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Designer Anand Jon is convicted in sex assaults

Jury finds the Beverly Hills man guilty of attacking seven girls and young women. He faces life in prison.

November 14, 2008|Jack Leonard, Leonard is a Times staff writer.
  • Anand Jon
    Rene Macura / Associated Press

Others testified that Jon forced them to perform sex acts on him or that he touched them without consent. In addition to the victims in California, prosecutors called seven other women to tell jurors about alleged assaults in New York and Texas, where Jon also has been indicted.

But Jon's supporters said they believed his high-powered defense team had presented jurors with a compelling case for his innocence.

Confronting some of the women with cellphone and e-mail records, the attorneys sought to point up inconsistencies in their accounts and show that they had contact with Jon after the alleged assaults.


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The lawyers told jurors that the women were liars, with some of them angry at the way Jon had treated them and others hoping to profit financially. Jon's supporters said the accusers' testimony did not seem credible.

"I can't believe that I was in the same courtroom" as the jury, said Richard Bernard, Jon's brother-in-law.

Jon did not testify in the case.

In their closing arguments, prosecutors conceded that the Beverly Hills police investigation was "sloppy" and that some of the accusers had acted recklessly in trusting Jon.

But on Thursday, they also expressed gratitude to the women who testified in the case.

Jon, prosecutors said, was the one who initiated contact with many of the women after the alleged assaults as part of a strategy to stop them from reporting him to authorities.

"It was his way to keep them silent," said Deputy Dist. Atty. Mara McIlvain.

In addition to the guilty verdicts, the jury acquitted Jon of four counts and deadlocked on three others. Superior Court Judge David S. Wesley is scheduled to sentence Jon on Jan. 13.

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jack.leonard@latimes.com

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