OMM Newsroom
Three brothers, including two wealthy real-estate executives, were each sentenced to 30 years in prison in New York for drugging and raping women over a period of years, according to the BBC.
Tal Alexander, 40, and twins Oren and Alon Alexander, 39, were found guilty in March of using their wealth and social standing to lure women to parties and luxury homes, where they sexually assaulted them.
On Tuesday morning, 12 victims spoke in court about the psychological trauma they said they endured and called for the shame they had felt to fall instead on the brothers. One of the women had not testified at the trial. Many asked the judge to impose the maximum sentence of life in prison for each defendant.
Maya Miller told the court that after Tal Alexander raped her in 2014, she lost her sense of safety. “I carry a quiet funeral within me for the person I might’ve become if this never happened to me,” she said.
A woman who used the pseudonym Isa Brooks said she lost the ability to trust herself after Tal and Alon Alexander raped her when she was 16. “I had no idea the danger I was in till it was too late,” she said.
Another woman said Tal Alexander threatened that he knew where her sister worked when she planned to come forward about being raped.
The three brothers showed little emotion during the victims’ statements, staring ahead or conferring with their lawyers. Their lawyers said they had advised them not to look at the women while they spoke, to avoid their attention being misconstrued as staring.
Prosecutor Elizabeth Espinosa said the brothers deserved the maximum punishment, saying the case’s facts “paint a truly devastating picture”. She said they had spent years refining ways to lure women with promises of luxury and were “completely unmoved by the path of suffering they left behind them”.
During the five-week trial, 11 women testified, including several who said they were minors when they were assaulted. They said the brothers gave them gifts and flew them to places including Aspen and the Bahamas, where they gave them drugs before raping them.
Prosecutors said the brothers’ abusive behaviour began in high school, though the trial covered crimes dating from 2008. They accused the men of putting drugs in women’s drinks, physically restraining and holding victims down during rapes and sexual assaults, and ignoring screams and explicit requests to stop.
The brothers’ lawyers argued that the sex was consensual and that their clients were womanizers, not sexual abusers. They sought the lowest possible sentence of 15 years for each brother.
Tal and Oren Alexander made their fortunes selling luxury properties in New York and Miami. They worked for real-estate company “Douglas Elliman”, selling properties for celebrities including Lindsay Lohan, Kim Kardashian and Kanye West. In 2022, they founded the New York-based firm “Official”. Alon worked at the family’s private security company, “Kent Security”.
The brothers showed no reaction or emotion as their sentences were delivered, staring straight ahead.
