5 January 2-8, 2025 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com New Times | Contents | Letters | news | night+Day | CuLture | Cafe | MusiC | MONTH XX–MONTH XX, 2008 miaminewtimes.com MIAMI NEW TIMES | CONTENTS | LETTERS | RIPTIDE | METRO | NIGHT+DAY | STAGE | ART | FILM | CAFE | MUSIC | BEFORE THE FLOOD Revisiting a 2003 sex crime allegation against two Alexander brothers. BY ALEX DELUCA O n March 7, 2003, a Mi- ami high schooler in- vited several friends over to her house after her dad left her home alone. They ordered pizza, smoked weed in the backyard, and took a few Xanax bars. As recalled by the 14-year-old, who was a student at Dr. Michael M. Krop Senior High School at the time, a friend picked her up later that evening and drove her to a house party in North Miami Beach to see a guy she liked. Upon arriving, she said she took more Xanax and was eventually invited into a bed- room, where she drank a Smirnoff Ice. While the teen couldn’t remember much else from that night, she told police that multi- ple boys — including the now-infamous Alex- ander twins, Alon and Oren — gang-raped her at the party, as documented in a 27-page police investigative report into the 2003 incident. Though heavily redacted, the North Mi- ami Beach Police Department (NMBPD) in- vestigative report (obtained by New Times and available online at bit.ly/alexander- bros-2003) offers a glimpse into just one of the earlier incidents of alleged sexual assault involving Miami real estate brokers Oren and Alon, now 37, whom federal agents recently arrested along with their 38-year-old brother, Tal, on charges of sex trafficking. The three brothers are accused of working together since at least 2010 to “repeatedly and violently drug, sexually assault, and rape” dozens of victims in New York and Miami. Prosecutors allege that their behavior began when they were high schoolers in Miami. The gang rape allegations described in the 2003 North Miami Beach incident closely mirror an alleged incident on New Year’s Eve 2016, in which Alon and Oren are accused of gang-raping a woman along with their friend, Ohad Fisherman. But while the Miami-Dade State Attor- ney’s Office (SAO) announced on December 11 that it would pursue charges against the twins in connection with the alleged 2016 in- cident, it did not seek charges against Alon and Oren, both of whom were in high school at the time, for the alleged March 2003 rape. At the time, NMBPD officers interviewed several boys from Krop, including Oren and Alon, as part of their investigation into the in- cident. But then-Assistant State Attorney Barty Quinnelly decided against filing charges against the Alexander brothers. “It was the opinion of the Assistant State Attorney, Barty Quinnelly, that no criminal charges could be filed in the case due to the inconsistencies of the statements made by the victim, contradicting witnesses, insufficient evidence, and the fact that the defendants ad- mitted to having sexual intercourse with the victim,” the 2003 investigative report states. Quinnelly, who served as an assistant state attorney for Miami-Dade County for two de- cades, died in 2017. She was working under the current Mi- ami-Dade County state attorney, Katherine Fernandez Rundle, who has been re-elected to the role six times since 1993. In an emailed response to New Times’ re- quest for comment, Miami-Dade State Attor- ney’s Office spokesman Ed Griffith explained that prosecutors “have an ethical obligation to be- lieve that they have sufficient ev- idence to prove a criminal charge beyond a reason- able doubt before they can proceed with a criminal charge filed by a police agency. Ethically, lacking such a sufficiency of evidence, a prosecutor is required to drop such charges.” “She Passed Out” It’s unclear precisely what roles the Alexan- der twins played in the alleged spring 2003 gang rape, owing to the heavily redacted po- lice report for the incident, which first resur- faced in a July Wall Street Journal story. But an NMBPD spokesperson confirmed to New Times that Alon and Oren Alexander were listed as suspects in the department’s sexual battery inquiry. Joel Denaro, an attorney for the brothers, has not responded to a phone call, text mes- sage, and email from New Times seeking comment for this story. The allegations in the 2003 report closely resemble what prosecutors have claimed the Alexander brothers boasted of having done while they were in high school at Krop: “run- ning trains” on their victims. An August New York magazine story men- tions that Krop’s senior yearbook included “a page with the prompt ‘What was your most memorable moment at Krop?’ Oren’s answer: ‘Riding my first “choo-choo” train.’” According to the March 2003 investigative report, the teen victim recalled being called over to a bedroom at the North Miami Beach house party and having sex with someone, al- though she couldn’t recall if she “wanted to have sex with him.” After they finished, she said she got dressed and two other boys im- mediately entered the room. The report notes that she couldn’t recall whether she had sex with them. Shortly after, the girl told police, she walked out of the room and re-entered. She remem- bered asking someone for alcohol and “dozing off,” according to the report, before having sex with that person as well. She recalled that the person’s condom broke at one point. Police also interviewed the girl’s mother, who prefaced her remarks by explaining that her daughter “tells her virtually everything” and that they spoke on a daily basis. The mother said the girl had told her about the Smirnoff Ice. “Someone brought it to her, and she passed out,” the woman told police, accord- ing to the report. “Next thing she knew, there was someone else with her in bed. Sometime after that, she was inside a bathroom where some guys were trying to hide her.” The victim recalled hiding in a bathtub as she heard her father and a cousin enter the home where the party was being held and yell her name, according to the report. That night, she said, her family brought her to a local hos- pital, but she couldn’t remember anything about the visit. The following Monday at school, she was seen crying hysterically, according to the report. She told a guidance counselor what happened and that person called the police. The next day, Tuesday, March 11, a police detective accompanied the girl and her father to the Roxcy Bolton Rape Treatment Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital, where a doctor conducted a rape examination, according to the report. The doctor provided the detective with a copy of the examination report when the exam was concluded. In response to New Times’ request for a copy of the report, an NMBPD spokesperson explained that the department is prohibited from releasing the documentation because the victim was a minor at the time. [email protected] Oren and Alon Alexander at the Villa, Casa Casuarina in Miami Beach, Florida, on November 22, 2015. Photo by Aaron Davidson/Getty Images | METRO | Boatyard Brouhaha, Part 2 A new tweak on Avra Jain’s divisive Little River plan. BY ZULEKHA PITTS I n September, when New Times published Theo Karantsalis’ cover story, “Boatyard Brouhaha,” a small parcel at 471 NE 79th St. in Miami’s Little River neighborhood seemed on the verge of an extreme makeover. The site, a former boatyard and small ma- rina, was to become a museum and retail complex called the Uplands. Emancipator 471, a limited liability company helmed by promi- nent local developer Avra Jain, would honor Miami’s maritime history while championing ecological balance. In documents submitted to state environ- mental agencies, Jain proposed reducing the number of boat slips on the property from 21 to eight and restoring the boatyard and ma- rina to convert it into “a dining, shopping, his- toric experience” and a “safe, secure, and environmentally responsible marina for boat- ers and visitors to Miami.” (Her LLC borrowed its name from the parcel’s 1940s incarnation as the Emancipator Boatyard, home base of S. Mortimer Auerbach, who designed a re- nowned wooden racing boat he dubbed the Emancipator.) But Jain’s vision didn’t sit well with wary neighbors and environmental advocates, who feared the project would disrupt the Little River, a haven for manatees and a rare endur- ing reminder of Miami’s pre-urban past. Despite multiple attempts on the part of the story’s author, Jain repeatedly stymied requests for specifics about her plans, instead pointing to features like on-site water collection — a form of green infrastructure that would prevent rainwater or water used by the business from draining directly into the Little River — and sidestepping questions with responses such as, “People who know THE THREE BROTHERS ARE ACCUSED OF WORKING TOGETHER SINCE AT LEAST 2010 TO “REPEATEDLY AND VIOLENTLY DRUG, SEXUALLY ASSAULT, AND RAPE” DOZENS OF VICTIMS. >> p6
