Editor’s note: This story contains graphic language in online posts and messages describing rape and sexual activity.
Prosecutors delivered the final blows of the sex trafficking case against Oren, Alon and Tal Alexander with disturbing blog posts and other messages dating back to 2008.
The government rested its case on Monday after presenting the exhibits over multiple days. The materials include a graphic blog that prosecutors say includes posts illustrating the brothers’ attitudes concerning women and consent. Attorneys for the brothers said the blog amounts to outdated “locker room talk.”
The exhibits also included messages sent by a woman confronting Oren after she said she “woke up to a dick inside me” while in the Bahamas for the ill-fated Fyre Festival in 2017, which the brothers discussed attending in a group chat with other men.
Before wrapping up their case, prosecutors dropped two sex trafficking charges against all three brothers on Friday, leaving 10 counts with a minimum of 10 to 15 years in prison if convicted. Nearly a dozen women testified that they were sexually assaulted or raped by one or more of the brothers. Many of those women believed they had also been drugged.
Oren, Alon and Tal have pleaded not guilty. The Alexanders’ attorneys began to present their case Monday, and said they could rest after less than a day, pending testimony including a possible appearance by Alon on the stand.
“It’s not rape if…”
Nicholas Ciccolo, an investigative analyst with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, began his testimony last week by reading through screenshots of blog posts that were sent in emails and chats with Oren and Alon and other communications, as the prosecutors aimed to draw parallels between the brothers’ exchanges and what was written in the blog, called VentOnBitches.com.
In a 2008 email, Alon wrote to Oren, “After I nut on her face while I’m jerking off on her as she is eating my ass what a stunner I convinced her my dad owns the hotel.” Similar wording was also included in the blog, where the author stated that men should “Cum on the girl where no other man has cum before. By this I mean literally tell a girl that you own the hotel she is staying in.”
In the same email thread between Alon and Oren, Oren sends a link to the blog, which he described as belonging to David and Dylan. During cross-examination, one of Alon’s attorneys, Howard Srebnick, suggested through his questions that the “david” and “dylan” referred to in the email were David Dinetz and Dylan Trussell, both of whom are film directors and friends of the Alexanders whose names came up previously in the trial.
One post on the blog was titled “It’s not rape if…” with a list of scenarios including, “the girl is wearing funny clothing,” “she’s sleeping,” “she doesn’t remember” and “you use her tears as lube.”
The blog also encourages men to imagine “how we wake up and how [women] wake up” after a sexual encounter.
“They wake up feeling violated, used, low self-esteem, the works. We wake up refreshed, energized confident, happy, content, laughing all the way into the night … watching the video, putting shit in slow motion, cheering and hi-fiving good clown sesh boys, wash, rinse repeat.”
In October 2011, Oren emailed Trussell about “the art of clowning” and suggested Trussell and Dinetz get “50 percent sweat equity in the art of clownin.”
The following month, Douglas Elliman agent Adam Rothman sends Oren, who joined Elliman in 2008, a congratulatory email.
“Congrats Oren. Non-stop networking. Can bang more than one girl at a time. Ability to adjust quickly if doing a two on one and brothers cock is in his face he quickly adjusts his position. And persistence won’t take no for an answer from any ho. That you can achieve great milestones. You have great climaxes,” Rothman writes.
Ciccolo also testified about a sketch that had been entered into evidence, which appeared to be a map that showed Oren’s alleged “rape dome fantasy” with a legend on the left. “Tramp equals trampoline a/k/a hos. Dome equal Orens rape dome fantasy,” Ciccolo read.
Ciccolo, on cross-examination, confirmed that he did not know the identity of the blog’s authors, owners or anonymous commenters. He added that his testimony was limited to the information prosecutors gave him to review along with the chart presented, which likely did not include all communications and documents related to the relevant events and time periods.
Fyre Festival
In recent days, prosecutors also laid out how the Alexanders and other men recruited women to join them on a boat they chartered for the infamous Fyre Festival in 2017, via a group chat called “Fyre Puss.” The group chat included AmeriSave Mortgage Corp. CEO Patrick Markert, Eric Dali, Oren, Alon and the group’s creator, Tal.
Markert, identified by his phone number, wrote that, “We need a couple of tents for the girls that do not conform.”
Oren replied, suggesting that those women should “walk the plank.”
In a separate conversation between Oren and Amber Davis, a woman invited to the Fyre Festival trip by Jennifer Fields, Davis wrote that was “seriously not cool with what happened this morning” and that she “lost all respect” for Oren and Fields.
“You both knew I didn’t want it and I hope you know how wrong that is,” Davis said. “Obviously I was not comfortable.”
Oren responded: “Really? Didn’t seem like that but I’m sorry.”
Davis said, “Ya. You have to ask someone before you have sex with them. I woke up to a dick inside me.”
Three days later, Oren asked Fields if she “cleared the air” with Davis. Fields said that Davis was “over it.”
Final victim testifies
A woman using the pseudonym Kelly Hudson took the stand on Thursday. Hudson, who alleged that she was raped by Oren in 2009 in Colorado, was the prosecution’s final victim to testify. Hudson described meeting Oren a year earlier in Acapulco, Mexico and thinking he was “really cute.” After meeting twice in Colorado, where they snowboarded together, they ended up kissing at a bar. That’s when Hudson said she lost her memory and woke up at Oren’s parents’ condo in Aspen.
“The next thing I remember is Oren on top of me,” she said. “I remember putting my hand in between our bodies and saying no. And he kept slapping my hand away. … I was trying to create a barrier between my legs.”
Her memory faded again, and the next thing she remembered was being “vigorously washed” in the shower and hitting her head against the wall. She repeatedly asked Oren what happened that night, to which she said he responded not to worry about it.
A few days later, she went to a clinic and found out she had chlamydia. Hudson said she called Oren to tell him.
“I remember being really offended because he was like, ‘are you sure it was me?’ And I said ‘Oren, I’ve only had sex with one person and that was over a year and a half ago. I’m 100 percent positive it was you.’”
When asked why she was testifying, Hudson said that she’s thought about that night for a long time.
“I’m here because I want to make that 25-year-old girl who was really scared proud, and I want to do the hard thing.”
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“Girls included”: How Alexanders, other men secured women for trips