NEW YORK (AP) — Fashion designer Anand Jon Alexander has been portrayed as a predator and monster in coast-to-coast cases accusing him of raping aspiring models he lured to his apartment with the promise of fame. But here’s how Alexander sees himself: an accomplished artist featured on “America’s Next Top Model” who once worked with the likes of Paris Hilton, a practitioner of yoga, an admitted philanderer — but not a criminal.
“We were all searching for companionship. We were all searching for success,” he said during a jailhouse interview this week with The Associated Press. “The expectations were different. We got so caught up in the whole hype.”
The 38-year-old is lanky, with a wide grin, thick black hair stylishly cut and Buddy Holly glasses tucked into the front of his drab prison jumpsuit. He is relaxed and articulate as he explains why he believes he was a victim and says his conviction and sentence of 59 years to life will be overturned based on new evidence that he says exposes a conspiracy.“I have 100 percent faith and confidence that I will be freed,” Alexander said shortly after a court appearance in Manhattan, one of several jurisdictions where he’s faced criminal charges.Alexander was on the brink of fame and fortune, living a fast life of women, celebrities and travel, until allegations surfaced in 2007 that he was preying on wannabe models, some as young as 14, by offering them a window into the industry.
During this era, he said, he wasn’t good at separating business from pleasure. He dated multiple women at once; most he met online. They traveled with him and stayed with him in his apartments in New York and Beverly Hills. Many of these women would later go on to accuse him of forcing them to perform lurid sex acts. Alexander willingly admits he was a lousy, selfish boyfriend who was taking advantage of his newfound fame.
“My culture created the Kama Sutra,” the Kerala, India-born Alexander said, referring to an ancient Hindu text on sexual behavior. “Sex is not something that intimidates me.”But he said he didn’t force women into anything. While he was working on a deal to take his brand public, he says, the conspiracy was growing slowly around him, made up of angry, bitter women who felt partially responsible for his success and wanted more than he was giving them. “It was all about me and my brand. I spoiled a lot of relationships,” he said. “Some of the things — the speed of the lifestyle, how much I affected them emotionally — I can understand how some of these people were hurt.”
Los Angeles prosecutors have a different take. Alexander was convicted there in 2008 on more than a dozen counts. Evidence relied heavily on the testimony of his accusers, whose stories were strikingly similar: Alexander was found not guilty of four felonies and jurors could not reach a verdict on three counts. He was sentenced to 59 years to life. A trial appeal was denied. What they didn’t have during trial were email exchanges between some of the women that Alexander and his defense say prove they were conspiring. Alexander says he now has messages that show they were recruiting women for the case. The messages discuss false promises, money and how he “pressured them,” which isn’t a crime, his defense said.
Alexander says they hacked into his MySpace page. He says they didn’t have enough to get prosecutors interested, so they trolled for more women online and brainwashed his most recent fling. Her trip to the Beverly Hills police touched off his arrest. “And then the next day, 20 cops with guns arrested me,” he said. Alexander also says he has evidence of prosecutorial and juror misconduct. During trial, a male juror contacted his sister, Sanjana. But the judge could not uncover whether any misconduct occurred because district attorney investigators intercepted the juror before he could meet with Sanjana Jon, who was wearing a wire. After the verdict, Alexander was brought to New York.. He was sentenced last week to what amounted to time served.
He is still awaiting charges in Dallas and Houston. Meanwhile, his attorney is working on filing the paperwork with a California judge they hope will overturn his conviction. Alexander’s sister has held fundraisers in India attended by Bollywood stars. Stories in Indian media proclaim his innocence. Dozens of supporters attended his sentencing in New York. His company is on hold. Alexander waits. “The truth tends to surface,” he said. Anand Jon juror tried to meet with defendant’s sister before conviction, defense lawyers say They say Alvin Dymally, a Los Angeles building inspector, twice spoke by phone with her near the end of the trial, possibly seeking a date. Prosecutors accuse her of working to subvert the verdicts.
