Anand Jon, Fashion Designer to the Stars, Faces Life in Prison for Rape
Filed under: News
Anand Jon with Paula Abdul at Paris Hilton's 26th Birthday Party in 2007. Image: Jamie McCarthy, WireImage
The 35-year-old designer, once a friend of celebrities including Paris Hilton and Michelle Rodriguez and designer to A-List clients like Mary J Blige and Janet Jackson, was convicted in November of 14 counts of forcible rape after being arrested in 2007.
The prosecution says Alexander (who goes by Anand Jon) flaunted his designer status to lure the aspiring models to his place in Beverly Hills, Calif.. often surfing the internet for potential victims. While he promised a fancy photo shoot awaited the girls at his pad, he instead attacked them.
At today's court sentencing, the models are set to speak, while The Huffington Post reports Jon faces 3 terms of 53 years and six months to life in prison.
On the flip side, the defense claims the women are seeking revenge against the India-born designer after they didn't land modeling gigs, while Alexander's sister, Sanjana, has set up a support site at AnandJon.com and is calling it all a case of racial profiling.
"Being an Indian in the US, I know that we won't get justice," she says on the site. She has also plead to the Indian government for help and threatened to go on a hunger strike.
In an odd twist of events, Sanjana herself will have a hearing in September due to accepting notes and calls from one of the jurors on the case, who was eventually kicked off the trial.
Alexander has also been indicted in New York on charges stemming from nine women.
Stay tuned for the outcome of today's sentencing.
lucky 8-31-2009 @ 5:03PM
His defense is absurd. There are too many woman and girls involved for this to be just disgruntled models. To claim racial profiling is an insult to all minorities. His sister should get a life and be glad she has never been raped.
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Jane 10-08-2009 @ 5:05PM
I met Anand Jon through a friend in NYC and he over the internet persisted to invite me to come to model for his clothing company. I remember it like it was yesterday I was still in college and was far from promiscuous, definitely not a model, and somehow thought it might be fun to be a model for a day at a photo shoot. What girl wouldn't want to?
I remember meeting his sister who loved each and every design (even the really tacky ones) that he made she was over the top loyal and would do anything for her brother.
He smelled of moist body oder, like he needed a shower or at least some deodorant - and his gaze made me uncomfortable. No sooner had I put on a red top of his (that fit perfect) when he came up from behind while I was looking in the mirror and said that it looked amazing.
Then before I could feel any more creeped out he started to kiss my neck. Disgusted, embarrassed, unsure if I provoked this behavior I quickly moved away and said "do not touch me" in a strong clear tone. "You know you want me, you're just playing hard to get" he replied and moved closer. "No. I am NOT." I remember pushing him forcefully away from me and changing from the clothing and leaving as quickly as possible after he tried to pin me down. There was no way I was going to bed that man.
Years later I feel guilt for not reporting him. When I saw his face on the news before his name even came up I said out loud to a friend "ANAND JON!" my friend looked at me and said how do you know that guy - then his name came up on the screen. I knew when I saw his face on the news that he had raped someone or "forced himself upon someone" who was unwilling. When the reports came out I was not shocked to see that over a dozen women had claimed to be raped by this man - I was surprised that it wasn't two or three dozen at the rate to which he was befriending would be models in NY. The only thing I was surprised by was that he was an "Los Angeles designer" wonder why he had to leave NY?
Either way I still feel bad for not reporting him so many years ago. Maybe if earlier on in his career someone would have maybe then this would have been a slap on his hands and stopped instead of a life of imprisonment - no one should have to go through that.
My apologies to all of you young women out there who have gone through something tragic like this. Please report things early so that they do not continue to escalate. Such a sad article. There is no doubt in my mind that he is guilty of the charges. He pretended to be so religious and do devout, yet manipulated women all the time and mistreated them.
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