Alexander brothers each sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for sex trafficking

By Kara Scannell, Lauren del Valle, Nicki Brown, CNN

New York (CNN) — Alon, Tal and Oren Alexander – three brothers who once lived at the height of wealth and society in New York and Miami – were each sentenced to 30 years in federal prison Tuesday for sex trafficking and other crimes after facing several of their victims during an emotional, hourslong hearing.

“These men spent years treating woman and girls as though our lives, body, voices, humanity meant nothing,” a victim using the pseudonym Katie Moore said in court. “But we are not disposable and they are not untouchable.”

Moore was one of 12 women who delivered statements Tuesday in a federal courtroom in Manhattan packed with victims and their supporters for the sentencing of the three brothers, who were convicted earlier this year of sex trafficking, conspiracy to commit sex trafficking and other charges.

The sentencing marks a dramatic fall from grace for the three men: Tal, 40, and Oren, 39, were top luxury real estate brokers, while Alon, Oren’s twin, was an executive at their family’s security company.

During the five-week trial, prosecutors laid out evidence demonstrating the brothers’ yearslong pattern of using their wealth and social status to lure women to luxury locations before using drugs or force to rape and sexually assault them – many of whom were unconscious or several incapacitated.

Eleven women testified at trial about being sexually assaulted by one or more of the men, though prosecutors said more than 70 women had reported their accounts to investigators.

Federal district judge Valerie Caproni likened the three brothers to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. In letters to the court, the men’s supporters described them as gentlemen, while the women who testified credibly at trial described “sadistic, misogynistic sexual predators,” she said.

“Either all of those women are in the wrong line of work because they should all be actresses, or they were telling the truth and they were raped and drugged. And I credit latter,” the judge said.

As Caproni handed down the sentences, several victims nodded their heads with pained expressions. One woman wiped her eyes with a tissue.

The brothers, wearing beige prison outfits, each addressed the court and acknowledged being ashamed of their behavior but vehemently maintained they never drugged or raped anyone.

“I want to set the record straight – my brothers and I have never drugged and raped anyone. Have never trafficked anyone for sex. Have never conspired to harm anyone,” Oren Alexander said Tuesday, as several victims shook their heads.

As she sentenced the men, Caproni said she believed that was “entirely a lie.”

“Your conduct was monstrous,” the judge said.

All three men were also convicted of inducement to travel for unlawful sexual activity. Alon and Tal Alexander were also convicted of sex trafficking a minor. The twins were convicted of additional sex abuse counts, and the jury also found Oren Alexander guilty of sexual exploitation of a minor.

Their defense attorneys had asked the judge to issue the lowest possible sentence of 15 years, saying the men were interested in “meeting women” when they were younger but are now dedicated fathers needed by their families.

“The defendants really left the conduct on their own,” Marc Agnifilo, a defense attorney for Oren Alexander, said. “All three defendants stopped and that matters.”

Federal prosecutors, meanwhile, argued the men deserved life in prison, the maximum possible sentence, due in part due to the callousness with which they committed their crimes.

“These attacks were often relatively brief, an hour in an evening, and then after they were done, the defendants were able to laugh about it, brag about it, and move on with their lives,” Elisabeth Espinosa, an assistant US attorney for the Southern District of New York, said.

“The victims were left picking up the pieces, dealing with the shattering grief, the confusion, the pain of what the defendants had done to them, and what didn’t matter to the defendants.”

The US Attorney for the Southern District of New York said in a statement after the sentencing the brothers preyed on young women and girls for years and used their social status to their advantage.

“Today’s sentence makes clear that this craven, sinister conduct is extraordinarily serious and will be met with serious punishment,” US Attorney Jamie McDonald – who attended the entirety of the hearing – said in the statement.

‘I grieve the girl that I was’

Before they were sentenced, the Alexander brothers listened to a dozen women who described being preyed upon by the defendants. Some of the women dabbed their eyes or fought back tears; others urged the judge to render a sentence of life in prison.

One woman, who said she was raped by two of the brothers and their friends when she was a teenager, said she still has flashbacks more than a decade after the assault.

“I cry for the innocence of that terrified 16-year-old and stand for her today,” said Isa Brooks, who spoke using a pseudonym. “Their eyes went black. As if I was being mauled by animals.”

“I grieve the girl that I was,” she said.

