Accusations that top brokers Oren and Tal Alexander raped women in alleged attacks dating back to when they were in high school have rocked the world of residential real estate in recent months.
The allegations first surfaced in a pair of civil lawsuits before being detailed in reporting by the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal of similar allegations from more than a dozen women including top Los Angeles broker Tracy Tutor and model Samantha Murphy, the wife of former U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy.
The Alexanders, along with their brother Alon, who works in their family’s private security business, have denied the allegations.
Since The Real Deal reported the first two lawsuits against twins Oren and Alon, two additional complaints have been filed under laws that temporarily eliminated the statute of limitations for adult victims of sexual or gender-motivated violence to seek damages from their alleged attackers.
The FBI, including agents from a child exploitation and sex trafficking task force, is also interviewing women who were allegedly assaulted by the brothers.
Taken together, the lawsuits touch on the complexities of suing over sexual assault claims and New York law about decade-old allegations.
What does this all mean?
Civil lawsuits require a lower burden of proof than criminal proceedings, where prosecutors have to prove a defendant committed a crime “beyond a reasonable doubt.” The higher bar is tough to meet, especially when the alleged crimes happened several years ago and may be outside the legal window to bring charges, which varies by state.
In New York, where the allegations described in the lawsuits occurred, a state law passed in 2019 eliminated the statute of limitations for first-degree rape and extended the timeframe to prosecute other sex crimes, including second- and third-degree rape. The provision also moved the deadline to file civil lawsuits from a year after the alleged attack to 20 years.
But the law applies only to crimes alleged to have occurred after it took effect. New York state and New York City Council bridged this gap by passing two separate laws re-opening windows for adult victims of sexual or gender-motivated violence to sue their alleged perpetrators regardless of how long ago the attack occurred. The lookback period established under the state’s Adult Survivors Act opened on Nov. 23, 2023 and closed exactly a year later, while the city’s Victims of Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Law opened last March and will remain open until March 2025.
It takes most people who have been sexually assaulted a long time to come forward, and it takes them years to come to terms with the assault, said attorney Ann Olivarius, who represents victims of sexual violence, discrimination and online abuse.
Using the civil system “puts other women on notice,” said Olivarius, a senior partner at McAllister Olivarius, who is not involved in the litigation against the Alexanders. Filing civil lawsuits can be “the only way to get justice.”
The timelines established in the city and state laws are at the center of arguments by Oren and Alon’s attorneys against at least two of the lawsuits, including the case filed last November by Rebecca Mandel and another filed earlier this year by Angelica Parker.
In the Mandel lawsuit, the twin brothers’ attorneys filed a motion to dismiss, arguing she missed the deadline established by the Adult Survivors Act. Mandel sued the brothers on Nov. 24, which falls outside of the law’s Nov. 23 cutoff, which fell on last year’s Thanksgiving holiday. The judge has not yet ruled on the motion.
It’s common for courts in most jurisdictions to allow plaintiffs to consider lawsuits filed the day after a weekend or during a federal holiday to be within the established time frame, Olivarius said, though she added the decision about whether to move forward with the case is ultimately up to the judge.
“I’ve never seen one [judge] rule against when it’s the day after the holiday,” Olivarius said.
In Parker’s lawsuit, attorneys for Oren and Alon in August filed a motion to dismiss her complaint, arguing the state’s Adult Survivors Law overrides the lookback window in the city’s gender-motivated violence law.
But attorneys for three of the women pushed back against that assertion. Parker’s attorney Michael Willemin said “there is no legitimate basis to claim that the state intended to preempt New York City’s gender-motivated violence law’s filing deadlines.”
Evan Torgan, who is representing two plaintiffs suing the Alexanders, said the city’s law is distinct from the one passed by the state, and since the two govern separate issues, one doesn’t supersede the other.
“The New York State Appellate Court has already decided this issue saying these are civil rights actions involving violence based upon gender, not solely rape cases,” Torgan said. “These women will not be stopped on legal technicalities. They will have their collective day in court.”
Torgan told TRD that since June, he and his colleagues have been contacted by 45 women who reported being assaulted by one or more of the brothers.
The lawsuits aren’t criminal indictments, and it could take months for criminal charges to be filed. More women may be waiting for the criminal investigation to move forward to file new complaints. A criminal indictment or guilty verdict often strengthens civil claims, but civil litigation and a criminal probe can move forward simultaneously.
About a month before the dismissal motion, Tal’s attorney responded to the allegations in Parker’s complaint by denying her claims and pushing for a jury trial.
Here’s a summary of each lawsuit that has been filed against one or more of the brothers:
Rebecca Mandel v. Oren and Alon Alexander
One night in September 2010, then-19-year-old Rebecca Mandel saw Oren and Alon again at the Meatpacking District nightclub where they initially met. There, she alleges that after accepting a drink from Alon, her “memory of the night became hazy” and that she believed he “intentionally drugged [her] drink with an unknown substance.”
