Three brothers – two of them wealthy real-estate moguls – were sentenced to 30 years each in prison for drugging and raping dozens of women over the course of decades.
Tal Alexander, 40, and twins Oren and Alon Alexander, 39, were found guilty in March of using their wealth and social status to lure women to parties and luxury homes, where they sexually assaulted them.
On Tuesday morning, the court in New York heard from 12 victims, including one who did not testify during the trial, about the psychological trauma they endured after the Alexander brothers raped them and their desire for the shame they had felt to instead fall on the defendants.
Many asked the judge to impose the maximum sentence of life in prison for each brother.
Maya Miller told the court that after Tal Alexander raped her in 2014, she lost all 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.
Another victim, who went by the pseudoym Isa Brooks, said after being raped by Tal and Alon Alexander when she was 16 years old, she lost the ability to trust herself.
“I had no idea the danger I was in til it was too late,” she said.
Another woman said that when she planned to come forward about being raped, Tal Alexander threatened that he knew where her sister worked.
During the women’s speeches, the three Alexander brothers showed little emotion. They stared ahead or conferred with their lawyers, who said they had advised their clients not to look at the victims while they spoke so it wasn’t misconstrued as staring.
Prosecutor Elizabeth Espinosa said the brothers deserved the maximum punishment for their crimes, saying the facts of the case “paint a truly devastating picture”.
“For years, they honed their methods of luring women with the promise of luxury,” she said, adding that they were “completely unmoved by the path of suffering they left behind them.”
