Alexander brothers plead not guilty, prosecutors say they raped more than 60 women
Matias J. Ocner/Pool/Getty Images, FILE
(NEW YORK) — Luxury real estate brokers Tal and Oren Alexander, along with their brother Alon, on Friday pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiring to drug and sexually assault dozens of women nearly two months after their arrest.
The three Alexander brothers arrived in Manhattan federal court together in handcuffs, shackles and drab beige jail clothing.
They pleaded not guilty to federal sex trafficking charges in their first court appearance in New York after being arrested in Miami in December. Their transfer was delayed for weeks as they tried unsuccessfully to secure bail.
Prosecutors announced plans to file additional charges, stating that more than 60 women alleged they were raped by at least one of the brothers. The three siblings have been accused of luring women to nightclubs and parties, then drugging and sexually assaulting them.
“We do intend to bring a superseding indictment in this case,” prosecutor Elizabeth Espinosa said. “I think we will need another month or two.”
Espinosa said that investigators gathered a “substantial” amount of evidence, including accounts from alleged victims, as well as data from iCloud, Instagram, Facebook, dating apps, cell phones, laptop computers and electronic storage devices.
In a January court hearing, when the brothers were still in Florida, prosecutor Andrew Jones said FBI agents found multiple hard drives in a closet of Tal’s apartment during a search.
They allegedly contained “a large quantity of sexually explicit videos and photos” showing the brothers with drunk, naked women who were unaware they were being recorded. According to prosecutors, some of the women tried to hide or flee from the camera when they realized they were being filmed.
Defense attorney Deanna Paul, who is representing Tal, called the allegations “speculative” and questioned what the videos depict, prompting U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni to interject.
“In my view, having a sex with a woman who is incapacitated is likely rape,” Caproni said.
On Friday, Caproni scheduled the trial for Jan. 5, 2026, anticipating it will last at least a month. Defense attorneys have until early May to file a motion to dismiss. The next in-person court hearing is scheduled for mid-July.
All three brothers face 15 years to life in prison if convicted of the federal charges. Oren and Tal were prominent New York and Miami real estate agents, working with wealthy and celebrity clients.
Actor Gene Hackman and wife Betsy Arakawa pose for a portrait in 1986 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Donaldson Collection/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
(LOS ANGELES) — Authorities are searching for answers into the death of actor Gene Hackman, 95, who along with his wife, Betsy Arakawa, 65, were mysteriously found dead alongside a dog in their Santa Fe, New Mexico, home on Wednesday.
The couple was found on Wednesday during a welfare check with no obvious signs of how they died, according to the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office.
However, their deaths were “suspicious enough in nature to require a thorough search and investigation” due to all of the “circumstances surrounding” the scene, according to the search warrant affidavit.
There was no external trauma to either of them which led officials to conduct carbon monoxide and toxicology with the official results pending, the sheriff’s office said.
Hackman was discovered on the floor in the mud room, according to the search warrant. It appeared he fell suddenly, and he and his wife “showed obvious signs of death,” the document said.
Arakawa was found lying on her side on the floor in a bathroom, with a space heater near her body, according to the search warrant, and her body showed signs of decomposition due to some mummification to her hands and feet.
On the counter near Arakawa was an opened prescription bottle, with pills scattered, according to the search warrant.
A German shepherd was found dead about 10 to 15 feet from Arakawa, the document said. That dog was in a crate or a kennel, according to Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza.
The Santa Fe City Fire Department found no signs of a possible carbon monoxide leak or poisoning, the document said. But, if there was carbon monoxide at the scene, it could have vented out of the home through the open front door before responders arrived.
New Mexico Gas Company also responded, “As of now, there are no signs or evidence indicating there were any problems associated to the pipes in and around the residence,” the document said.
Two maintenance workers said they hadn’t heard from Hackman and Arakawa in about two weeks, the document said.
A maintenance worker who initially responded to the home found the front door open but there were no signs of forced entry or that anything had been stolen, the document said.
There was no indication of a crime and “there could be a multitude of reasons why the door was open,” the sheriff told reporters Thursday.
There was “no obvious sign or indication of foul play,” but authorities “haven’t ruled that out yet,” the sheriff said.
Investigators are “keeping everything on the table,” he added.
ABC News’ Kevin Shalvey, Erica Morris and Emily Shapiro contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — One day ahead of a court hearing for Mahmoud Khalil — the activist who was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement on the campus of Columbia University, despite possessing a green card — his wife and attorney both released statements shedding more light on Khalil’s detainment and the days leading up to it.
