Law&Crime Sidebar - Wealthy Real Estate Brothers' Co-Defendant CLEARED of Rape Charge

Episode Date: July 12, 2025

Prosecutors in Miami-Dade have dropped a high-profile sexual battery charge against businessman Ohad Fisherman, who was accused of assisting the Alexander brothers in a 2016 rape. A drone video posted to Facebook—allegedly showing Fisherman miles away at the time of the attack—shook up the case just before trial. But with federal prosecutors withholding key metadata, questions remain. Law&Crime's Jesse Weber speaks with Fisherman’s attorney, Jeffrey Sloman, about the dropped charge, the alibi evidence, and the ongoing federal case against the Alexander brothers.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Download the FREE Upside App at https://upside.app.link/sidebar to get an extra 25 cents back for every gallon on your first tank of gas.HOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger, Christina O'Shea & Jay CruzScript Writing & Producing - Savannah Williamson & Juliana BattagliaGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Agent Nate Russo returns in Oracle 3, Murder at the Grandview, the latest installment of the gripping Audible Original series. When a reunion at an abandoned island hotel turns deadly, Russo must untangle accident from murder. But beware, something sinister lurks in the grand. views shadows. Joshua Jackson delivers a bone-chilling performance in this supernatural thriller that

will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. When both federal and state authorities charged the Alexander brothers, twins and their older sibling with running essentially a prolific sex trafficking operation. Another man was caught up in the legal drama, O'Hod Fisherman. Miami authorities charged him with helping the twins allegedly rape a woman nearly a decade ago. But new evidence meant a major shake-up in court this week, and he is no longer facing charges. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by law and crime. I'm Jesse Weber. Let's talk about O'Hod Fisherman. We've spoken

about it before here on the program, real estate broker, businessman, he is no longer facing any charges in Miami-Dade County Court. You see, jury selection for fishermen's trial on one count of sexual battery by multiple perpetrators was supposed to start on Tuesday, July 8th, but on Monday, prosecutors revealed that they were dropping the charge after the defense filed a notice of alibi last week. Now, the charge came about in the first place, thanks to a complaint to authorities by a woman identified only as MW. She claimed that back in 2016, fishermen was present at a high-rise apartment in Miami Beach that was owned by Alon Alexander.

So he is the twin of Orrin Alexander, and he's also the brother of Tal Alexander. And she accused fishermen of helping to hold her down on a bed while Orrin and Alon took turns raping her. And she claims that when they were all done, they insisted she have sex with their cousin, too, referring to fishermen. though we'll talk about that a little bit later. Now, part of the most recent court paperwork that was filed in Fisherman's case includes the transcript from an interview between the alleged victim and a detective.

Here's a portion of that interview, and it starts with M.W., who sometimes has trouble putting her experience into words. It reads, quote, and as Oren was raping me, Alon was watching, and then Alon raped me. But I was more calm than because we have already had, but I didn't, obviously. I was just, and then Oren sat on the chair. after he was done there was a chair in the corner of the room and he said we're not leaving until you have sex with my cousin and the detective clarifies ohad ohad yeah and i was just like crying hysterically at this point like bawling and i was like please don't do this please please please please just

begging him and he was just on his phone ignoring me and i just sat there and i didn't like i just refused to do anything and ohad just we just both sat there and then oren got up and i believe he left told me to shower. He came back and he came in the shower, I think probably to make sure that I was like getting everything off and I was just crying in the shower. And then he made Ohad sit in the room with me to make sure that I got an Uber home. So MW also told this detective that she was scared of the brothers and seemingly by extension O'Hod Fisherman. There's also this from the transcript. Quote, and when my sister was like, we need to go to the police right now, I was like, I think I literally said, I don't think, I said, like, they will kill me,

like they will hire somebody, like they will take care of that. Like, they are very powerful and they seem to have a lot of money. And I was, like, scared of my life just because of what I just, like, experienced, not only the rape, but just like how they were. Now, we've told you before about the Alexander brothers here on Sidebar, right? Tal, the eldest, Orrin, Alon, the twins, the brothers who come from a wealthy family, but also have made money on their own as well. in the luxury real estate and security businesses.

They have been accused of using their wealth, their connections, their public images to lure women and girls into dangerous situations. And last December, prosecutors with the Southern District of New York charged the brothers with trafficking two women. And then earlier this year, a superseding indictment was filed where there was an accusation of assault of a minor. Now, fishermen was never accused of any wrongdoing by the feds, just county prosecutors in Florida.

