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A Ukrainian model recalled being “paralyzed” by a drugged drink as high-roller property titan Oren Alexander allegedly raped her inside a posh Hamptons party house, a court heard this week.
“I had no control over my body… It was like my whole body was tranquilized,” the alleged victim, using the alias “Bela Koval,” calmly told jurors in Manhattan federal court.
The Ukraine native and Chicago resident began testifying Monday in the case against Oren, 38, his twin Alon and his brother Tal, 39, who are charged with running a twisted sex trafficking scheme for more than a decade.
Wearing a jet black suit, Koval told jurors how Oren had allegedly handed her a drink in a red plastic cup as she lounged on a beanbag chair during a lavish Labor Day Weekend 2016 bash at a $13 million Sag Harbor mansion.
After taking a few sips, Koval started feeling “very strange” when “a wave of feeling hit me,” she remembered on the stand.
When she tried to stand up, she realized that she was “losing control of my limbs,” she told jurors.
She staggered inside the house, headed toward her basement bedroom, when Alon Alexander allegedly “swooped in” and led her by the arm to a separate bedroom on the first floor, she said.
Koval testified that she fell asleep and woke up hours later, when Oren Alexander allegedly entered the room.
She tried to tell the celebrity real estate agent that “something wasn’t right” — but he “completely ignored me,” pulled out a condom and undressed her, she testified.
Koval described feeling “completely awake and aware” in her mind at this moment, but “like my whole body was tranquilized.”
“At this point I realized something is about to happen to me,” she matter-of-factly testified. “I was unable to move. I was paralyzed.”
Oren “put all of his weight on top of me and raped me,” she told the jury, adding that she tried to push him off with her hands, but could not muster the effort.
“He had no expression other than this brooding anger… no emotion all. It was just this dark energy,” she said.
“All I remember is him breathing on top of me.”
Oren, wearing a dark suit and white shirt at the defense table, slumped his shoulders at points in accuser’s testimony Monday.
But he perked up in his chair and glared at Koval on Tuesday as his lawyer grilled the model during a heated cross examination.
Defense lawyer Teny Geragos confronted Koval over different accounts she gave over time about some details from the night she says she was allegedly assaulted, including about what she’d been wearing.
Geragos also displayed photos of Koval — who said she doesn’t drink alcohol because of a health condition — holding various other beverages that night.
Koval said the drinks were mostly “mocktails,” but acknowledged that she may have had a couple sips of alcohol over the course of the night.
“You testified that are you not sure about a lot of what happened that night, right?” Geragos asked Koval at one point.
“My focus is on being drugged and raped” — not “insignificant details,” Koval shot back. “That’s what my mind has focused on.”
Prosecutors released photos of the snazzy Hamptons mansion — turned alleged house of horrors — after showing the images to jurors last week.
Koval testified that she was invited to the ritzy house — which boasts a pool, hot tub and basketball court — by Oren’s twin Alon, who she said she’d matched with on the exclusive dating app Raya.
Prosecutors also released a picture of Hollywood actor Zac Efron posing with Tal Alexander at a 2012 party. The first accuser to take the stand, “Katie Moore,” testified that she met Alon and Tal at Efron’s NBA Finals watch party at a Meatpacking District loft, and that she was raped by Alon that night.
Oren, Alon and Tal Alexander have each pleaded not guilty to charges that carry a minimum of 15 years in prison, and a maximum of life behind bars.
English (US)