Mar 19, 2007 4:23 pm US/Pacific
Fashion Designer Faces 13 More Criminal Charges
Anand Jon Alexander Was Initially Charged With 7 Counts
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (CBS) ―
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Alexander, who remains jailed on $1.3 million bail, is due back in Beverly Hills Superior Court on April 4 for arraignment.
Mark Mainz/Getty Images
Prosecutors added 13 new criminal charges Monday against fashion designer Anand Jon Alexander, who is accused in a series of alleged sexual assaults.
Alexander, who remains jailed on $1.3 million bail, is due back in Beverly Hills Superior Court on April 4 for arraignment.
Alexander, 33, was initially charged March 13 with seven counts, including forcible rape, lewd act upon a child, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, sexual battery by restraint and attempted forcible oral copulation.
Those counts involved three alleged victims, while the new counts involve four additional alleged victims, according to Jane Robison of the District Attorney's Office.
An investigation into other possible alleged victims is ongoing, Robison said.
The India-born, New York-based designer -- who goes by the name Anand Jon -- was arrested March 6 in Beverly Hills.
Jon's attorney, Ronald Richards, claimed earlier this month that the allegations were fabrications by models who believed they weren't getting the work they had expected from the designer.
"In these cases, what is going on here is these girls fly in for model jobs after months of dialogue filled with flirtation, they have sexual interaction and if he doesn't put them in the show ... then some time later they claim they had unwanted sex," Richards told the Los Angeles Times.
According to Jon's Web site, he is the winner of various fashion awards, including a 2002 People's Choice "Best New Designer" award and a 2002-2003 Fashion Week of the America's "International New Star" designer award.
He was a profiled designer in "America's Next Top Model" in 2003.
Newsweek recently described him as a "party boy in Miami in the 1990s ... who as a Parsons-trained designer launched his first line at New York Fashion Week in 1999 and has gone on to dress the likes of Paris Hilton."
(© 2007 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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