In fact, when law enforcement surrounded the Miami homes of the Alexander brothers, fishermen wasn't even in the country. The Miami Herald reports he was celebrating his honeymoon in Japan. And when he was back in the States, a bond hearing was held, and he was granted release. And at one point, he was ordered to be fitted with an ankle monitor, but the judge ordered it removed. When prosecutors confirmed he wasn't connected to any of the other alleged crimes that the Alexander brothers are charged with. This is, again, according to the Herald. Now, the brothers were transferred up to New York on their federal.

charges too. How did O'Hod Fisherman, a key figure in this, a co-defendant and his defense team, how did they manage to get the charge thrown out of court? Well, apparently, it all comes down to a drone video. So apparently this video, this shows men on a boat. And it was supposedly posted to Facebook by O'Hod Fisherman. This is, again, according to the Miami Herald. And the post, this is based on the sunset, not a timestamp that sunset. The post, the post, allegedly came 27 minutes before an Uber dropped off the alleged victim at the apartment where the purported sexual assault took place. In other words, it's the alibi defense.

He was allegedly somewhere else, very close to the same time as the purported attack. And in that post, Fisherman tagged Alon Alexander, thanking him for the video. So according to court documents, MW, again, the alleged victim, approached prosecutors to let them know that she had a screenshot of this Facebook. post from December 31st, 2016. And because it could provide an alibi and be exculpatory, tending to prove that the defendant is not guilty, right? The state turned that information over to Fisherman's Defense Team. By law, they had to do that. Now, prosecutors were doing what they could, according to the Herald, to determine when the drone video was created,

including sending a subpoena to Facebook to confirm the date and time of the post, as well as reaching out to other people that were tagged in the post. But according to prosecutors, those other people who may have been out on the water that day said they wouldn't cooperate with the investigation. But the Herald reports there has been a huge sticking point when it comes to proving the exact time that the drone video was filmed. And that is that the metadata evidence is apparently in the hands of the feds, federal prosecutors.

The Herald reports that the defense has been requesting digital information connected to the men's cell phones and the drone for months. And a judge even ordered the state to turn it over, but state prosecutors seem to claim that the feds, they're not going to give it up. They won't give it up. They won't even confirm if they have the information. So MW has a ride summary from Uber, showing the time that she arrived at the high rise and when she left within 73 minutes in between. And the defense says during that window, fishermen was basically out on the water, and they filed a notice of alibi to that effect last week.

At the time of the alleged defense, Mr. Fisherman was on a boat in the water somewhere along the intercoastal waterway. This notice is based in part on discovery produced by the state, which includes a video posted by Mr. Fisherman to Facebook with the caption, riding out, thank you 2016, can't wait for what 2017 has in store for me, wishing everyone a safe, happy, and healthy NYU. Thanks at Alon Alexander for the video. Now after an emergency meeting on Monday, one day before jury selection, the DA announced that the charge against O'Hod Fisherman was dropped. State Attorney Catherine Fernandez Rundle said in a statement, quote,

the defendant's presence at the scene of the crime is an essential element of proof, and this video evidence casts doubt on that proof. Given the prosecution's inability to conclusively disprove the alibi, we determine in good faith that we cannot prove the case against O'Hod Fisherman beyond and to the extension of all reasonable doubt, which is required by law. Our decision today is only as to O'Hod Fisherman. The cases against Oren and Alon Alexander remain pending, Nothing involving the disposition of this case affects the cases against the Alexander brothers.

Fisherman, by the way, held a news conference to address the dismissal, saying this was not dismissed on technicality. There is no deal, no compromise. The state dropped the charge because they knew I didn't do this. I'm innocent. All right, so I want to get some more details about this whole situation. And honestly, who better to ask than Fisherman's defense attorney, Jeffrey Slomon? Jeffrey, thanks so much for coming here on Sidebar. Appreciate you taking the time.

My pleasure. This has got to be, this whole ordeal, a very stressful, frustrating time. But I imagine in the past few days this sense of relief, right? How are you doing? How is your client doing? Well, let me start with my client. My client is ecstatic. He was, as you can imagine, this is 208 days since he was laborable.

able to rapist on his honeymoon in Japan. And news travels fast when you're called a rapist. And he's been, you know, he was faced with the prospects of going to Florida State prison for 30 years. So the sort of Damocles is the right analogy. And when we told him, he had, He was absolutely ecstatic. He's a religious man who had faith, who thought that he was going to be okay.

But until you get the word that you're free, it's, you know, you never know until it happens. So we had a sense that this, the state was considering dismissing, but we prepared all weekend for an opening statement on yesterday. And we worked all weekend. We, in fact, July 4th was my birthday. And so we were in the office preparing Saturday. We were preparing Sunday. We were preparing Monday.

