Celebrity Designer Anand John A Serial Sex Predator, Says Prosecutor

LOS ANGELES — Fashion designer Anand Jon Alexander ditched his profession and turned into a serial predator, hunting for girls and young women to have humiliating and painful sex with him, a prosecutor said Friday during opening statements of his trial.

Prosecutor Frances Young told the jury that Alexander was excited by luring aspiring fashion models to his Beverly Hills apartment and then forcing them to perform oral sex, inappropriately touching them or raping them.

Young said the 34-year-old designer kept a "conquest list" in which he noted some of his encounters with the girls and women, abbreviating the explicit sexual acts.

"He talks about violently having sex with underage girls," Young said.

"These things are windows into his soul and what excites him," the prosecutor said.

Alexander is accused of meeting women on the Internet and assaulting them when they visited California seeking modeling opportunities between 2001 and 2007.

Before opening statements, prosecutors dropped four more counts that had been pending against Alexander. He now faces 25 counts including forcible rape and committing lewd acts on a child. The nine alleged victims were 14 to 21 years old. Last month, prosecutors dropped more than half the original charges.

He has pleaded not guilty. He could face life in prison if convicted.

Defense attorney Leonard Levine countered in his opening statement that the only humiliation in the case was that the women never became models and were angry at Alexander because he made them do various chores while they visited him.

"They weren't lured to be here, they wanted to be here," Levine said. "They were too angry that they had been used.

"We build our celebrities up, but in many cases we can't wait to tear them down."

Levine added that if there was any sex involving Alexander, it was consensual, noting that some of the underage girls claimed they were 18 years old. Levine also questioned why many of the victims didn't go straight to police, but instead only came forward after Alexander was arrested.

"Were they not reported because nothing happened?" asked Levine.

The investigation began last year when a woman claimed she had been sexually assaulted at Alexander's apartment. He was jailed in June 2007 and has remained behind bars.

Prosecutors played two videos allegedly taken by Alexander in which he directs two girls to show their bodies to him. In one, a 17-year-old girl disrobed. Young said the fashion designer then began touching the girl.

"She will tell you this was the worst experience of her life," Young said.

Alexander, wearing a dark suit and his jet black hair in a ponytail, smiled in the direction of his sister as he entered the courtroom.

Alexander also is under indictment in New York on similar charges involving nine women and is under investigation by authorities in Texas and Massachusetts.

Born in India, Alexander graduated from the Parsons School of Design in New York and launched a fashion line in 1999. He was considered an up-and-coming designer and was named a person to watch by Newsweek.

Comments

[rob2999]

07:45 AM on 10/03/2008

I am glad someone has finally called this man what he is; an 'alleged serial rapest and child molester' or close to it.
This is being seriously downplayed by the fashion industry. I understand the fact that you try to protect your own, but the cat is out of the bag and this guy is going down. Don't let him draw the rest of you down with him.
Last I read there where 26 girls laying various charges and they have cut that in half to take the load off of the jury. The way the headlines read, I expected 1 charge. I am appauled at the coverage of this story.

[jalowe1957]

09:08 PM on 09/27/2008

If he did do these horrific acts as charged, then he deserved to rot in a prison cell. In the meantime, let's not make a rush to judgment and let the justice system do its duty, flawed as it might be.

[iambusto]

12:15 AM on 09/15/2008

i think i am changing my opinion now. duke rape case ring a bell. the 4 accused students were tried in the media and finally all charges were dropped.

turns out DA had political ambitions and there was no truth to the allegations.

[Dannydel]

11:14 PM on 09/14/2008

Newsweek got it right, he certainly was 'A person to watch'.

[rzan1]

10:06 PM on 09/14/2008

He is kind of sweet and angelic looking in that photograph, which makes him even creepier given the nature of this crimes.

[therealtruthteller]

08:27 PM on 09/14/2008

When he entered the court, he smiled at his sister?? Is there more than meets the eye? You would expect him and his sister to be ashamed but no he is giving her a smile. Is the whole family like that?

[Bitsko]

02:31 PM on 09/14/2008

Have fun in the jug, douchbag.

[WRPrintz]

01:59 PM on 09/14/2008

If he is convicted, he will go from preditor to prey pretty darn quickly....

[Alvin4NY]

10:39 AM on 09/14/2008

Again I say, where were the PARENTS of these underage CHILDREN that allowed them to get on a plane and send them out to L.A. to go to a mans apartment, with no guidance, supervision, chaperone, etc? The parents should be tried right along with him, as far as I'm concerned.

[ShockandAutism]

09:42 AM on 09/14/2008

What ever happened to innocent until proven guilty?

So many of these rush to judgements always turn out different when investigated and tried (ie. Iraq / WMD). And after once spending a month on a grand jury I can tell you that the reality that is preceived if often in stark contrast to what actually happened.

I know it's an unpopular point of view but what happened to the rights of the accused? Rape victims automatically get the benefit of the doubt so their names and faces are withheld from the public but if you are accused then you can forget about ever washing the stain of the allegation from your name no matter what gets proved in court.

Once this guy is tried and if found guilty then I'd be right there with you to tar and feather but the comments in here make Huffposers sound like an ignorant mob mentality.

[johnnygoodwud]

09:40 AM on 09/14/2008

off with both his heads

[Tommygun264]

09:03 AM on 09/14/2008

A straight fashion designer - that's a red flag for you right there.

I know it plays to a stereotype, but don't tell me it didn't occur to any of you when you read the article yourselves. In all seriousness though, I believe in most cases of this nature, the name and photo of the accused shouldn't be made public until after there is a conviction and the identity of the victims should NEVER be made public unless their accusations have been proven false. However, given the nature of the crimes and the evidence mounted against him (I can't see how several different women from at least four different states could conspire to bring a man up false charges) I think this guy's face and name should be plastered all over the world in every form of media possible. I hope he receives a nice, long sentence in one of the hellish prisons they portray as being filled with the worst of the worst on cable television where he can do his time in constant fear before deporting him back to India where I hope he will meet similar treatment in their penal system. Crimes of this nature should carry a life sentence without the possibility of parole, commutation or pardon of any kind. I do believe that even the worst among us can find redemption, but regardless, animals like him should never be released back into the general population.

[MsLiz]

03:22 AM on 09/14/2008

Auf wiedersehn!

[Fair]

12:52 AM on 09/14/2008

I had to help evict him from a loft in NYC in2000, he's a nightmare. He lived there for almost a year without paying rent.

Freak is too simple and nice a word to describe him, he's a monster.

[iambusto]

11:01 PM on 09/13/2008

i wouldnt trust the justice system to punish him (guilty people have an innate ability to hire excellent lawyers sometime).

i just recommend housing him in common shared cells and his cellmate named Bubba. thats gotta fix the situation.