The legal team defending former luxury real estate brokers and brothers Alon, Oren and Tal Alexander in their sex trafficking trial began their case Monday — days earlier than initially scheduled — after prosecutors alleged intimidation tactics by defense attorneys resulted in two victims backing out of taking the stand. That case, attorneys said, may involve the brothers themselves taking the stand.
Prosecutors rested their case earlier than expected and are likely to drop certain charges against the brothers, having no witnesses to testify to those allegations.
On Friday, the government referenced their earlier accusation of defense attorneys of hiring an investigator to pose as an insurance agent in January and talk to neighbors of a woman planning to testify, including asking about her minor children. After the woman, identified in court filings as Victim-4, realized what was happening, she told government attorneys she no longer wanted to be a part of the case and has ignored all communication since.
She and another woman, identified in court filings as Victim-5, were expected to testify about being raped by the Alexanders in the Hamptons in 2009. The government indicated one would not testify without the other, and the two charges associated with the women are likely to be dropped.
Defense attorneys maintain the brothers have an alibi — that they were in New York City, not the Hamptons, over the June 2009 weekend in question — and suggested the victims backed out because there was evidence against their story.
Even if those two charges are dismissed, on which U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni has yet to rule, the trio still faces 10 counts of sex trafficking, conspiracy and sexual assault charges spanning over a decade. Since 2024, more than 60 women have accused the Alexander brothers of rape, according to government prosecutors and civil lawsuits.
Defense attorneys began their case Monday afternoon with a roughly 30-minute opening statement from Jacqueline Perczek, an attorney for Alon Alexander, who told the jury the defense case would involve photo metadata, testimony and other evidence that would show inconsistencies in stories from women who testified to being raped, a strategy her team has already employed through questioning while cross-examining victims.
Perczek said photo metadata would show the women weren’t in the places they said they were, and testimony from the Alexanders’ private chefs would show the women weren’t upset with the Alexanders and appeared “normal” hours after they were allegedly raped.
She harped on allegations surrounding a woman who testified that Alon and Tal Alexander raped her in the Hamptons in 2009 when she was 17 years old. Perczek said that though she identified a photo of the man who raped her as Alon Alexander, that photo was actually one of Oren Alexander, which said proved her client’s innocence.
Perczek’s summaries of the trial and allegations against all three brothers earned a slight reprimand from Caproni: “Remember that this is an opening statement.
Brothers on the stand?
Before the jury came into the courtroom Monday morning, Marc Agnifilo, an attorney for Oren Alexander, told Caproni “one or more” of the Alexander brothers were considering testifying as part of the defense case.
Even if the brothers testify, Agnifilo indicated the defense could rest their case early this week, a significantly speedier timeline than he and his colleagues presented last week, when they projected at least a weeklong case. If the brothers don’t testify, the defense will rest on Tuesday.
Over the past month of trial, roughly a dozen victims have taken the stand to tell the jury they were raped — and, in many cases, drugged — at the hands of the Alexanders. They were joined by a cadre of friends, family and former partners who testified to back up the womens’ stories, recounting when the women in their lives told them they were raped, or their experiences when accompanying their friend on a night out or trip with the Alexanders.
They’ve painted a picture of dream nights and vacations that turned into nightmares, depicting brutal rapes that left them bleeding, and said couldn’t resist because they were forcibly pinned down, in extreme shock or drugged, making them so weak they couldn’t think straight or push the Alexanders off of them.
One woman, whose name amNewYork Law isn’t publishing as she is an alleged victim of sexual assault, testified she was sex trafficked by Tal Alexander in 2011. Her friend invited her to Tal’s home in the Hamptons, which Tal drove her to from a Long Island Rail Road station.
After having half a glass of wine in a jacuzzi with Tal Alexander one night, the woman said she felt “so disoriented” she “couldn’t speak” and was led to a gym in the home, where Tal and another man laughed at her while asking her to lift weights as she sat on the floor, too weak to move, she said. Then, the two raped her.
“I couldn’t move,” the woman said, through tears. “Leaving wasn’t an option … It was so scary. It’s so violating.”
She said she was still coming to terms with the fact that she couldn’t remember the entirety of the night, saying her memory was “like a flipbook” due to being drugged.
As the trial moves into its final days, the jury consists of six women and six men — the same gender makeup of the initial jury, but consisting of five different people. Alternates have been subbed in at a steady pace as jurors dropped off due to sickness, personal issues and, in one case, because he’d made up his mind mid-trial.
There is one alternate juror left.
After the defense rests their case, both sides will make their closing arguments to the jury, a process expected to take at least two days. Closing arguments are likely to begin later this week.
