In Alexander brothers trial, first witness testifies to being sexually assaulted

The first witness at federal trial for sex trafficking of three brothers, including two high-end real estate brokers, testified in a Manhattan court Tuesday that the fun of attending a party at actor Zac Efron’s apartment turned into a nightmare when, hours later, one of the brothers repeatedly raped her at their home and taunted her about it.

The woman, who testified under the pseudonym Katie Moore, is one of several alleged victims expected to testify against the Tal brothers, Oren and Alon Alexander, who are accused of collaborating in drugging and raping women and girls over several years.

The brothers’ lawyers say the sex was consensual.

Prosecutors say the Alexander brothers used their connections to the rich and famous to lure multiple victims.

The woman said she was 20, a college anthropology major, when she met two of the brothers at the party at Efron’s New York apartment in 2012. She was accompanying a friend who had recently met Tal Alexander and who had invited her to watch the final game of the 2012 NBA Finals there. She said she had few interactions with Efron, who is not accused of any wrongdoing.

She testified that in Efron’s apartment she was offered alcohol and that she, Tal Alexander and her friend took the drug Molly. She said it was her first time taking the medication and she felt “nervous” after doing it.

After the match, the woman went to an afterparty at a Manhattan nightclub, where she said she was given a drink and remembered it shortly afterward, until she woke up naked on a bed in another apartment with Alon Alexander, also naked, standing over her. She said she tried several times to get up, but he kept pushing her away, prompting her to say, “I don’t want to have sex with you.”

“Haha, you already did that,” she remembers him saying as he “laughed in my face.”

She said he then overpowered and raped her. Meanwhile, Tal Alexander entered the room briefly, but did nothing to stop the attack, the woman told the jury. He seemed “super nonchalant,” she said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Madison Smyser said in her opening statement to the jury that the Alexander brothers “presented themselves as party animals when in reality they were predators.”

She described the brothers as “partners in crime”.

“Woman after woman, rape after rape,” Smyser said.

Smyser said they used “any means necessary,” including luxury accommodations, theft, drugs, alcohol and sometimes brutal force, to lure women into situations where they could be raped.

Attorney Teny Geragos, representing Oren Alexander, urged the jury to reject prosecutors’ “monstrous story.”

She said the brothers, who left college in 2008, were successful, ambitious and sometimes arrogant as they pursued women in nightclubs, bars, restaurants and online in what is called “hookup culture”, hoping to have as much sex as possible.

“It’s not about trafficking, it’s about dating,” Geragos said.

“You may find this behavior immoral, but it’s not criminal,” Geragos said. She said some of the brothers’ accusers hoped to enrich themselves through lawsuits and only spoke of themselves as victims after they regretted using illegal drugs or having sex outside of their relationship with their boyfriend.

Attorney Deanna Paul, representing Tal Alexander, warned jurors that the subject matter of the case was disturbing and would resemble an R-rated movie, especially after prosecutors described the brothers as “monsters.”

“In their early 20s, Tal and his brothers were party animals. They were womanizers. They slept with many, many women,” she said.

She urged jurors to dismiss criminal charges against the brothers if they conclude the accusers’ testimony was unreliable.

Oren and Tal Alexander were real estate agents specializing in high-end properties in Miami, New York and Los Angeles. Their brother, Alon, graduated from New York Law School before running the family private security company. Tal is 39 years old while Alon and Oren, who are twins, are 38 years old.

An indictment alleges that the men conspired to entice women to join them at vacation destinations such as New York’s Hamptons by offering them flights and luxury hotel rooms.

The brothers have been held without bail since their December 2024 arrest in Miami, where they lived.

Testifying Tuesday, the trial’s first witness said she fled the room where Alon Alexander attacked her after falling asleep. The woman remained calm throughout much of her testimony, although she was choked up several times. She cried as she recalled reaching out several years after the attack to friends she had told about the experience to remind her that others loved her.