Prosecutors, in the final stages of their portion of the sex trafficking case, revealed a tranche of communications showing how the Alexander brothers and other men discussed finding women for trips and parties, including weekends in the Hamptons and Aspen.
In group chats, emails and social media messages submitted as evidence by prosecutors in the fourth week of the trial, Oren, Alon and Tal coordinated among themselves and with other men to find women, sometimes laying out ground rules for those they invited. In one case, they discussed how “only new girls” be brought to their Hamptons summer rental and advertised rates for bedrooms in the homes where “girls are included.”
While the latest trove of exchanges doesn’t include explicit references to illegal drugs or sexual assault, the messages, along with testimony from alleged victims, form the foundation of prosecutors’ case that for more than a decade, the brothers worked together and with others to lure women to luxury travel destinations, where they later drugged and raped them.
Prosecutors previously introduced several messages between the Alexanders and other men discussing procuring drugs such as MDMA, ketamine and GHB, including for a cruise from Miami to the Bahamas, where one woman alleged she was raped by Oren and Alon.
The brothers have denied the allegations and have pleaded not guilty to the charges. Assistant U.S. Attorney Madison Smyser told Judge Valerie Caproni on Friday that the government plans to drop two counts, leaving 10 charges in the case.
Prosecutors presented the messages in a chart cataloguing communications and documents related to the brothers’ trips to the Hamptons in 2009, 2014 and 2016, and to Aspen in 2017. The chart did not include all materials related to the trips, which Oren’s attorney, Teny Geragos, confirmed during cross-examination of Deleassa Penland, a special agent with the U.S. attorney’s office who assembled the chart.
“This summarized only a small amount of evidence from each of those summers, right?” Geragos asked. “This was by no means every text message sent or every Facebook message sent in those three summers, right?”
In a message sent from a Facebook group to Alon on May 27, 2009, the sender writes, “I’ve updated the group with pictures of the house, we actually ended up taking in Southampton… if you take a room, the girls are included. This past weekend at the house was pretty insane.”
The end of the message includes a phone number and email address that appear to belong to Mathew Lipman, a promoter who Isa Brooks claims invited her to stay at the Southampton home over Memorial Day weekend 2009. Brooks, who testified under a pseudonym, alleges she was raped by Tal, Alon and two other men at the house that weekend.
Another woman described witnessing an attack that same weekend. Avishan Boudjnoud previously testified that she witnessed Tal and Alon sexually assault another woman in an outdoor Jacuzzi.
In a 2016 email to Alon and Oren about expenses associated with a Hamptons sharehouse, Tal told Alon, “You didn’t bring any girls this weekend. There should be a tax for that.” Alon replies, “I did bring most girls weekend one.”
The exchange between the brothers occurred in June, roughly two months before Labor Day weekend, when Bela Koval alleges she was drugged and raped by Oren while staying at a home at 26 On The Bluff in Sag Harbor. Prosecutors also showed a copy of a lease, signed by Tal, to rent the property for $100,000 beginning in late May 2016 until Aug. 1, 2016, which included the option to tack on an additional stay between Aug. 17 and Sept, 6, the day after Labor Day.
In a WhatsApp conversation between Tal and a man named Igor C. timestamped in the days before Koval alleges she was attacked, Igor asks Tal about what types of girls he can provide for that same weekend, particularly for a party Tal was hosting on Saturday.
“What’s your priorities for the girls? Models, big ass or just great personality?” Igor says.
Tal responds that he’s looking for four to six girls who are a “combination of all” but that “it’s more about the right girls.”
A woman testifying under the pseudonym Maya Miller told the jury early in the trial that she was drugged and raped by Tal in August 2014 at the same property, which Tal and Alon rented for the month for $50,000.
During opening arguments, attorneys with the Alexanders’ defense team told the jury the brothers aggressively pursued women and slept with many of them, sometimes together, though they pushed back against prosecutors’ characterization of their behavior as criminal.
During her cross-examination of Penland, Geragos questioned the special agent on materials underlying some of the women’s accounts, including messages from the dating app Raya between Oren, Alon and Allyson Helms, Koval’s friend who traveled with her to the Hamptons. Koval previously testified that she’d matched with Alon on Raya and that she was invited to the Hamptons by Oren through Helms. Penland confirmed that she did not review any Raya messages between Koval and Oren or Koval and Alon.
Geragos also asked Penland to review AT&T records, which showed a brief phone call between Tal and Miller after the alleged attack. Miller testified that she’d missed a call from Tal and later texted him back, but that she didn’t remember speaking to him on the phone.
The communications revealed by prosecutors last week also identify other men the Alexander brothers were socializing with, including real estate entrepreneur Steven Ostad and commercial broker Dustin Stolly. Ostad and Stolly have not been accused of any wrongdoing.
Ostad wrote in an August 2014 message to Alon that he’s “taking two rooms for [hoes] this [weekend]. Discuss at dinner.” Alon asks how many girls, to which Ostad replies, “Probably six.”
Stolly came up in reference to a trip in early 2017. He had forwarded Alon an invitation to a JLL conference in Aspen. (Stolly, a veteran commercial broker credited with more than $100 billion in career deals, is now with Walker & Dunlop.)
“Dustin gave me $10k budget. So 6 for flights, 4 for hotel,” Alon wrote in a Facebook message to a friend, Evan Albert, discussing bringing women on a trip to Aspen.
Alon asked if he wanted girls to arrive on Thursday or Friday of that week. When he didn’t respond, Alon sent “???” to which Stolly replied: “Sorry. Slammed. We’ll find broads here.”
“No imports?” Alon asked.
The conference invite included that JLL was providing accommodations at the upscale hotel Little Nell on the nights of January 25 and 26 of that year. Additional nights would cost $930 a night.
A day before the trip, in a group chat between Oren, Alon and two friends, Alon writes, “Guys for it to be fun we all must bring girls. This girl needs a sponsor. $900 round trip from LA. I’m gonna fly this girl in from South Carolina.” He also adds, “But if you guys don’t bring girls Oren and I canceling and will ride just us and two girls getting blowjibs entire way.”
Alon later writes in the group chat the woman from South Carolina might get “stuck in Philly.”
A few days later, in a group chat with Oren, Alon and an unidentified number, Alon wrote, “Philly! We got a jet from Philly to Aspen, you got any local talent?”
Leading up to the trip, Oren also sent messages to at least six different women inviting them to join him on the private plane to Aspen. From the messages shown by prosecutors, it appears all six of the women declined the invitation.
While in Aspen, Oren and Alon met Maylen Gehret and her friend, Kaylee Brown, who were 17 years old at the time. Gehret and Brown, who testified during the third week of the trial, both alleged they were sexually assaulted by Alon in his hotel room at the Little Nell after meeting the twins at a nightclub.
The morning after the alleged assault, in the group chat with Albert and Oren, Alon wrote, “I took down 17 year old. I’ll show you pic.”
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