We were preparing. And about three o'clock, we got the call. And the assistant state attorney told us that they were going to null prosecute case, which they did it. 4 p.m. We've been following this story from the beginning. And, you know, one of the reasons that we can do this to really dive into these cases and stories is because of the amazing support that we get from our sponsors like Upside. Now, Upside is great. It is a free app that gets

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on your first tank of gas. Well, first of all, happy belated birthday and sounds like it was a good birthday present in the end for this to happen. What has been the impact? on his life, in the sense that has he lost career opportunities, has he lost friends, have family turned him away, because these were serious, serious allegations that came out of nowhere. I mean, they really, when they were plastered on the headlines, I'll tell you, a lot of people didn't know who your client was. And to have his, you know, his name be at the forefront of what the allegations facing the Alexander brothers, what is this?

been the impact on his life in the past few months? Well, he's a real estate broker. In fact, he just opened up his own brokerage firm about two months before this happened. So while the real estate market has softened in South Florida, it's killed his business. There's not too many people that would hire somebody who's been charged with rape. So it's devastated his business. It's reputational. hopefully this is the beginning of repairing it.

He's, you know, as far as his friends, I think a lot of people have known Ohad for a long time and know he's a good guy, but still, I'm sure I know that there are people that remain distant from him and I don't know whether or not those people are going to, you know, accept what has happened and welcome him back into the community.

But I have a feeling that he has such a great personality, such a sweet, warm, hearted guy that he will eventually get back on his feet. But it's going to be hard. I mean, the stench of something like this follows you for a long, long time. I just, you know, I'm very wary that he just, you know, comes back next week and everything's the same. it's not. It has an effect. I've had other clients who have told me that, you know, despite what people do or say that it's never quite the same. So this is going to take a long, long time before I think things are back to where they were. But look, I mean, to go from

the depths of despair to yesterday is just an unbelievable. experience for me to watch and to, you know, it's so gratifying to see him and his family. I mean, imagine, I mean, just to give you an example, his mother-in-law, when this, when this first happened, he had to put up, I think it was about a $250,000 bond. Of course, he didn't have to, you know, bring money to the courthouse or write a check, but it was collateralized, not by anything that Ohat had, but by, his mother-in-law, she signed, she turned over, she encumbered $250,000, you know, on properties, on a variety of properties.

And I was just thinking to myself, there's not too many people who would believe in their new son-in-law encumber their real estate to secure a bond. I mean, so he's had people who has stood by him who were behind it, but it's, you know, outside the family circle, I don't know. Does he know this woman? I mean, what was going to be the argument at trial that was going to be made by your team? Does he know her? Does he say this was all fabricated? He's had no connection with her whatsoever? He never met her before. He never met her after. He has no recollection of her. You know, imagine trying to prove where you were last year, let alone five years ago, let alone eight years ago. And while, you know, people would say, well, it was a New Year's Eve, you should know where you were.

But we've spent the last, what is it, you know, eight months, nine months, trying to put together where he was on that day. And we've had access to his electronics. We know he was in South Florida. We can't put him there. He doesn't remember exactly where he was on that day. But he can say definitively that this didn't happen. Talk to me about this drone video because some people might say, wow, you know, this definitely proves an alibi. There are others who say, well, okay, it was posted.

How can you be sure that's Ohad in the video? What would you say to that? Well, we know it's we know it's oh hot in the video. Alon Alexander sent it to him. Ohad thanked Alon for the video. Ohad posted it on his Facebook at about 9 p.m. that night. The scroll across the video itself said last sunset of 2016, there's no doubt that Ohad is the individual who's water skiing behind

the boat, but without the metadata, which would only come from the drone, the drone, okay? it's it's a live hand grenade in terms of trying to prove that so we had to think long and hard about whether that was going to be part of our defense or whether it was going to be one of other we had a lot of i mean there was so much evidence that this was all fabricated and so that was one piece to be clear the this video this timestamp, 27 minutes, right, around 27 minutes before the Uber arrives with this woman at the apartment complex as based on her narrative. Was the prosecution going to argue or potentially argue, okay, but he still could have made it there to the apartment in time? Is that something

that was even feasible or based on the location of the boat? I mean, again, I know we don't have the metadata per se, but is that something that the prosecution was going to argue that he still could have been there despite the video well let me correct you on one thing sure no time stamp on the video okay the the the time would have been calculated from uh the the sunset on that day which i believe was about 545 p.m okay so so that that's where you have this uh you know the the the time frame would have been nearly impossible for him to have gotten off the boat, traveled back to, you know, that was the other thing. We didn't have a specific location as to where the boat rental

company was. Right. It's longer in business. And so to imagine if sunset is about 5.45 p.m. and it was clearly the sun was setting so you would have had the boat would have had to a sped back to the location where they returned the boat uh theoretically got in a car gone to you know mid beach gone up an elevator and been there for rape it made no sense right so if if it happened on that day um now and whether the The state was, now, I think at certain points during the litigation, the state was posturing, well, this shows they were together on that day. And I kept thinking to myself, really, is that what they were going to do? It's unclear what they were going to do. But the problem is that, you know, if you're in trial and you introduce a piece of evidence like that for the proposition that a man can't be in two places at the one time, Then you're faced with, okay, you know, do you put your client on the stand? Do you jeopardize or risk the prosecution coming in with a witness and saying, no, it wasn't that day.