Brooks – who was one of the 11 women who testified against the brothers at trial – said she eventually reported the attack out of fear there were more women at risk, and she was in “utter shock” to learn how many other victims there were.

Another victim who used a pseudonym, Maya Miller, said in court Tuesday she will “forever carry the scars” of being raped by one of the brothers in August 2014. Tal Alexander invited her to a mansion in the Hamptons where he trapped her in a bathroom and violently raped her while she pleaded with him to stop, prosecutors wrote in their sentencing memorandum.

“What happened to me was a choice made for me, not by me,” Miller said as she held back tears. “What Tal Alexander did to me was a life sentence that I never asked for. Tal has fundamentally changed the way I experience being alive.”

Ava Wells, who also testified under the pseudonym at trial about being raped by Alon Alexander in Tel Aviv in March 2016, said the moment that broke her during the trial was seeing a video of her former self during a playful moment.

“In it, my face was glowing, like there was a light inside me I had completely forgotten was ever there,” she said. “Suddenly memories of who I used to be came flooding back. Seeing her completely undid me. Like a flash, the realization sank in and all I could think was: Alon stole her from me.”

A woman identified as Olivia Lane, who did not testify at trial, said Tuesday Oren Alexander showed a “complete disregard for (her) humanity” when he raped her in 2015. Lane said she felt unwell after she had a few sips of a margarita while at a party.

“The next thing I remember is waking up to being raped,” she said.

“He did not destroy me, but he should be held fully accountable for what he did. I’m here because I survived him, and I’m here because I remember. Whatever they thought power is, is a joke,” Lane said before addressing the three defendants. “You are weak. You are inhumane. You never had power and look at you now.”

Lindsey Acree – who prosecutors say was drugged, forcibly raped and sexually assaulted by Tal Alexander in 2011 – said a sentence of life in prison “doesn’t even begin to cover it.”

“Why do we have to be here? Why do I have to be here looking at these guys? I would like to move on. I’m going to walk out of this room and I hope something I did made some difference,” Acree said, prompting applause from the rows of victims and their supporters seated in the courtroom.

Brothers proclaim their innocence

The three defendants stood before Caproni to make their final pleas for mercy, telling the judge they were ashamed of some of their past conduct but were innocent of the charges brought against them.

“There’s one thing I need to tell you and I want to be absolutely clear – I have never not once in my life drugged a woman or had sex with a woman knowing they had been secretly drugged,” Alon Alexander said.

“I’m not a perfect man, but I’m innocent of these charges,” he said.

He wiped tears from his eyes as he talked about the difficulty of being separated from his daughters, saying his life now is vastly different than when the charged conduct occurred.

“I’m not telling you I became a flawless person – I’m telling you I changed,” Alon Alexander said. “It happened years before my arrest.”

His twin, Oren Alexander, said he was “greatly ashamed” of some of his previous actions and was on a “bad path” before he met his wife.

“I was partying too much and sleeping with too many women during those years until I found the most beautiful inside and out perfect woman, the one I wanted to be the mother of my kids and my soulmate for life,” he said.

Tal Alexander told the judge he was a different person now, and he wished he had “shown more maturity and been more thoughtful” in the past.

“I hope Your Honor can understand how difficult it is to stand here, facing the possibility of spending the rest of my life in prison, trying to find words to express genuine regret without confessing something I did not do,” he said, his voice quivering as he spoke of a potential life sentence.

“I’m asking you to please consider my whole life, my family and the possibility of my future beyond this case,” Tal Alexander said as some victims in the courtroom held their heads in their hands. “Please have mercy on me, Your Honor.”

Prior to issuing the sentences, Judge Caproni spoke directly to the brothers, calling their conduct “shameful and degenerate” and referencing days of testimony from victims who described “misogynistic sexual predation on the part of all three defendants.”

“Your crimes wreaked havoc on their lives. It has caused long lasting damage to them. Many have significant problem trusting people,” the judge said.

She dismissed the brothers’ apparent attempts to classify their actions as a part of party culture and lambasted their attorneys’ filings ahead of sentencing, which described their behavior as “insensitive.”

“Not just insensitive. It was wrong. Here the wrong was that you drugged, raped and trafficked women, not that you were rude,” Caproni said. “Until each defendant comes to terms with what he did, he poses a risk.”

This story has been updated with additional information.

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