Anand Jon's Rape Trial Wraps Up
The Anand Jon rape trial was expected to be sent to a six-man, six-woman jury on Oct. 31 as attorneys presented their closing arguments in the case being heard in Los Angeles Superior Court.
The Indian-born designer, who lives in Los Angeles, is accused of raping and sexually abusing nine women and girls from ages 14 to 21.
He was arrested in March 2007 just before he was about to debut his new denim line at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week. He now faces up to life in prison.
As the case went to trial on Sept. 12, prosecutors twice dropped more than half the counts against Jon without explanation. The witness list also dwindled from 20 to nine. Originally, a grand jury indicted Jon on 59 counts.
Prosecutors opened the trial by portraying the 34-year-old designer as a “serial rapist” who used his position in the fashion industry to lure women to his Beverly Hills apartment, mostly through the Internet, including on MySpace and on various modeling Web sites, according to court reports.
Jon, who launched his fashion career in 1999, was a noted designer who graduated from Parsons School of Design in New York. He has outfitted several celebrities, including Paris Hilton and Mary J. Blige, and appeared on the TV show “America’s Next Top Model.” He was also touted in Newsweek as one of the next big things in fashion.
Prosecutors painted a different picture of his private life, saying he liked to humiliate young girls and women through sometimes painful sexual acts, according to published reports.
Witnesses also testified he was unscrupulous when it came to his career. One witness testified that Jon had his assistants cut out the labels of Kenneth Cole shirts and replace them with his own.
Jon’s lawyers—Anthony Brooklier, Don Marks, Eric Chase and Leonard Levine—presented a defense that portrayed the alleged victims as conspirators out to quash Jon’s celebrity status because they were rebuffed by him.
According to witnesses, Jon promised the models ways to boost their careers by appearing in fashion shows and other events. The defense questioned several women on their relationships with Jon, with some testifying they continued to meet and live with him even after the alleged incidents against them were to have occurred. —Robert McAllister