She later left the club with the brothers to go to a party, though the pair instead brought her back to the apartment they shared at the time, according to the complaint. Once inside the apartment, Mandel alleges that Oren and Alon took turns pinning her down and raping her.
Mandel notified the brothers of her intent to sue them in New York on Nov. 24, 2023 and filed an official complaint in March. In August, attorneys for Oren and Alon filed a motion to dismiss Mandel’s case, arguing that she missed the deadline established under the Adult Survivors Act by a day. The Alexanders’ attorneys requested a hearing on the motion on Sept. 27.
Kate Whiteman v. Oren and Alon Alexander, Ivan Wilzig
Whiteman met Oren and Alon in New York City about a year before Mandel and continued to stay in touch with Oren, though she said in the complaint Alon would occasionally call or text her pretending to be Oren.
In 2012, Whiteman went to the Hamptons for Memorial Day weekend, where she ran into Alon outside of a nightclub. She claims he grabbed her hand, “forcefully” led her to a black SUV and slammed the door behind her.
The brothers brought her to “Sir Ivan’s Castle,” a notorious party house in the Hamptons owned by recording artist Ivan Wilzig. Once at the castle, Whiteman claims they made her take off her clothes and change into a sarong. She alleges Oren locked her phone and other belongings in a locker, and she tried to leave the room but a security bouncer “dragged her back.”
The brothers then led Whiteman to a bedroom upstairs, where she alleges they raped and assaulted her.
Whiteman notified Oren, Alon and Wilzig of her intent to file a lawsuit against them on Nov. 23, 2023, and entered the complaint into the record in March. Attorneys for Wilzig have since petitioned the court to move the lawsuit to Suffolk County, where he lives and where the alleged attacks occurred.
Whiteman has until Nov. 5 to file her response to Wilzig’s motion to relocate the case, ahead of the Nov. 19 deadline for the judge to make a decision. Wilzig, though named as a defendant, is not included in the lawsuit’s assault claims.
The defendants have until Dec. 23 to respond to the complaint.
Angelica Parker v. Tal, Alon and Oren Alexander
In fall 2012, Oren invited Parker, who he’d met earlier that year, to an apartment in Soho he shared at the time with his two brothers, according to her complaint.
When Parker and a friend known in the lawsuit as YL arrived, Oren and Alon allegedly offered them ecstasy, which Parker claims they denied. Alon made them each drinks and allegedly started “hitting on” and “groping” YL, prompting her to leave the apartment. The complaint states that YL waited for Parker in the building’s stairwell.
After YL left, Parker alleges Alon held her down and raped her, while Tal “forcibly orally” raped her despite her repeated pleas for him to stop. She claims Oren sat and watched while his brothers attacked her.
Parker’s complaint states that she continued to run into the brothers socially after the attack, and the Alexanders told many of her friends that they’d had sex with her. Years later, Parker alleges Tal tried to sexually assault her again while they were both guests in the same house, but that she screamed until others in the house heard her.
According to the complaint, Tal was kicked out of the house that night but started referring to her as the “king’s rat” after the incident.
Parker filed her lawsuit against the Alexanders in June. Tal’s attorneys responded to the lawsuit about a month later, pushing for a jury trial and accusing Parker of lying about the attack for “financial gain.” The response points to another lawsuit filed by Parker more than a decade ago, in which she accused boxer Oscar De La Hoya of battery and false imprisonment. The judge dismissed the lawsuit in 2012.
In August, attorneys for Alon and Oren filed a motion to dismiss the claims against them, arguing the Adult Survivors Act and gender-motivated violence law established competing time periods to bring claims. The attorneys are also calling for the judge to strike references to media coverage in the complaint and are pushing for Oren to be removed as a defendant, alleging the law doesn’t extend to those who witnessed a violent crime and didn’t directly participate in it.
The deadline to amend any of the pleadings or add parties to the lawsuit is Sept. 18, with discovery to be completed by the end of January. A pre-trial motion is scheduled for Feb. 28.
Renée Willett v. Oren Alexander
In her complaint, actress Renée Willett alleges she and Oren met on a dating app in November 2015, and after messaging back and forth, agreed to meet in person about a month later on the night of her 23rd birthday party. The two initially said they’d meet at a hotel bar, but it was closed by the time Willett arrived. Instead, she went to Oren’s apartment.
Once she arrived, Willett claims Oren offered her an alcoholic drink, which she declined. He later brought her a carbonated beverage, which she alleges made her feel physically impaired.
After a tour of his apartment ending in his bedroom, Willett claims Oren blocked her from exiting the room, backed her toward his bed and started trying to remove her clothes. She alleges she repeatedly asked him to stop, but Oren instead held her down and raped her.
Willett filed a lawsuit against Oren in July. He has not yet responded to the claims.