The primary witness at the federal sex trafficking trial of three brothers, two of them high-end actual property brokers, testified Tuesday in a Manhattan courtroom that the fun of attending a celebration at actor Zac Efron’s condominium became a nightmare when, hours later, one of many brothers repeatedly raped her at their house and taunted her about it.
The girl, who testified beneath the pseudonym Katie Moore, is one among a number of alleged victims anticipated to testify towards brothers Tal, Oren and Alon Alexander, who’re accused of teaming as much as drug and rape ladies and women over a number of years.
Attorneys for the brothers say the intercourse was consensual.
Prosecutors say the Alexander brothers used their ties to the rich and well-known to lure a number of victims.
The girl stated she was 20, an anthropology main in school, when she met two of the brothers on the get together at Efron’s New York condominium in 2012. She accompanied a good friend who had lately met Tal Alexander, and who invited her there to look at the final sport of the 2012 NBA Finals. She stated she had little interplay with Efron, who just isn’t accused of any wrongdoing.
She testified that at Efron’s condominium, she was supplied alcohol, and that she, Tal Alexander and her good friend took the drug Molly. She stated it was her first time taking the drug and that she felt “jitteriness” after doing so.
Elizabeth Williams through AP
After the sport, the lady went to an afterparty at a Manhattan nightclub, the place she stated she was given a drink and remembered little afterward till she awakened bare on a mattress in one other condominium with Alon Alexander, additionally bare, standing over her. She stated she repeatedly tried to stand up, however he saved pushing her again, prompting her to say: “I do not need to have intercourse with you.”
“Haha, you already did,” she recalled him saying as he “laughed in my face.”
She stated he then overpowered and raped her. Whereas it was taking place, Tal Alexander walked into the room briefly, however did nothing to cease the assault, the lady informed the jury. He appeared “tremendous nonchalant,” she stated.
Assistant U.S. Lawyer Madison Smyser stated in her opening assertion to the jury that the Alexander brothers “masqueraded as get together boys when actually they have been predators.”
She described the brothers as “companions in crime.”
“Lady after lady, rape after rape,” Smyser stated.
Smyser stated they used “no matter means obligatory” together with luxurious lodging, flights, medicine, alcohol and typically brute power to lure ladies into conditions the place they might be raped.
Lawyer Teny Geragos, representing Oren Alexander, urged the jury to reject prosecutors’ “monstrous story.”
She stated the brothers, who obtained out of school in 2008, have been profitable, formidable and typically boastful as they pursued ladies in nightclubs, bars, eating places and on-line in what is named “hookup tradition,” hoping to have as a lot intercourse as attainable.
“That it isn’t trafficking, that’s courting,” Geragos stated.
“You could discover this conduct immoral, however it isn’t prison,” Geragos stated. She stated a few of the brothers’ accusers have been hoping to counterpoint themselves with lawsuits and spoke of themselves as victims solely after feeling remorse that they’d achieved unlawful medicine or had intercourse exterior of relationships with their boyfriends.
Lawyer Deanna Paul, representing Tal Alexander, warned jurors that the subject material of the case was disturbing and can look like an R-rated film, particularly after prosecutors portrayed the brothers as “monsters.”
“Of their early 20s, Tal and his brothers have been get together boys. They have been womanizers. They slept with many, many ladies,” she stated.
She urged jurors to reject the prison expenses towards the brothers in the event that they conclude that the accusers’ testimony was unreliable.
Oren and Tal Alexander have been actual property sellers who specialised in high-end properties in Miami, New York and Los Angeles. Their brother, Alon, graduated from New York Regulation Faculty earlier than working the household’s personal safety agency. Tal is 39 years outdated whereas Alon and Oren, who’re twins, are 38.
An indictment alleges that the boys conspired to entice ladies to hitch them at trip locations reminiscent of New York’s Hamptons by offering flights and luxurious resort rooms.
The brothers have been held with out bail since their December 2024 arrest in Miami, the place they lived.
Throughout her testimony Tuesday, the trial’s first witness stated she fled the room the place Alon Alexander had attacked her after he fell asleep. The girl remained composed by a lot of her testimony, although she obtained choked up a number of instances. She cried as she recalled reaching out a number of years after the assault to mates she had informed in regards to the expertise so she might be reminded that others beloved her.