It was two weeks before the video was actually made. So without the metadata, it was, you know, it would have been a strategic decision whether or not we would have introduced. that piece of evidence to say, you've got the wrong guy. But there were so many other powerful things that we had that, you know, we, it was just one of many things that I think would have been powerful and successful in defending him. What's what the fed's not turning over information about this, not turning over metadata. Can you explain that? Well, as you can see behind me, I have my former DOJ going away seal in the background signed by my former colleagues. I was a former U.S. attorney here in the Southern District of Florida.

I interacted a lot with the Southern District of New York, and they always referred to themselves of the Sovereign District of New York, and it was notorious that they didn't really play well with other, you know, other U.S. Attorney's offices and were very territorial. I think this, you know, this was Exhibit A for that proposition. I, but even with that, you know, that, you know, not playing well with other, you know, U.S. attorney's offices and other jurisdictions, this was a head scratcher. I mean, they would not even acknowledge whether or not they had anything. And why wouldn't they accommodate another prosecutorial jurisdiction and say, yeah, we have it or we don't have it or, you know, we've searched and

there's nothing here they wouldn't even do that um and we tried and the state attorney's office seemed to have made a half-hearted attempt to try and get it it was i mean we were out of loss and while we got some things like we the state never even knew until we started uh deposing witnesses that the accuser, her sisters and friends went out to the Justin Bieber concert within two and a half, three hours of this alleged horrific, brutal gang rape. Yeah, so two things coming. One, I can clearly see where the defense, where you were going to go at a trial. And I can also understand why the state prosecutors seemingly had no choice, no other

option but to drop this. I mean, it was quite problematic for them. I think the one point of confusion is what exactly is Ohad's connection to the Alexander brothers? Is he actually a cousin? And also, is he going to play any role in their criminal cases? Do you know if he's going to be a witness of any kind? He's not their cousin. Okay. One of the, I always said, because one of the alleged victims had indicated that right yeah and the state attorney echoed that and at her press conference on december 11th uh 2024 labeled him as their cousin uh i mean so um to clear things up he was uh friends with them in new york um at douglas element they were uh ohad was not part of their team let's say He, I think, did very little, I don't even know if he did a deal with them at any point ever.

Ohad came here from Israel in about 2014 and went to New York. He was, he worked for Douglas Elliman. They worked for Douglas Elliman. And so they became friends. And when I say friends, they weren't. The Alexander brothers had a wide circle friends, so he was, you know, he was in their orbit. But when he came to South Florida, they had no business together, or very little business together. I think they went to Ohad's wedding six months before, this before he was charged.

and that that was essentially it i mean they weren't good friends they were i would say they were friendly you know it's hard to you know a scale of once at 10 you know categorize their friendship but that was that was it now in terms of test i think there's zero chance that he would be called as a witness in New York because the New York allegations have nothing to do with this. As far as the state, I mean, I wouldn't think they would want to call O'Hod as a witness against them. They will be sorely disappointed with that testimony. So I just don't see any world in which O'Hod is a witness on either side because he does not remember. remember what happened on eight now it's coming up on nine years yeah no i hear you i hear you

and and i want before i let you go as we're talking about this i think i know the answer to this but i'm just going to have to ask it anyway any is there any legal recourse for your client to go to be compensated for what happened here the answer is no right you can't you can't go and sue the federal. You can't sue the state government. You can't sue the federal government, right? Is there any other legal recourse that I'm not thinking of for your client who essentially had this, you know, was accused and then this case was dropped against him, and now he's picking up the pieces? Well, I'll give you a lawyer's answer. We're exploring all possibilities. Yes, that's a good lawyer's answer. Yeah, that is a good lawyer's answer. Okay, anything more you can give to us about

what that means? No, you know, I really can't at this point. Okay. I don't want to, I don't want to reveal our strategy, but we're considering a lot of different things. Well, listen, you know, Jeffrey, thank you so much for taking the time, explaining a little bit more about the case of what your client has been going through and will be doing now. We really, really appreciate it. It's a case that we've been following closely. So Jeffrey Sloan, appreciate the time. Thank you. And that's all we have for you right now here on Sidebar.

Everybody, thank you so much for joining us. And as always, please subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you should get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time. of this long crime series, ad-free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.