Sunday, December 16, 2007

Fashion designer's kin fire back at rape accusers

Anand Jon, the Long Island fashion designer who was called a person to watch in Newsweek's "Who's Next 2007" issue last year, has become famous for all the wrong reasons since that electrifying prediction.

Jon's supporters, who last week got their first glimpse of many of the case's details when new court papers were released in California, have come back swinging. They say many of the women who are accusing Jon, 33, took pains to remain in his company even after the alleged attacks - dining with him, modeling for him, even traveling from state to state by his side.

"We are just confused," said Jon's sister Sanjana Jon, who lived with her brother before his arrest and is one of his closest confidantes. "Why would you keep following the person around if you are being violated by him?"

Spokeswomen for the Manhattan and Los Angeles district attorney's offices would not comment on the details of the case, or on Jon's relationship to his accusers.

Jon, has dressed VIPs from rock star Prince to Prince Michel of Yugoslavia.

Most of the women were not professional models, but aspiring ones, Sanjana Jon said. All hoped to be discovered, she said. Sanjana Jon said one paid her own way to travel with Jon after she said she was attacked, and another tried on clothes at his Manhattan apartment.

"They're relying on the quantity of witnesses, not the quality of evidence," said William Petrillo of Rockville Centre, Jon's New York attorney. "That's the exact opposite of what the judge will instruct a jury to do."

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