NEW YORK — Three brothers, including two of the nation’s most successful luxury real estate brokers, were convicted of sex trafficking charges Monday after a five-week trial over accusations that they used drugs and force to rape scores of women they had dazzled with their wealth and opulent lifestyle.
The verdict came after 11 women testified they were sexually assaulted by one or more of the brothers: twins Oren and Alon Alexander, 38, and Tal Alexander, 39.
The women described attacks that occurred after they were invited to vacation locales including the Hamptons, a Caribbean cruise and a ski trip in Aspen, Colo. More than 60 women say they were raped by one or more of the brothers, according to prosecutors.
Defense lawyers suggested the accusers had faulty memories or were hoping to cash in on the brothers’ fortunes. The brothers, their lawyers conceded, were womanizers. But they insisted any sex was consensual.
The jury began deliberating Thursday.
Oren and Tal Alexander were brokers at real estate powerhouse Douglas Elliman before starting their own firm, Official. Alon Alexander worked at the family’s private security firm.
Besides the criminal case, the trio faced about two dozen lawsuits, including 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 bathroom while she was in New York City for a real estate event.
When those lawsuits first began being filed, multiple women came forward claiming they had also been sexually harassed or assaulted, and that the brothers’ misconduct with women had been an open secret in the real estate world for years.
During the trial, many of the women who testified said they believed they’d been drugged after they were handed alcohol by one of the brothers. Some described feeling like they’d lost control of their bodies after less than one drink.
The brothers met the women at nightclubs, parties and on dating apps, taking some on trips to ritzy locales, and paying for flights and luxury lodging. One woman testified that she met the brothers in 2012 at a party at actor Zac Efron’s Manhattan apartment. She said she had almost no interaction with the actor, who was not accused of any misdeeds, and went to a nightclub later in the night before waking up naked with a nude Alon Alexander standing over her.
Prosecutors pushed back on the idea that the accusers were hoping to cash in on lawsuits. Only two have lawsuits pending, prosecutor Elizabeth Espinosa told jurors, and both are wealthy themselves.
One woman who testified said she was raped by Alon Alexander in Aspen in 2017, when she was 17 years old. She said she was the daughter of a billionaire.
“I don’t want their money. I just don’t want them to have it,” she told jurors.
Lindsey Acree, an artist and gallery owner in Brooklyn, testified she was raped by Tal Alexander and a second man at a home in the Hamptons in the summer of 2011 after becoming so disoriented from drinking less than half a glass of wine that she felt paralyzed.
The woman, now 40, said she sued Tal Alexander last year even though she will “never need their money” because she became upset that the Alexanders “kept calling us gold diggers, shakedown artists, con artists.”
“If there’s a kid with a stick who keeps hitting people, you take their stick away,” she told the jury. “Money is their stick, so you take it away so they can’t hurt people anymore.”
The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they choose to come forward publicly, as Acree and Tutor have done.
Besides witness testimony, prosecutors tried to prove their case through text and email messages in which the brothers seemed to boast about their sexual exploits and their knowledge of the effects various drugs can have on a woman’s inhibitions, along with a blog that included a post titled: “It’s not rape if …”
Prosecutors said the brothers emailed about sneaking drugs — or “party favors” — onto a cruise ship, recorded at least one assault on video and shared photos of victims.
Sisak and Neumeister write for the Associated Press.
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