Fashion designer's kin fire back at rape accusers

BY ANN GIVENS | ann.givens@newsday.com

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.

The self-described playboy, once known for walking the red carpet with hordes of beautiful women in tow, has been accused of being a serial rapist, with nearly 30 aspiring models in three states accusing him of taking advantage of their naiveté to force them into unwanted sex.

But 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.

But Gloria Allred, a Los Angeles attorney for one of the women who says Jon raped her, said it's a mistake to blame the women for their behavior.

"That's an old script, and I'm sure in the case of many women it's not justified," she said. She said her client, Natalie Pack, 29, broke ties with Jon after she was raped. She has asked to be named to encourage other rape victims to come forward.

Jon, who has dressed VIPs from rock star Prince to Prince Michel of Yugoslavia, according to his Web site, is being held in Los Angeles on $2.1 million bail. He faces nearly 100 felony and misdemeanor rape and other sex crime charges relating to nearly 30 women in New York, California and Texas.

Prosecutors say Jon forced numerous women, who ranged in age from 14 to 23, to have sex with him in exchange for the chance to be photographed in his designs, appear with him on the red carpet or wear his clothes on the runway. 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."