Closing Remarks Underway in Alexanders’ Sex Trafficking Trial

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On Tuesday, the Alexanders’ defense team rested its case in the brothers’ sex trafficking trial.

Attorneys for Oren, Alon and Tal Alexander called their final witness to the stand, before passing the case back to prosecutors to deliver their summation. With the trial now in its final stages, the jury could begin deliberations before the end of the week. The Alexanders have pleaded not guilty to the 10 charges.

Alon, who was considering testifying, decided not to.

On Tuesday morning, Alon’s former girlfriend testified about being in the Hamptons for Memorial Day weekend in 2009, the same weekend Isa Brooks alleges she was raped by Tal and Alon when she was 16 years old.

Danielle Epstein, who wasn’t staying at the Alexanders’ rental house that weekend, was asked about several photos from the trip, including one of Oren, which Brooks had previously misidentified as Alon. She also identified a blonde woman who was dating Oren at the time. Epstein said she didn’t recognize Brooks in any of the photos.

Epstein also testified that she went with the brothers to a “supper club” called Georgica on Saturday night, after the alleged attack against Brooks. Brooks testified that the night following her assault, she saw Tal at a club, where he told her, “Don’t be mad at me.” Photos from the night show Brooks at Pink Elephant, not Georgica, though she testified that she could have gone to more than one club that night.

Epstein’s testimony marked the end of the defense’s case, which began on Monday with testimony from two private chefs who previously worked with the Alexanders in the Hamptons.

Also on Tuesday…

Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Jones delivered a summary of prosecutors’ case against the Alexanders, which he described as containing “crushing evidence” that they followed a “playbook” to “lure, isolate and rape their victims” between 2008 and 2021.

He added that the evidence included testimony from victims, the people they told about their attacks, an eyewitness and expert witnesses, as well as communications between the brothers and other men. He pointed to 2008 posts on a blog as the brothers’ “creed” and “manifesto” and said the rape allegations against them proved the blog wasn’t “just locker room talk.”

“The dark and criminal side of their lives is being brought to light,” Jones said.

Jones walked the jury through a chronology of the alleged attacks against the 11 women who testified they were raped by one or more of the brothers. He said the Alexanders followed a pattern, which included bringing women to another location, drugging them and humiliating them.

“These women were telling you the truth,” Jones said. “You saw woman after woman sit right there and tell you about the most painful moments of their lives.”

He added that the women had no motivation to testify other than “hope for some closure and hope for some sense of justice.”

What we’re watching

Howard Srebnick, one of Alon’s attorneys, got about halfway through his closing arguments. Srebnick kicked off his remarks by discussing the testimony by Maylen Gehret, who told the jury she was drugged and raped by Alon when she was 17 years old. Srebnick said that Alon did not assault or rape Gehret and the other women who testified in the trial.

After Srebnick wraps up on Wednesday, Tal’s attorney Deanna Paul and Oren’s attorney Marc Agnifilo will make their closing remarks.