The state sexual battery case against Oren and Alon Alexander, and their associate Ohad Fisherman, is coming into focus.
The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office alleges that Fisherman held down a woman as Oren and Alon, who are in federal custody awaiting their sex trafficking trial, allegedly took turns raping her on New Year’s Eve in 2016. The alleged attack is similar to an account laid out in a civil lawsuit filed against the brothers and Fisherman in New York.
In recent hearings, the judge presiding over the state case set a new trial date for Fisherman and will rule on the defense’s joint motion to dismiss the case next week, which hinges on their claim that the prosecutors didn’t properly preserve evidence and acted in bad faith. Depositions of the alleged victim and others involved in the case illustrate the defense’s strategy as they seek to poke holes in the case.
The Alexanders and Fisherman have pleaded not guilty and deny the allegations.
The iCloud issue
Judge Jody Jean on Wednesday ruled in favor of the defense’s motion to quash the state’s subpoenas of Fisherman and Alon Alexander’s iCloud accounts — but kept the door open for the state to seek a warrant for Alon’s based on probable cause.
“It’s a little thin now,” Jean said, referring to the state’s argument.
Assistant State Attorney Lara Penn said the state is seeking the metadata, specifically the timestamp, for a video Fisherman uploaded to Facebook of Fisherman and Alon on a boat that the defense has suggested could be an alibi for Fisherman in the alleged assault of M.W.
Also at Wednesday’s hearing, M.W. and her sister K.W.’s attorney, Carissa Peebles, requested the court issue protections for a video on K.W.’s phone, set to be extracted this week, that includes nudity. The defense is seeking the metadata for an unedited (unblurred) video. The judge said the defense cannot have both the metadata and the unblurred video right now, but ordered that the extraction of K.W.’s phone be held by the company in case the unedited video is needed down the line.
Attorneys for Fisherman and the Alexanders are all looking for texts with M.W. and a group that includes her sisters.
Attorneys for Alon and Oren, Joel Denaro and Ed O’Donnell, said in a statement, “there isn’t one text, email or communication” among the alleged victim, her two sisters and friend from the date of the alleged assault until December 2024 that alludes to any assault.
“This is particularly disturbing now knowing these girls had a group chat the entire time,” the attorney said. “It’s obvious the group chat was deleted. The prosecutors should be asking why?”
Jean gave prosecutors until Monday, June 16, to respond to the motion to dismiss and set a trial date for Fisherman for the week of July 7. A hearing on the motion to dismiss was scheduled for Tuesday, June 17.
Under Florida’s speedy trial rules, the state has until July 11 to begin trial. It was expected to begin earlier this week.
“A coordinated effort”
The alleged victim, identified as M.W., told Miami Beach Police about the 2016 allegation in October. During her interview with detectives, she said, “I don’t know for sure, but I do feel like they recorded it,” adding that the phone was on a chair nearby “when Alon was raping me.”
In her deposition, M.W. said the phone was positioned where it would have shown her and Alon only during the alleged rape. Fisherman had allegedly stopped holding her down at that point and was not in the room. She said she wasn’t sure if Oren was in the room at that time.
One of M.W.’s sisters, identified as C.W., also told police that her sister believed the alleged rape had been recorded.
“That kind of disclosure should have triggered immediate, aggressive preservation efforts. But Alvarez did nothing,” the motion to dismiss states.
Defense attorneys for the Alexanders and Fisherman argue that the state acted in bad faith as part of what they allege is “a coordinated effort to shield the most critical evidence in the case from ever being tested or seen.” FBI agents took Alon’s phone into federal custody when they arrested the brothers in December.
The defense also questioned M.W. about gaps in photos on her phone from the night she was allegedly raped, and her attending a concert later that night. O’Donnell asked her about a video snippet recorded that evening.
He said, “You acknowledge if somebody saw the clip of that video, it certainly looks like you’re having a good time and partying up, right?”
M.W. said yes. In response to O’Donnell’s question asking what it shows that she went out afterward, she said she was trying to “mask what was going on. I was confused, I was in shock, I·was trying to feel normal.”
“If you’re trying to·say that me going out afterwards discredits me from·being raped, that’s absurd,” she said.
