{"id":153332,"date":"2026-03-05T03:07:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T03:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/153332\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T03:07:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T03:07:11","slug":"alexander-brothers-defense-team-takes-final-swipe-at-victims-credibility-in-closing-arguments-after-month-long-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/153332\/","title":{"rendered":"Alexander brothers\u2019 defense team takes final swipe at victims\u2019 credibility in closing arguments after month-long trial"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"High\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Defense attorney Marc Agnifilo makes closing arguments for his client Oren Alexander during the federal sex trafficking trial of high profile real estate agent brothers Alon Alexander, Oren Alexander and Tal Alexander, before Judge Valerie E. Caproni in New York City, U.S. March 4, 2026 in a courtroom sketch. REUTERS\/Jane Rosenberg<\/p>\n

Brothers and luxury real estate brokers Alon, Oren and Tal Alexander may have \u201cbehaved badly\u201d or made \u201cpoor choices,\u201d but that doesn\u2019t mean they\u2019re guilty of federal sex trafficking<\/a>, their attorneys told the jury in closing arguments Wednesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more likely, their attorneys argued, is that the Alexanders\u2019 accusers simply regret having drug-or alcohol-addled one-night stands with them, highlighting parts of their stories they say don\u2019t line up.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust because someone cries from a witness stand doesn\u2019t make it true,\u201d Howard Srebnick, an attorney for Alon Alexander, told the jury. \u201cRather than bring you evidence, [the government] brings you a lack of evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their combined seven hours of closing statements capped off a month-long trial where 11 women told the jury they were drugged, raped, sexually assaulted or sex trafficked by one of more of the Alexander brothers. The trio is charged <\/a>with 10 counts of sex trafficking and sexual exploitation based on allegations spanning over a decade and involving dozens of women.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Attorneys went count by count in their final plea to the jury, tailoring their defense to the facts of each alleged instance. In some events, attorneys described the brothers\u2019 actions as \u201cproblematic,\u201d even occasionally relenting that a rape may have occurred, but that the behavior didn\u2019t qualify as sex trafficking.<\/p>\n

Sex trafficking, Deanna Paul, an attorney for Tal Alexander, said, requires premeditated action \u2014 in other words, a person must intend to force someone to have sex with them when offering something of value to entice them into doing so. She argued there was nothing to prove the Alexanders intended to rape women before they arrived in their Hamptons home or met them in a bar.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTal invited her for consensual sex,\u201d Paul said of one woman who testified Tal flew her out to the Hamptons, then raped her when she tried to leave. \u201cWhen he was rejected, he made a bad decision \u2026 That doesn\u2019t show criminal intent,\u201d she argued, it shows the opposite.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Deanna Paul makes closing arguments as Judge Valerie Caproni presides during the federal sex trafficking trial of high profile real estate agent brothers Tal Alexander, Alon Alexander and Oren Alexander in New York City, U.S., March 4, 2026 in a courtroom sketch. REUTERS\/Jane Rosenberg<\/p>\n

Attorneys also argued the Alexanders didn\u2019t truly promise something of value in exchange for sex, which is required to find them guilty of federal sex-trafficking statutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust because someone has a house and a sex act happens in that house, doesn\u2019t make it sex trafficking,\u201d Paul said. \u201cJust because two things exist or occur, it doesn\u2019t mean they\u2019re connected.\u201d<\/p>\n

The government has argued that lavish parties and trips to the Hamptons could be considered things of value to the women and intended to force women to have sex with them before meeting them.<\/p>\n

Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Jones emphasized in the government\u2019s closing arguments yesterday that the brothers frequently sent texts and emails to each other about drugging women or being on the hunt for sex.<\/p>\n

Defense attorneys accused the government of trying to scandalize the jury with women saying they were brutally raped in hopes that would make them deliver a guilty verdict on principle. They also argued that the accusers are seeking to shake down the brothers for money and gifts \u2014 or that they just regretted their \u201cchoice\u201d to have sex with the brothers after experimenting with drugs and alcohol.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government wants you to feel so horrified by the testimony you forget what they have to prove,\u201d Paul said. \u201cThe brothers are charged with federal sex trafficking, not rape.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the government\u2019s closing arguments yesterday, Jones told the jury the women who testified were not the least bit ashamed or regretful of their actions, calling that defense argument a mischaracterization.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey told you [the women] were motivated by shame and money. Now that you have seen this testimony \u2026 you know they\u2019re not,\u201d Jones said. \u201cThere has not been an ounce of shame in this courtroom. Shame is what defendants tried to make these women feel \u2026 What walked into this courtroom was not shame. It was courage and resolve. It was the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Only two women said they had filed civil suits against the brothers, both of whom denied being motivated by or needing the brothers\u2019 money, with one adding her father was a billionaire. Nearly all said they were motivated to take the stand because they wanted to hold the Alexanders accountable for their actions, many telling the jury testifying was one the hardest things they\u2019d ever done.<\/p>\n

Marc Agnifilo, an attorney for Oren Alexander, took a more technical approach than his colleagues to refute prosecutors\u2019 accusations, suggesting the women may not have necessarily been lying on the stand, but their stories didn\u2019t match up with certain forensic evidence. He cited metadata in photos he said proved it would be impossible for the women to have been raped at the exact time they said they were, or proved that their version of events was generally off.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s somewhat of a disconnect between what folks said on the stand and what you see in photographs,\u201d Agnifilo said. \u201cI\u2019m not telling you I think they\u2019re all lying. I think some of them lied about some things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jurors are expected to begin deliberations later this week. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Defense attorney Marc Agnifilo makes closing arguments for his client Oren Alexander during the federal sex trafficking trial…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":153333,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[46643,2710,9,11,10,3018,7485],"class_list":["post-153332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-alexander-brothers","tag-law","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-rape","tag-sex-trafficking"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153332\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}