- A Manhattan judge on Wednesday denied bail to the Alexander brothers in their sex-trafficking case.
- The denial followed a controversial hearing on whether the three brothers are dangerous or a flight risk.
- The judge criticized a lawyer who argued that a woman cannot be disabled if she can still stand up.
A Manhattan judge on Wednesday denied bail to the Alexander brothers in their federal sex-trafficking case, meaning they will remain jailed in Miami pending trial.
Oren and Tal Alexander were luxury real estate agents in Miami Beach and Manhattan before they and Oren’s twin, Alon, were indicted in December. All three have denied wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty to federal sex-trafficking charges.
The bail denial by U.S. District Judge Valerie E. Caproni followed a contentious three-hour hearing during which one defense attorney argued the brothers were no longer “orgying” and another said a woman could not be disabled if he can still stand up. .
This last claim prompted a sharp retort from the judge.
“This is nonsense,” Caproni told a lawyer for Oren Alexander, ending his attack on a key piece of evidence — a 2009 video showing Oren or his twin, Alon, having sex with a woman who the government claims it was incompetent.
“I’m just telling you, if that’s your argument, you lose,” the judge told the lawyer.
The exchange of evidence was initiated by Deanna Paul, a defense attorney for the twins’ older brother, Tal, who told the judge that the sex-trafficking indictment is based on weak evidence.
The indictment alleges that over a 10-year period beginning in 2010, the siblings conspired to use their wealth and prominence in the luxury real estate world to rape or assault more than 40 women, mostly in Manhattan and Miami and often through using the drug GHB.
Halfway through Wednesday’s hearing, which the brothers did not attend, Paul referred to the prosecution’s key piece of evidence – the 2009 video. She criticized its probative value, telling the judge it “shows a lack of force” during a consensual sexual encounter.
“In my opinion, having sex with a woman who is physically disabled is essentially rape,” the judge replied, citing the prosecution’s description of the video.
The judge asked prosecutor Andrew Jones to describe the video more fully, which he then did publicly for the first time. He called it a “trophy” tape the government had seized as evidence and said it depicts one of the twins having sex with a woman he said the government has not spoken to.
Jones said he wasn’t sure if the video showed Oren or Alon, but as it started, “one of these very sober and cool defendants sets up a tripod.”
“There’s a woman in bed. She’s naked,” Jones continued. “When she tries to speak, it’s incoherent. She’s mumbling,” and she seems unable to move, he told the judge.
After the alleged rape, “she manages to stay on the floor, but then falls back on the bed,” said the prosecutor showing the video.
Later in the session, the video was mentioned again by Oren Alexander’s lawyer, Richard Klugh.
He referred to the woman in the video as the “sexual partner” of one of the twins and “the woman who got up right after sex.”
He said prosecutors are misrepresenting the evidence when they say the woman was unable to speak because “she was mumbling.”
“You can’t call someone disabled who is able to stand up,” he added – at which point the judge called his assessment “nonsensical”.
At the end of the hearing, Caproni rejected defense arguments that the siblings were neither a danger to the community nor a flight risk and that, as Klugh said, “there was no more orgy. They’re married.”
She also rejected a $115 million bail package and a promise that the three would live together in Florida in home isolation. The home would have an in-house security team, window sensors and an alarm system, defense attorneys said.
Caproni said her denial was based largely on federal appellate case law from New York’s Second Circuit that bars judges from accepting a two-tier parole system where only wealthy defendants can spend money on 24-hour monitoring by an in-house security team.
“I have real problems with that,” she said. “In the Second Circuit, if the only way to mitigate the risk to the community is to create a private prison, then I can’t do that.”
Caproni set the trio’s next court date for Jan. 29.
