WASHINGTON: A Los Angeles jury has convicted Indian fashion designer Anand Jon Alexander of sexually assaulting seven aspiring female models, aged 14 to 21, after luring them with promises of jobs.
The 34-year-old designer, who has turned out dresses for the likes of socialite Paris Hilton and Janet Jackson, now faces life imprisonment. The sentence is set to be pronounced on January 13.
The Los Angeles Superior Court jury, consisting of six men and six women, found Jon guilty of one count of rape and 15 counts of sexual assault and other charges. Jon was arrested from his Beverly Hills residence in March 2007 after a woman accused him of rape. A grand jury later indicted him on 59 counts but prosecutors dropped more than half of them, preferring to focus on the stronger allegations.
After the jury reached its decision, attorneys told reporters that Jon is set to receive the mandatory life sentence with a 67-year wait before becoming eligible for parole.
Defence lawyers, however, maintained that Jon was innocent and would appeal.
‘‘This case is not over by a long shot. For now, we are disappointed,’’ defence attorney Larry Levine said.
Reports from Los Angels said that during the trial lasting two months, prosecutors accused Jon of luring girls as young as 14 with promises of modelling jobs and then acting out sadistic fantasies. They played a homemade videotape in which he asked a 17-year-old girl to strip and then sexually abused her, the Los Angeles Times reported. The girl said on the tape that she was 18 but testified in court that Jon told her to lie about her age. Others testified that Jon forced them to perform sex acts on him or that he touched them without consent, the paper reported.
Apart from the California victims, seven other women told jurors about alleged assaults in New York and Texas where he has been separately indicted.
About a dozen friends and family members of Jon stood outside the courtroom, some of them weeping. Defence attorneys spoke of a lack of physical evidence and accused the women of lying in court and seeking revenge. They said several victims were not credible as they had remained in contact with Jon after the alleged assaults, but prosecutors said it was Jon who kept in contact with them.
Anthony Brooklier, also a defence attorney, said jurors were swayed by the sheer number of charges and didn’t judge each allegation on its merits. But Deputy District Attorney Frances Young suggested there was a lot more against Jon.
‘‘The ones that we know of are probably the tip of the iceberg of what truly exists,’’ he said.
Jon’s mother and sister had visited New Delhi earlier this year and sought the Indian Government’s intervention on the ground that the charges were trumped up at the bidding of professional rivals.
Last month, reports said the Consul-General of India in San Francisco called on California Attorney-General Edmund Brown to voice New Delhi’s concern over reported omissions and commissions in the due judicial process and requesting that Jon be given the full opportunity to defend himself. However, on October 18, the Consulate clarified that the Indian Government did not wish to interfere with the judicial process in any manner.