Older brother of real-estate heirs Alexander twins
also accused of rape in explosive new lawsuit
A third woman has sued the wealthy real estate-heir Alexander twins for rape — but this time, the alleged victim claimed their older brother also participated in the alleged crimes and tried to rape her again several years later.
The woman — Angelica Parker of New York City — claimed that twins Oren and Alon, along with older brother Tal, conspired to rape her in a “coordinated sexual assault” inside the brothers’ shared apartment in SoHo shortly after she met them in the fall of 2012, according to the lawsuit filed Tuesday.
Tal tried to sexually assault her again several years later, the Manhattan Supreme Court complaint alleged. But Parker screamed loud enough that others could hear, which stopped the alleged attack in its tracks.
“Today’s lawsuit is intended to send a message that the law applies even to the very wealthy and well-connected, including the Alexanders,” Parker’s attorney, Michael J. Willemin, said in a statement to The Post. “We applaud Angelica’s bravery in coming forward, as we have no doubt that the Alexanders will amass an army of PR reps and private investigators to launch a victim shaming campaign.”
Parker’s suit said she’d gone with an unidentified friend to the brothers’ shared apartment in SoHo in the autumn of 2012 — and as soon as they walked through the door, twins Oren and Alon started pushing them to take Ecstasy, the suit said.
After the women refused, the brothers began pressuring them for sex, according to the suit.
Parker’s friend allegedly got “extremely uncomfortable” and took off.
But Parker stayed — and claimed she endured a horrific ordeal that ended with the brothers raping her “orally and vaginally,” according to the suit.
“After [the friend] left the apartment, Ms. Parker was raped by Alon and Tal Alexander, together, in a coordinated sexual assault that was planned and facilitated by Oren Alexandar along with his brothers,” the suit said.
“Specifically, Alon Alexander orally and vaginally raped Ms. Parker,” the suit continued.
“While he was vaginally raping Ms. Parker, Tal proceeded to forcibly orally rape Ms. Parker against her will, despite her very clear verbal protests and inability to force him away on account of both her size and the fact Alon was holding her down with his body weight.”
Oren, who allegedly planned the entire event, sat and watched as his brothers did this, the suit claimed.
Eventually, Parker fought them off, ran from the apartment and found her friend, the suit said. But she kept running into the brothers because they ran in the same social circles.
“During this time, the Alexander brothers made various defamatory statements about Ms. Parker, gratuitously telling her friends that they had sex with her, without of course explaining that the whole event was an orchestrated group rape,” the suit said.
Several years later, Tal allegedly tried to rape her again. But she screamed, and effectively ended his attack, according to the suit.
A spokesman for Tal Alexander decried Parker’s lawsuit as a money-grab.
“It is unfortunate but fully expected that shakedown artists are going to line up given the allegations against Tal’s brothers,” the spokesman said in a statement.
“However, Tal has done absolutely nothing wrong, and anyone hoping to peddle outrageous lies in hopes of a quick payday are going to find themselves disappointed.”
Parker — who was formerly known as Angelica Cecora — once launched a $5 million lawsuit against famed boxer Oscar De La Hoya over allegations that the “Golden Boy” imprisoned her in his Ritz-Carlton hotel room during a kinky, cocaine-fueled tryst in 2011.
But a five-judge panel at Manhattan’s Appellate Division ruled in 2013 that her accusations were “without merit,” and declined to overturn a lower-court ruling that levied a $12,500 judgment for legal fees — as well as a fine for what Justice Paul Wooten described as an attempt to “harass or maliciously injure” De La Hoya.
Willemin, Parker’s attorney, confirmed that she was the same person who sued the now-retired welterweight — but added that he doesn’t believe her case against the boxer would be dismissed if it were filed today because of changes in the way the courts and the public view sexual assault allegations.
Beyond that, he said it’s the modus operandi of sexual assault defendants to try to use a traumatic event from the victim’s past to try to shame them — or paint them as a shakedown artist.
“This is not a he-said, she-said,” Willemin said.
“At the end of the day … according to the reporting, there’s been dozens of women that have confirmed the Alexander brothers’ predilection for sexually assaulting women,” he continued.
“It was something that was well known in the circles in which they ran — that’s clear from the reporting. And so despite these attempts to really attack and shame my client, we have no doubt that she’s ultimately going to prevail in this case.”
Parker’s suit is another dark chapter in the Alexanders’ story, which took a shocking turn earlier this month when two other alleged victims — Kate Whiteman and Rebecca Mandel — filed similarly explosive lawsuits that accused Oren and Alon, both 36, of raping them more than a decade ago.
