Tel Aviv Victim Testifies As Alexander Brothers’ Trial Resumes

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The Alexander brothers’ sex trafficking trial resumed on Tuesday, beginning with testimony from a woman who alleges she was raped by Alon Alexander in Israel in 2016.

The woman’s account is not included in the indictment, but she is one of several witnesses prosecutors previously indicated they planned to put on the stand to bolster their argument that the brothers had a history of sexually assaulting women. Read on for what else we’re watching this week.

Oren, Alon and Tal Alexander have denied the allegations and pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The alleged attack

The woman, testifying under the pseudonym Ava Wells, told the jury she met Alon at a networking event for young Jewish professionals in New York City in 2012 and maintained off-and-on contact with him in the following years. While on a trip to Tel Aviv with a friend, Wells said she reached out to Alon after seeing on Facebook that he was also in the city. He then invited her and her friend to his Airbnb for drinks.

Wells and her friend, identified as Sofie Langan, met Alon at the apartment, where other men were hanging out. She said the group included Said Abulafia and Romi Mawardi, two men whose names have surfaced in previous proceedings concerning Bela Koval’s claim that Oren raped her in the Hamptons in 2016 (Abulafia) and Alon saying he brought “party favors” on a cruise where a woman says she was drugged and raped (Mawardi).

Wells said Alon quickly became “very forward” and flirtatious with her, which she initially didn’t mind. At some point in the evening, the pair were alone in a bedroom, with her sitting on the bed and Alon standing by a dresser. When Alon turned around, she said he had pulled his penis out and put a condom on. He started kissing her, but Wells said she pushed him away and repeatedly said she didn’t want to have sex with him. He replied, “Oh, come on,” before grabbing her wrists and holding them over her head while he raped her, according to Wells.

Wells said she felt “terrified” and “angry” during the attack, and she felt like Alon’s eyes were “seeing through” her.

“I was completely violated,” Wells said. “It changed how I look at everything.”

Wells, who is fluent in Hebrew, said after raping her, Alon made a call and, speaking in Hebrew, said something she understood as him discussing a “post-flight release” and describing her and her friend to someone on the other end of the call.

After the alleged attack, Wells said she mouthed to her friend that she’d just been raped. Wells and Langan then accompanied Alon and others to a restaurant, where she was introduced to Tal as his brother.

When prosecutors asked Wells why she was testifying, she replied, “He didn’t listen to me then, but he can hear me now.”

Alon’s attorney, Howard Srebnick, pressed Wells in cross-examination on her memory of that night and the details of her testimony that differed from the account she initially shared with prosecutors. He questioned her about her motivations for hiring civil attorneys and about the materials she shared with her lawyers, including a text between her and a friend where she calls Alon a “rapist.”

When asked why she’d redacted a “hahaha” typed at the end of the message, she said that “nothing about that was funny.”

“Neither is accusing someone of rape,” Srebnick said, to which she replied, “completely agree.”

Wells’ friend also took the stand on Tuesday and corroborated parts of her account, telling the jury Wells had whispered to her that she’d been raped at the apartment and they talked about the alleged attack at their hotel. At the time, Langan said she was upset with Wells for leaving her alone in the apartment and that her rape “seemed impossible.”

After news broke of other allegations against the Alexanders, Langan said she reached out to Wells and apologized for not being more supportive in the moment.

What we’re watching

Prosecutors said that on Wednesday, they plan to call a real estate agent who helped the Alexanders coordinate leases in the Hamptons, where at least three women have alleged they were raped by one or more of the brothers.
The government also said their lineup of people likely to be called this week includes an outcry witness associated with Lindsey Acree’s allegation against Tal Alexander, as well as another alleged victim identified as Victim 20.
After the jury was sent home on Tuesday, Judge Valerie Caproni heard arguments from both sides about admitting more evidence, including a group chat with Oren, Alon, Tal and Abulafia, where Abulafia allegedly asks the brothers how to pass along the message that the brothers were threatening to sue an alleged victim.
Another juror was dismissed after she was unable to return to New York due to the blizzard and had previously scheduled travel plans for early March. The dismissal leaves one alternate juror.