Khalil’s wife, who is eight months pregnant, issued a statement speaking of the outpouring of love she has received and the urgent need for him to be home in time for their baby’s birth.
In it, she said that Khalil “begged” Columbia University for legal support one day before his arrest, explaining that he was fearful that ICE might target him.
Khalil allegedly sent an email to the university urging them to intervene, his wife said.
“I haven’t been able to sleep, fearing that ICE or a dangerous individual might come to my home. I urgently need legal support and I urge you to intervene,” he reportedly said in his email.
His wife claimed that the university never responded.
ABC News reached out to Columbia for comment and has not independently reviewed the reported emails.
Khalil’s wife also said in her statement that a “doxxing” campaign began targeting her husband about six days ago and anti-Palestinian groups were also spreading “false claims” about him.
She recalled the moment she was also threatened with arrest when she refused to leave her husband with the agents, claiming that the couple was never shown a warrant.
“I was born and raised in the Midwest. My parents came here from Syria, carrying their stories of the oppressive regime there that made life unlivable. They believed living in the US would bring a sense of safety and stability. But here I am, 40 years after my parents immigrated here, and just weeks before I’m due to give birth to our first child, and I feel more unsafe and unstable than I have in my entire life,” her statement said.
The Trump administration said it detained Khalil, who was a leader of the encampment protests on Columbia’s campus, alleging he was a supporter of Hamas.
Baher Azmy, one of the lawyers representing Khalil, called his client’s alleged alignment with Hamas “false and preposterous.”
According to a joint letter filed in court and obtained by ABC News, the government and Khalil’s attorneys conferred on Monday but were unable to agree on how to proceed. Khalil’s side asked the court to first decide a pending motion to compel the government to return him to New York; the government indicated that it intends to move to dismiss or transfer the case for improper venue and is asking the court to address that first.
“For everyone reading this, I urge you to see Mahmoud through my eyes as a loving husband and the future father to our baby. I need your help to bring Mahmoud home, so he is here beside me, holding my hand in the delivery room as we welcome our first child into this world. Please release Mahmoud Now,” the statement from Khalil’s wife concluded.
Attorney Amy E. Greer said she spoke with Khalil on Tuesday and that he is “healthy and his spirits are undaunted by his predicament.”
“He also greatly appreciates, and, typically for him, is moved by the extraordinarily broad and steadfast support he has received from a variety of communities that understand what is at stake,” she said.
Greer also hinted that some of the administration’s comments about Khalil, including President Donald Trump’s social media posts, may be used by his legal team to argue for his release.
“The remarks by government officials, including the President, on social media only confirm the purpose – and illegality – of Mahmoud’s detention. He was chosen as an example to stifle entirely lawful dissent in violation of the First Amendment. While tomorrow or thereafter the government may cite the law or process, that toothpaste is out of the tube and irreversibly so. The government’s objective is as transparent as it is unlawful, and our role as Mahmoud’s lawyers is to ensure it does not prevail,” Greer said.
The court has scheduled a hearing on the habeas petition on Wednesday at 11:30 a.m.
Khalil’s team will be asking the court to order the government to return him to New York to while the legal battle plays out. Khalil is currently being held in Louisiana — a move that Greer claimed is a “blatantly improper but familiar tactic designed to frustrate the New York federal court’s jurisdiction.”
Jennifer Vasquez Sura, wife of Kilmar Abrego Garcia/Astrid Riecken For The Washington Post via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran native living Maryland, was deported in March to a mega-prison in his home country of El Salvador — despite a 2019 court order barring his deportation to that country due to fear of persecution — after the Trump administration claimed he was a member of the criminal gang MS-13.
His attorneys say that Abrego Garcia, whose wife is a U.S. citizen and who has 5-year-old child and two step-children, escaped political violence in El Salvador in 2011 and is not a MS-13 member.
The Trump administration, while acknowledging that Abrego Garcia was deported to El Salvador in error, has said that his alleged MS-13 affiliation makes him ineligible to return to the United States.
Here is how the case has unfolded.
March 15, 2025
The Trump administration, as part of its immigration crackdown, deports three planeloads of alleged migrant gang members to El Salvador, where they are incarcerated in the notorious CECOT mega-prison under an agreement with the Salvadoran government. The alleged gang members include Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whose protected legal status precludes him from being deported to that country.