Since then, almost 30 other women have come forward to make similar claims, according to the lawyer representing Whiteman and Mandel.
The allegations have rocked the ritzy circles in which the wealthy brothers run — and Oren has already been pushed out of Official, the brokerage firm he co-founded with 37-year-old Tal.
Evan Torgan, attorney for both Whiteman and Mandel, said in a statement that his clients are “thrilled to be joined in this fight by Angelica Parker.”
“The Alexander’s behavior has gone on way too long,” Torgan said. “They must be stopped. I was shocked to see Tal, of all people, taking over as the face Official.”
Parker is seeking an undisclosed amount of compensatory and punitive damages.
The twins’ lawyers did not respond to a request for comment.
Jacob Hoggard appeals sexual assault conviction in Ontario court
Canadian musician Jacob Hoggard’s appeal of his sexual assault conviction was heard at Ontario’s top court on Wednesday, as the former Hedley frontman sought a new trial.
Hoggard was sentenced to five years behind bars in October 2022 after being found guilty of sexual assault causing bodily harm against an Ottawa woman, an offence the presiding judge called a “particularly degrading rape.”
The musician was granted bail hours after being sentenced, pending his appeal in the case.
Documents filed by Hoggard’s lawyers with the Court of Appeal for Ontario said he is appealing his conviction on four grounds, including that the trial judge erred by admitting the evidence of Lori Haskell, a clinical psychologist, on the neurobiology of trauma.
They also argued the trial judge wrongly permitted the Crown to argue that the expert’s evidence supported the credibility of the woman Hoggard was found to have sexually assaulted.
“This arrow cuts right into the heart of the issue in this case,” Gerald Chan, one of Hoggard’s lawyers argued in court Wednesday. “This is not a peripheral part of the trial. This is not related to tangential pieces of evidence.”
The trial judge allowed the psychologist, over the objections of the defence, to give the jury a generic “science” lesson on the neurobiology of trauma as long as she did not link the evidence to the complainants, who she did not assess, Hoggard’s lawyers said in court documents.
“Dr. Haskell testified that experiencing a traumatic event can cause memory to fragment and lack coherent narrative. The relevance of this evidence, however, assumed the existence of the very traumatic events at issue in the trial — namely, the alleged sexual assaults,” they argued.
“Unless the jury assumed Hoggard was guilty, Dr. Haskell’s evidence was irrelevant. It should never have been admitted.”
*Pfft!
The legal team further argued that the trial judge delivered an “impermissibly imbalanced” jury charge regarding inconsistencies in the woman’s testimony compared to those in Hoggard’s testimony – they argued the judge gave the jury the misimpression that the woman and Hoggard had an equal number of inconsistencies when “in reality J.B. had more.”
The Crown argued in court documents that the psychologist’s evidence was properly admitted at trial, and the trial judge pared down the expert evidence on the neurobiology of trauma to the “established science” that the defence did not challenge on cross-examination.
“It was relevant not to bolster credibility but to help the jury assess counter-intuitive behaviour that may be misunderstood owing to myths and stereotypes. It was necessary because the scientific explanation behind these behaviours is beyond laypersons’ ability to understand,” the Crown wrote.
“Without it there was a risk the complainants’ evidence would be unfairly discounted. Although not a neurobiologist, Dr. Haskell had extensive neurobiology of trauma training and teaching experience. Any potential for prejudice was addressed through paring down the evidence’s scope, the opportunity for cross-examination and providing custom mid-trial and final jury instructions.”
The Crown – which has asked that the appeal be dismissed – also argued that instructions to the jury on prior inconsistent statements was balanced and fair to Hoggard.
At trial, Hoggard was found guilty of sexual assault causing bodily harm against an Ottawa woman and acquitted of the same charge against a teenage fan. He was also found not guilty of sexual interference, a charge that refers to the sexual touching of someone under 16, in relation to the teen.
The Crown alleged at trial that Hoggard groped the teen after a Hedley show in Toronto in April 2016, then violently raped her in a Toronto-area hotel room later that year after she turned 16. They alleged Hoggard then violently raped the Ottawa woman in a downtown Toronto hotel in November 2016.
Hoggard – who had pleaded not guilty to all charges – acknowledged having sex with both complainants, but denied sexually assaulting them. As a result, the case turned on the issue of consent.
The musician whose band, Hedley, rose to fame after he came in third on the reality show Canadian Idol in 2004, was charged in 2018.
The band went on an indefinite hiatus when allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced. Its last show was in Kelowna, B.C., on March 24, 2018.
=====================================================================================
No comments:
Post a Comment