Day 17 of the Alexander Brothers trial featured testimony from a former girlfriend of Alon Alexander, called by the defense to describe the Hamptons social scene in 2009. Later in the day, both sides began delivering their closing arguments, leveling sharp accusations about the defendants’ character and the reliability of the accusers. The proceedings included detailed testimony about the nightlife culture surrounding the brothers and marked the beginning of the final stage of the case as attorneys sought to persuade the jury.
The morning began with testimony from Danielle Epstein, a lawyer who dated Alon Alexander for two years in an open relationship. Her testimony centered on Memorial Day Weekend 2009 and offered the jury a look into the environment of exclusive clubs, promoters, and parties that formed the backdrop to several of the allegations. In the afternoon, closing arguments got underway. Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Jones delivered the government’s summation, describing the defendants as “predators” who followed a “consistent playbook.” Defense attorney Howard Srebnick responded by arguing that the government had distorted consensual, if promiscuous, conduct, urging jurors to rely on their own judgment rather than the prosecution’s narrative.
What the Witnesses Said
Danielle Epstein (Defense Witness): Epstein, a lawyer and former girlfriend of Alon Alexander, testified that she and Alon moved within a large social circle that regularly went out in the Hamptons and New York City in 2009. She told the jury that the group often visited nightclubs such as Pink Elephant and Georgica, going out “maybe two or three nights a week.” Promoters including Matt Lipman and Mike Kanevsky were part of that scene. Epstein identified herself, the Alexander brothers, and several friends in photographs taken during Memorial Day Weekend 2009, the same weekend Isa Brooks alleges she was assaulted. She also described the setup of the Pink Elephant pop up at the Capri Hotel, including its outdoor cabanas and rafters. Referring to a running joke among the group, she recalled that “you’d go out for one drink and end up swinging from the rafters at Pink Elephant.”
During cross examination, Epstein acknowledged that she was not staying at the brothers’ house that weekend. She said she did not know the accuser, Isa, and had no personal knowledge of what happened to her. When asked directly whether she knew if Isa had been raped, Epstein answered, “I don’t.”
The Closing Arguments
Prosecution’s Summation (Andrew Jones): Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Jones began the government’s closing argument by declaring that the evidence had proven the defendants “masqueraded as party boys when really they were predators.” He argued that the testimony of eleven women, corroborated by friends, family, and an alleged “true mountain of evidence,” revealed a sinister and consistent “playbook to lure, isolate, and rape their victims.” Jones re-introduced the “Vent on Bitches” blog as the defendants’ “creed, their manifesto,” reading aloud from the post “It’s not rape if…” which included lines like “It’s not rape if . . . she’s sleeping” and “It’s not rape if . . . you use her tears as lube.” He then walked the jury through the video of Oren Alexander allegedly raping a 17-year-old Amelia Rosen, highlighting how Oren first drugged her with Ambien. Jones replayed the video where Oren tells the barely coherent girl, “Not my fault your pussy wasn’t wet because you took too much cocaine,” and later chants, “Ambien, Ambien, Ambien, Ambien,” before stating in Hebrew, “Yes, now I captured it all. I made a recording.”
Defense’s Summation (Howard Srebnick): Howard Srebnick, attorney for Alon Alexander, began his closing by painting a cinematic scene of a consensual nightclub encounter, using the testimony of government witness Maylen Gehret to illustrate his point. He described a night of flirting, kissing, and a man and woman leaving a club together, culminating in a sexual encounter where the woman “never once said no.” He argued that the government was criminalizing a lifestyle, stating, “This is not a church, this is not a synagogue. This is a courtroom where people are being judged only if they’ve committed a crime. Not violating someone’s sense of sexual morality.” Srebnick attacked the government’s interpretation of a text message about an “orgy,” pointing out that prosecutors repeatedly omitted the word “try” from the phrase “try to orgy them out.” He argued, “Our government defines orgy in their dictionary [to mean] rape,” while insisting that group sex, while perhaps unseemly to some, is not a crime.