The Alexander brothers’ sex trafficking trial began last week in a Manhattan courtroom.
The proceedings may be more than 1,200 miles away from Miami, but the city looms large in the case.
And, in the days leading up to the trial, a Miami woman alleged in a new lawsuit that in 2016 she was raped by Oren and Alon “simultaneously,” with the brothers switching off who was filming on a cell phone. The woman, Tiffany Rodriguez, also names the nightclub, Basement at the Edition Miami Beach; the brothers’ parents, Orly and Shlomy; the family’s security firm, Kent Security; Oren’s longtime brokerage, Douglas Elliman; and the firm’s former chairman and CEO, Howard Lorber, as defendants.
The brothers have denied all allegations and pleaded not guilty to the federal charges.
The federal trial began a day late because of the winter storm that brought more than a foot of snow to New York.
Alon’s attorney Howard Srebnick, the only Miami lawyer involved in the federal case, walked into the courthouse with two coconut waters in his backpack. The brothers’ parents, Orly and Shlomy, attended the trial each day, as did Shani Alexander, Alon’s wife. Kamila Hansen Alexander, Oren’s wife, showed up on Thursday in a long fur coat.
The brothers, who face a minimum of 15 years in prison if convicted, could be seen scanning the courtroom throughout the week. Oren and Alon whispered to their attorneys during cross-examination, likely guiding their lawyers’ questions. Family members spoke Hebrew to each other, and were warned by the court officers to not speak or whisper.
The brothers’ attorney said that the Alexanders were “single men who liked and pursued women.” Oren’s lawyer, Teny Geragos, described them as “arrogant.”
“That’s not trafficking. That’s dating,” she said.
Prosecutors, meanwhile, are working to paint a picture of the brothers enticing women with promises of luxury travel, only to then allegedly drug and rape them.
“The brothers used whatever means necessary. Sometimes drugs, sometimes alcohol, sometimes brute force to carry out their rapes. Some of their victims were underage. Some said no. Some were incoherent,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Madison Smyser in her opening remarks. “For over a decade, these three brothers, the defendants, masqueraded as party boys, when really they were predators.”
Two women testified last week using pseudonyms: Katie Moore, who alleged that Alon raped her in 2012 after meeting him at Zac Efron’s apartment for an NBA championship watch party, and Maya Miller, who alleged that Tal raped her in the Hamptons one weekend in 2014. [Read Moore’s account here and Miller’s here.]
In the two years after Miller’s alleged rape, she and a friend stayed at the homes of people in Tal’s orbit, said Milton Williams, Tal’s attorney. That included the homes of Max Leifer and Jim Ferraro. Ferraro, a prominent mesothelioma attorney based in Miami, gave Oren his big break when he hired him to represent him in the $8.2 million sale of his Park Imperial penthouse in the summer of 2009. Ferraro also briefly represented Oren and Alon in the initial two civil lawsuits alleging rape.
The prosecution also called friends of the women to the stand, as well as an FBI agent and a New York Police Department detective involved in the case.
What we’re thinking about: Will other owners at Five Park join a penthouse buyer who recently sued the developers of the Miami Beach tower? A trust is alleging that luxury short-term guest suites were promised to unit owners in marketing materials, but that the developers are now offering them for sale. Send me a note at kk@therealdeal.com.
CLOSING TIME
Residential: Deborah Tarrant, widow of businessman and politician Richard Tarrant, sold the oceanfront home at 1083 Hillsboro Mile in Hillsboro Beach to a trust for $36.5 million.
Commercial: An affiliate of HHM Hotels sold a Sheraton hotel at 3900 Northwest 21st Street in Miami, near Miami International Airport, for $67.5 million. New York-based Bridgeton Development Group bought the property.
— Research by Mary Diduch
NEW TO THE MARKET
Miami businessman John Ruiz is looking to sell his waterfront Gables Estates mansion for $175 million. The two-acre property at 620 Arvida Parkway in Coral Gables features a nearly 15,000-square-foot home with 10 bedrooms, 14 bathrooms and two half-baths, a two-bedroom guest house, staff quarters, a gym, spa, salon, speakeasy lounge, a wine cellar and an eight-car garage. The property is on the market with Mocca Realty’s Alex Pirez.
A thing we’ve learned
New York City’s “snow hot tubs” have melted more than 23 million pounds of snow. Trucks with giant snow melters are helping with the post-storm cleanup. The cold weather has also spread to Miami, where temperatures dipped to their lowest levels in years this weekend.