When federal prosecutors in New York seek Wednesday to keep the three Alexander brothers in custody until their trial on sex trafficking charges, they’ve told the presiding judge they’ll buttress their case with “more evidence” of “criminal acts” that “underscores the depraved nature of the defendants’ conduct and immense danger they present."
Specifically, they reveal, explicit sex videos and photos – material they call "trophies" of criminal conduct - were seized from a New York apartment that had been shared by Tal and Oren Alexander during execution of a search warrant on Dec. 11.
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That’s the same day the successful real estate brokers and a third brother, Alon, were arrested in Miami.
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Extracted from a hard drive found in a closet, prosecutors allege in a memo to the judge, were photos and video of Oren, Alon and others “with women in states of intoxication and undress,” some of them at first unaware they were being recorded, leading some to become upset and attempt to hide or flee.
Other videos show Alon, Oren and other men having sex with women “who are visibly under the influence of alcohol or other substances. In some instances, at least one defendant and another man physically manipulated the women’s bodies in order to have sex with them while the women did not actively participate in the sexual activity or turned away,” prosecutors wrote in the memo to U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni last Friday.
By Monday the defense team was demanding copies of the videos and photos and arguing in their own brief that, rather than proffering evidence of rape, the government "speculates that the videos portray non-consensual sex."
In fact, attorney Richard Klugh wrote in his response, the material as recounted "substantially undermines and contradicts the government’s narrative" in the case because it did not show unconscious, drugged women being gang raped or screaming for help – as prosecutors say was the brothers’ pattern of sexual assault.
All three men, scions of a prominent Miami-area family that made its fortune in real estate and security businesses, are accused of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking from at least 2010 through 2021.
They have pled not guilty and will ask Caproni Wednesday to let them await trial on home detention in Miami (or anywhere else the court allows), albeit with armed private security monitoring their every move, with cameras, sensors, wiretapping and computer monitoring, among other requirements. The family would secure their appearance with a bond of more than $115 million, the attorneys have told the court.
But, citing the discovery of the videos – which they called "trophies of the defendants' criminal conduct" – prosecutors are expected to argue that the brothers "cannot be trusted to stop their violent assaults even in the face of criminal charges," as they wrote in their letter to the judge.
Yet, none of what the government described in the videos "points to any evidence that the women depicted were involuntarily intoxicated or involuntarily undressed," countered Klugh, who is Oren’s attorney, but wrote on behalf of all three brothers.
"Notably the government stops short of asserting that any of the women portrayed in the videos did not consent to the sex," Klugh argued, adding the physical manipulation described “could refer to any number of consensual sexual activities” and a woman not actively participating "does not translate to non-consensual sex."
An email to Klugh seeking further comment and asking whether the government has turned the video and photos to the defense, as he requested, has not been answered.
The brothers have repeatedly maintained their innocence through their attorneys.