Brothers were predators masquerading as party boys, New York court hears

Three brothers, two of them real estate agents who catered to the jet-set crowd, used a playbook over a 12-year stretch that sometimes involved drugging women and girls before raping them, a prosecutor told a New York jury on Tuesday in an opening statement.Assistant US attorney Madison Smyser said the brothers used “whatever means necessary” including luxury accommodations, flights, drugs, alcohol and sometimes brute force to lure women into situations where they could be raped.She said Tal, Oren and Alon Alexander “masqueraded as party boys when really they were predators” from 2008 to 2021.Attorney Teny Geragos, representing Oren Alexander, urged the jury to reject the government’s “monstrous story”.She said the brothers, who got out of college in 2008, were successful, ambitious and sometimes arrogant as they pursued women in nightclubs, bars, restaurants and online in what is known as “hookup culture”, hoping to have as much sex as possible.“You may find this behavior immoral, but it is not criminal,” Geragos said. She discredited the women who will testify, saying some of them were hoping to enrich themselves with lawsuits against the brothers and spoke of themselves as victims only after feeling regret that they had done illegal drugs or had sex outside of relationships with their boyfriends.Attorney Deanna Paul, representing Tal Alexander, warned jurors that the subject matter of the case was disturbing and would seem like an R-rated movie, especially after prosecutors portrayed the brothers as “monsters”.“In their early 20s, Tal and his brothers were party boys. They were womanizers. They slept with many, many women,” she said.She urged jurors to reject the criminal charges against the brothers if they conclude that the accusers’ testimony was unreliable.The openings preceded testimony in what is expected to be a month-long trial.An indictment alleges that the men conspired to entice women to join them at vacation destinations such as New York’s Hamptons by providing flights and luxury hotel rooms and inviting them to entertainment events and parties before sexually abusing them and sometimes raping them.The brothers have pleaded not guilty, and their lawyers say prosecutors are unjustly criminalizing consensual sex.According to the indictment, the men violently sexually assaulted and raped dozens of women after luring them to various destinations with promises of luxury experiences, travel and accommodations.It said that often the brothers “drugged their victims before assaulting them, preventing them from fighting back or escaping”.In court papers, defense lawyers have said that among witnesses they had identified, they had been able to locate evidence “that undermines nearly every aspect of the alleged victims’ narratives”.Oren and Tal Alexander were real estate dealers who specialized in high-end properties in Miami, New York and Los Angeles. Their brother, Alon, graduated from New York Law School before running the family’s private security firm. Tal is 39 years old while Alon and Oren, who are twins, are 38.The brothers have been held without bail since their December 2024 arrest in Miami, where they lived.