Prosecutors Drop 2 Alexander Brothers Sex Trafficking Charges

Prosecutors said they plan to drop two sex trafficking charges against Oren, Alon and Tal Alexander, leaving 10 counts in the federal case against the brothers.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Madison Smyser told Judge Valerie Caproni on Friday that the government plans to drop counts six and seven, which relate to two alleged victims of the brothers in June 2009, the New York Times reported. Caproni will have to sign off on dismissing the two counts.

The women whose accounts formed the basis of the two charges, known as Victims 4 and 5 in the indictment, have not taken the stand.

All three brothers are charged with conspiracy to commit sex trafficking tied to an alleged scheme to lure women to destinations such as the Hamptons, Aspen and the Bahamas, where they were later drugged and raped. Prosecutors claim the conspiracy began in 2008 and continued through 2021, during which the three brothers worked together and with other men.

Aside from the conspiracy charge, Oren, Alon and Tal are also facing counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion and inducement to travel to engage in unlawful sexual activity connected to an alleged attack in the Hamptons in September 2016. Bela Koval, identified as Victim 2 in the indictment, testified in the second week of the trial she was drugged and raped by Oren.

Tal and Alon are charged with sex trafficking of a woman who testified under the pseudonym Isa Brooks that she was 16 years old when the brothers and two other men raped her in the Hamptons in 2009. Oren and Alon are also charged with aggravated sexual abuse by force, threat or intoxication and sexual abuse by physical incapacitation tied to the alleged rape of Rhonda Stone on a cruise from Miami to the Bahamas in 2012.

Tal is also facing two additional counts of sex trafficking and one inducement to travel related to the alleged rapes of two women in the Hamptons, including Brooklyn artist Lindsee Acree in 2011 and a woman who testified under the pseudonym Maya Miller in 2014.

Oren was also charged with one count of sexual exploitation of a minor. Prosecutors showed jurors a video of Oren allegedly raping a 17-year-old woman, who testified that she had no recollection of the encounter or knowledge of the video until the government contacted her. The woman, using the pseudonym Amelia Rosen, said the video showed two men having sex with her while she was “not in an alert state” and “not present.”

The Alexanders are still facing a minimum of 10 to 15 years, or up to life in prison, if convicted. They have denied the allegations and pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors plan to wrap up their case on Monday. The trial, which began in late January, is expected to end in mid-March.

— Sheridan Wall and Katherine Kallergis