Anand Jon slapped with 12 new charges

Associated Press Posted: Apr 06, 2007 at 0000 hrs
Beverly Hills (California), April 5 Prosecutors filed 12 new charges on Wednesday against Indian-origin celebrity fashion designer Anand Jon Alexander, who was accused of sexually assaulting as many as a dozen women and girls.

The latest charges against Anand Jon include 11 felonies and one misdemeanor. The most serious were forcible rape and sodomy by use of force. He is now charged with a total of 33 felonies and misdemeanors, ranging from rape and sexual battery to committing a lewd act on a child and contributing to the delinquency of a minor by giving her liquor, authorities said.

Prosecutors said they intended to drop one unspecified charge.

Jon launched his fashion line in 1999 after graduating from the Parsons School of Design in New York. He has dressed celebrities, including Paris Hilton, Michelle Rodriguez and Mary J Blige.

Jon, 33, was arrested on March 6, from his Beverly Hills apartment on charges of sexually assaulting seven women and girls. Since then, five more women, between 14 to 23 years, have come forward claiming they were sexually assaulted, said Jane Robison, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office.