The judge in the federal case against the Alexander brothers said the sex trafficking charges against the brothers will proceed at trial in January.
Judge Valerie Caproni of the Southern District of New York largely denied the defense’s motion to dismiss the latest indictment against former top brokers Tal and Oren Alexander and their brother Alon, according to a decision unsealed this week.
Caproni’s ruling also clarified her position on some of the defense’s key arguments against the validity of the charges outlined in the indictment, including whether prosecutors’ claims about the Alexanders’ alleged crimes meet the definition of sex trafficking and fall under the purview of the federal government.
“As much as defendants want to characterize the charged conduct as just men behaving badly, this is not what the indictment charges,” Caproni states. “The charges are that three grown men conspired to entice women and girls to travel in interstate foreign commerce, to provide things of value to those women and girls, and to use force and drugs in order to have sexual contact with those victims.”
Breaking down the decision
Caproni agreed to dismiss a portion of Count 7, which alleges sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion. The charge is among the allegations revealed in a superseding indictment, accusing one or more of the brothers of sex trafficking, conspiracy to commit sex trafficking and aggravated sexual abuse, among other crimes.
In Count 7, prosecutors allege Oren, Alon and Tal “recruited, enticed, harbored” and “transported” a woman identified as “Victim 5” and caused her to engage “in at least one commercial sex act” in June 2009.
In her decision, Caproni agreed to allow the sex trafficking charge to move forward, though she ordered prosecutors to drop attempted sex trafficking from the substance of the count. She sided with the defense’s argument that the alleged attempt to sex traffic the same victim fell outside of the five-year statute of limitations.
“Although this may create an anomalous result, as the substantive sex trafficking charge will go forward but the attempt to commit sex trafficking to the same victim will not,” Caproni wrote.
Caproni also rejected an argument from the defense alleging the federal government doesn’t have the authority to prosecute the crimes described in the indictment and that the power to do so rests with the states where the crimes allegedly occurred.
“While Defendants assert that their alleged illegal conduct amounts to no more than the occasional local ‘date rape’… that badly misrepresents the nature of the charges,” the judge wrote.
She added that the indictment “is not charging sexual assaults that serendipitously occurred when a group of ‘20- to 30-somethings [went] on vacation and one side of the romantic equation fund[ed] part of the vacation.”
She also rejected core arguments from the defense that have come up in previous hearings, including that prosecutors’ interpretation of the “anything of value” portion of the sex trafficking statute is too broad.
“To the extent the Defendants argue that ‘there is no cash for sex,’ their argument is irrelevant,” Caproni wrote.
She also ruled on some motions to suppress evidence obtained through warrants, rejecting the premise by defense attorneys who said the government failed to include information about victims’ litigation history or prior contact with defendants in its appeal to obtain the warrants.
The brothers, who have been in Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center since their arrests in December, are expected to begin trial in January. Caproni previously denied bail proposals for the three brothers.
Tal, Oren and Alon appeared in court last week for a status conference to discuss their upcoming trial, slated to start on Jan. 5. During the hearing, the judge cited unresolved requests from both sides and raised the possibility of delaying the trial until May.
Attorneys for the Alexanders are also pushing to bar testimony from two of the government’s expert witnesses, as well as a portion of testimony from a woman known as “Victim 4” and testimony and photographs from a person whose identity is redacted in the document.
The attorneys laid out their argument in motions in limine filed with the court last week. The judge will hear oral arguments on the motion on Monday.
The Alexanders are also facing several lawsuits accusing one or more of them of sexual assault. Courts in New York and Florida have dismissed three of those lawsuits, while plaintiffs have voluntarily withdrawn five other cases, according to a spokesperson for the Alexanders.
Editor’s note: The Real Deal was named in a lawsuit by the three brothers alleging defamation for its reporting on lawsuits and allegations against them beginning June 8, 2024. Publisher Amir Korangy in a statement called the action a “frivolous and cynical attempt to weaponize the legal system.”
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