July 05, 2009|Jack Leonard. The fate of Beverly Hills fashion designer Anand Jon Alexander appeared sealed last year when 12 jurors found him guilty of sexually assaulting young women in a trial that made international headlines.
But nearly eight months later, the focus of the case has shifted from the charges against the Indian-born designer to accusations against one of the jurors who convicted him.Juror No. 12, as he was known during the trial, stands accused of improperly contacting the defendant’s sister before the verdicts. The claim has thrown the conviction into doubt and raised the prospect of a repeat of the high-profile trial. Defense attorneys allege that the juror, a seemingly mild-mannered Los Angeles City building inspector, twice reached out to the sister near the end of the trial, possibly seeking a date, and then voted for a conviction after she refused to meet him alone. The accusation has sparked a series of highly unusual court hearings. Defense attorneys have accused district attorney’s officials of sabotaging an investigation into the alleged misconduct. Prosecutors accuse the designer’s sister of working to subvert the verdicts.
The juror, Alvin Dymally, insisted at a recent court hearing that his contact with the designer’s sister came after the trial. But he invoked his constitutional right against self-incrimination when defense attorneys produced a barely audible recording of a phone conversation they said was between the juror and Alexander’s sister. “I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Harland Braun, a veteran criminal defense attorney who is representing the designer’s sister. “It’s a terrible thing that this juror has done. . . . He’s basically jeopardized an entire criminal case.” Prosecutors this week said they believed Dymally did speak to Alexander’s sister before the verdicts. But they said his contact amounted to little more than harmless flirting — such as telling her, “I love your eyes” — and did not affect the fairness of the trial.
District attorney’s officials noted that Alexander reported the contact only after her brother was convicted. “She hijacked this juror in an attempt to derail the jury system,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Frances Young wrote. Superior Court Judge David S. Wesley is scheduled to hear more testimony Monday before deciding whether to order a new trial. Prosecutors have raised concerns that the alleged victims might be unwilling to testify again at a new trial.
Alexander, 35, who goes by the professional name of Anand Jon, was once billed as an up-and-coming talent in the fashion industry. Newsweek magazine included him on a list of people to watch in 2007. During the trial, the designer’s team of high-profile attorneys portrayed him as a victim of false accusations. Some alleged victims, they said, were angry at the way he had treated them while others were hoping to profit financially. But prosecutors described Alexander as a serial predator who targeted girls as young as 14. They said he used the promise of modeling jobs to lure them to his apartment, where he acted out sadistic fantasies. After listening to harrowing testimony from more than a dozen women, some of whom wept on the witness stand, jurors found Alexander guilty of raping one woman and sexually assaulting six others. The conviction carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison.
Defendants have a right to have their cases heard by 12 impartial jurors. To win a new trial, defense attorneys need to show that just one juror committed misconduct that prevented a fair trial, said Jean Rosenbluth, a law professor at USC and a former federal prosecutor. “Common sense dictates that if everyone else thinks he’s guilty, then the guy is guilty, so why does it matter what this one juror did? But that’s not how our system works,” Rosenbluth said. Both the juror and Alexander’s sister were subjects of controversy during the trial. Several jurors complained to the judge during deliberations that juror No. 12 was refusing to properly deliberate and had made up his mind about the evidence. Prosecutors argued at the time that the juror should be replaced. But the judge sided with Alexander’s lawyers and ruled he should remain.
During the trial, prosecutors accused Alexander’s sister, Sanjana, of talking to jurors in the hallway and trying to intimidate witnesses. They also said she tailed two alleged victims one weekend in a short Robert Ludlum-type car chase. She has denied the claims. The judge ordered her not to communicate with witnesses or jurors in the case and threatened to otherwise hold her in contempt, prosecutors said. Sanjana Alexander, also a fashion designer, came to the United States from India in 1992 with her younger brother, whom she described in court papers as “my strength, my light, my calm, my shelter.”