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Indian-born celebrity fashion designer Anand Jon, already accused of
sexually assaulting a dozen women and girls, has been slapped with
charges of attacks on six other women.
With
the addition of 13 new counts by Los Angeles County prosecutors
Tuesday, Jon, 33, now faces 46 criminal charges. Among the 40 felonies
and six misdemeanours are rape, lewd acts on a child and false
imprisonment. If convicted on all counts, Jon could be sentenced to
life in prison.
"He is a prolific serial sexual predator," said
Jane Robison, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles district attorney's
office, cited by local media.
The Beverly Hills designer, whose
full name is Anand Jon Alexander, is accused of assaulting or molesting
girls and women ages 14 to 27, many of whom were seeking work as models.
The alleged incidents occurred from August 2000 to March 5, Robison said.
Many
of the alleged assaults occurred in Jon's Beverly Hills condominium.
Jon was arrested March 6 after one of the alleged victims went to
Beverly Hills police.
Prosecutors Tuesday sought to increase
Jon's bail to $2.3 million from $1.3 million. Jon was free on bail with
conditions, including that any model age 30 or younger who works with
him must sign a release and have a guardian present.
Authorities
in New York and Texas have also opened investigations into whether the
designer assaulted women there. Robison said Dallas authorities have
obtained a probable cause warrant to transfer him and to face charges.
Jon's
attorney, Ronald Richards, has said the designer did nothing wrong. He
added the accusers are models who made false allegations against Jon
because he refused to employ them to the extent they wanted.
Jon
is a well-known figure in the celebrity fashion world and designed
clothes for celebrities like heiress Paris Hilton, singer Mary J. Blige
and Norah Jones others. He was involved in the show, "America's Next
Top Model" and was planning to star in a reality TV show for VH1 about
the fashion world.
He graduated from the prestigious Parsons
School of Design and launched his own label at New York Fashion Week in
1999. A December profile of Jon in Newsweek touted him as a "person to
watch" in 2007, while his own website claims he is the winner of
various fashion awards including a 2002 People's Choice "Best New
Designer" prize.
Indo-Asian News Service
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