesses have testified so far against Tal Alexander, 39, and Oren and Alon Alexander, both 38, who are charged with conspiracy to commit sex trafficking and sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion, among other crimes.
The brothers have pleaded not guilty. If convicted, they could face life in prison.
Here are four takeaways from the fourth week of trial.
Prosecutors said they plan to dismiss two charges.
On Friday, federal prosecutors told judge Valerie E. Caproni that the government planned to drop two sex trafficking charges against the brothers tied to events in the Hamptons in 2009. Prosecutors said they were forced to drop the charges after what they have described in court filings as a pattern of witness intimidation.
If the counts are dropped, the brothers will still face 10 charges.
One woman no longer wanted to be part of the case after a private investigator working for the defense pretended to be an insurance agent and approached her neighbors asking about her children.
But defense lawyers have argued that the brothers had alibis for the weekend in June 2009 cited in the two counts. In a letter filed on Friday, they said they notified the government last month that all three brothers were in New York City in June 2009, not the Hamptons.
A juror is replaced after the blizzard.
Several jurors traveled outside of New York City while the trial was on hiatus the week of the Presidents’ Day holiday. But one got stuck in Florida due to the historic blizzard that dropped nearly 20 inches of snow on the city last Monday.
Despite an extensive conversation discussing, in part, how the juror could get on an earlier flight back to New York, the judge ultimately replaced her with the next alternate juror.
Only one alternate juror remains.
Two women testified about incidents that aren’t part of the indictment.
Two women, neither of whom are one of the eight victims listed in the indictment, testified last week. Prosecutors occasionally call witnesses who are not directly linked to a case to establish a pattern of bad behavior on the part of the defendants.
On Tuesday, a woman using the pseudonym Ava Wells said she met Alon Alexander at a Jewish networking event in New York City in 2012. She met Alon again in 2016, at an apartment in Tel Aviv where she said he raped her.
On Thursday, a woman using the pseudonym Kelly Hudson said she met Oren Alexander in Mexico in 2008. Almost two years later, Ms. Hudson said, she was drugged and sexually assaulted by Oren Alexander in Aspen at his family’s condo.
While she said she could only recall flashes of what occurred, she recalled Oren Alexander dressing her up as a clown after the assault and making her leave the home.
Defense attorneys questioned both women about their romantic interest in the brothers and inconsistencies in what they initially told law enforcement and their testimony in court
The jury heard passages from a ‘manifesto’.
The government has argued that the brothers read, were influenced by and occasionally contributed to a blog known for using vulgar terms for sex and insulting women.
Passages include definitions by users of what doesn’t “count as rape.” An investigative analyst for the U.S. attorneys office read passages aloud to the jury on Thursday, which prosecutors say is critical to understand the brothers’ mentality around sex and consent.
Prosecutors have referred to the website as a manifesto.
Defense attorneys have argued that the language in the blog was “locker room talk.”
Attorneys for the Alexander brothers will start arguing their case later this week.
Kate Christobek is a reporter covering breaking news for The Times.
The post Takeaways from the Fourth Week of the Alexander Brothers Trial appeared first on New York Times.