March 18, 2025
Families of several of the deported men tell ABC News that their detained relatives have no criminal record in the United States — a fact that’s acknowledged by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official, who nonetheless says that “the lack of specific information about each individual actually highlights the risk they pose” and “demonstrates that they are terrorists with regard to whom we lack a complete profile.”
April 1, 2025
In a sworn declaration as part of a lawsuit brought by Abrego Garcia’s attorneys, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official says Abrego Garcia was mistakenly deported to El Salvador as a result of an “administrative error” — but that he is still under a “final order of removal” for deportation, after the government rescinded his protected legal status due to his purported gang ties as alleged by a confidential police informant.
Court documents say that on March 12, Abrego Garcia was detained by ICE officers who “informed him that his immigration status had changed” due to the MS-13 allegations, after which he was transferred to a detention center in Texas and then deported to El Salvador.
April 4, 2025
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, at a hearing in Maryland, grants a preliminary injunction and orders the government to “facilitate and effectuate” the return of Abrego Garcia to the United States by midnight on April 7.
Asked by Judge Xinis under what authority law enforcement officers seized Abrego Garcia, DOJ attorney Erez Reuveni says he does not have the answer, telling the judge, “Your honor, my answer to a lot of these questions is going to be frustrating and I’m also frustrated that I have no answers for you on a lot of these questions.”
April 5, 2025
A day after the hearing, the Justice Department places DOJ attorney Erez Reuveni on indefinite paid leave over a “failure to zealously advocate” for the government’s interests.
April 7, 2025
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts issues a temporary administrative stay putting off Judge Xinis’ midnight deadline for the government to return Abrego Garcia from El Salvador, in order to give the court more time to consider the arguments presented by both sides.
April 8, 2025
After the Trump administration, in a court filing, argues that a judge can’t demand Abrego Garcia’s return because a federal court can’t order a president to engage in foreign diplomacy, an attorney for Abrego Garcia tells ABC News he believes the Supreme Court will rule in his client’s favor.
April 9, 2025
In an interview with ABC News, Abrego Garcia’s wife, a U.S. citizen, denies the Trump administration’s allegation that her husband is a member of the criminal gang MS-13.
April 10, 2025
The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously rules that Judge Xinis “properly requires the Government to ‘facilitate’ Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador.”
“The intended scope of the term ‘effectuate’ in the District Court’s order is, however, unclear, and may exceed the District Court’s authority,” the court writes. “The District Court should clarify its directive, with due regard for the deference owed to the Executive Branch in the conduct of foreign affairs.”
The Trump administration, interpreting the ruling as prohibiting the district court from ordering the executive branch to take any action that would violate the separation of powers, celebrates the order as a victory for the administration.
April 11, 2025
Saying “the Supreme Court has spoken quite clearly” that Abrego Garcia should be released from El Salvador, Judge Xinis slams the government’s handling of the case and orders the Justice Department to provide her with “daily updates” on Abrego Garcia’s status and their efforts to bring him back.
April 12, 2025
A State Department official, in response to Judge Xinis’ demand for daily updates, tells the judge that Abrego Garcia is “alive and secure” in El Salvador’s CECOT prison, but provides no information about their efforts to return him to the United States.
April 14, 2025
Attorney General Pam Bondi, in an Oval Office meeting with President Trump and the visiting El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, says that Abrego Garcia’s return is “up to El Salvador,” after which Bukele says, “I don’t have the power to return him to the United States.”
April 15, 2025
Judge Xinis, in a hearing, takes Justice Department attorneys to task over their inaction and orders government officials to testify under oath through expedited discovery in order to resolve Abrego Garcia’s wrongful detention.
Prior to the hearing, a DHS official says the Trump administration is “prepared to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s presence in the United States … if he presents at a port of entry” — but that DHS does not have the authority to forcibly extract him “from the domestic custody of a foreign sovereign nation.”
April 16, 2025
The Department of Justice files notice that it will appeal Judge Xinis’ ruling ordering the government to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return, and releases two documents that were previously used to allegedly tie Abrego Garcia to MS-13.
The developments come on the same day that DHS, in a social media post, shares court records showing that Abrego Garcia’s wife had a month-long order of protection against him in 2021, in which she cited being slapped, hit with an object, and being detained against her will.
April 17, 2025
Slamming the government for “asserting a right to stash away residents of this country in foreign prisons without the semblance of due process that is the foundation of our constitutional order,” the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit denies the Trump administration’s effort to appeal Judge Xinis’ order requiring it to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return.
