During a court appearance on Friday, federal prosecutors said they plan to drop two of the criminal counts against the Alexander brothers — which includes ex-luxury brokers Tal and Oren Alexander — in the sex-trafficking trial against them in response to concerns over witness intimidation.
“We don’t plan to proceed to the jury with counts six and seven,” Madison Smyser, assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, told Judge Valerie E. Caproni in court on Friday, The New York Times first reported.
Those two counts accuse Alon, Tal and Oren of sex-trafficking by force, fraud or coercion in an incident that dates back to June 2009, the latest superseding indictment states.
The alleged victims connected to those counts — identified as Victim 4 and Victim 5 — were allegedly transported from one state to another and forced to engage in sex acts. The women were expected to appear in court to testify at the trial, but have not.
If the dismissal of the charges is approved by Judge Caproni, the brothers will still face a total of 10 criminal counts, which include conspiracy to commit sex-trafficking and sex-trafficking by force, fraud or coercion.
Throughout the trial, the brothers have pleaded not guilty and denied the charges against them.
If convicted, they could face sentencing of up to life in prison.
Previously, prosecutors alleged witnesses had been intimidated in advance of the trial, including one victim who said she became the recipient of a “campaign of harassment” in retaliation for her participation in the case.
The woman claimed that after her identity was revealed to the defense, three of her friends were contacted by a man who identified himself as an investigator, and who proceeded to characterize the woman as “a ‘willing’ victim.” The alleged victim’s friends were also contacted by a member of the defense team who allegedly identified himself as a reporter.
Opinion pieces, allegedly placed by a publicist for the Alexanders, also sought to paint the woman as inconsistent and unreliable in her testimony.
A letter unsealed in court on Friday showed that after Victim 4 learned one of the defense team’s investigators was impersonating an insurance agent to speak with her and asking questions about her children, she did not want to be involved in the case anymore. The letter said the woman also stopped responding to her lawyer’s attempt to contact her.
“The government’s papers speak for themselves,” Evan Torgan, a lawyer for Victim 4, told The NYT. “Her main priority at this point is her children.”
For the two counts that were proposed for dismissal, the defense also pointed to the brothers’ alibis on the night in June 2009 specified in the claims. Defense lawyers said in a letter filed on Friday that they had notified the government previously that they had evidence that they believed showed the brothers were all in New York City on the alleged night when the counts took place, and not in the Hamptons as specified in prosecutors’ claims.
Meanwhile, defense attorney Jason Goldman said that charges are typically dropped when prosecutors do not have enough evidence to support them or because of some other legal issue.
“Prosecutors routinely withdraw or drop charges when evidentiary, factual or legal issues lead them to conclude that they cannot meet their burden of proving the case beyond a reasonable doubt,” Goldman said in a statement to Realtor.com. “That is precisely how the justice system is designed to function. To suggest or imply anything beyond that is just noise to drum up sensational, albeit unfounded speculation.”
Earlier in the trial, Judge Caproni reprimanded defense attorneys over their enlistment of the private investigator and his method of approaching alleged victims, warning that “This better not repeat.”
Prosecutors will likely rest their case in court on Monday, after which point, defense attorneys will begin presenting their case.
