MIAMI — A Florida law firm claiming to be the nation’s largest personal-injury litigator pressured state prosecutors into filing a sexual battery case against two wealthy Miami Beach brothers and a colleague, according to their defense attorneys.

As Morgan & Morgan worked hand in glove with state prosecutors behind the scenes, the law firm was preparing a civil lawsuit seeking millions of dollars in damages for an alleged rape victim that would be filed against the twin brothers the day after they were arrested on Dec. 11, the defense team says in a new court filing.

Attorneys for defendants Alon and Oren Alexander and their associate, Ohad Fisherman, have accused Morgan & Morgan lawyer Carissa Peebles and her high-profile law firm of controlling witnesses and other evidence that shaped the criminal case ultimately filed by Miami-Dade prosecutors.

In the first salvo of the high-stakes criminal case, the defense attorneys are asking have asked a Miami-Dade Circuit judge to order state prosecutors to turn over any statements by the alleged victim, her two sisters and a friend along with other evidence gathered by Morgan & Morgan, which has offices in eight Florida cities, including Fort Lauderdale, and nine states. The motion argues that prosecutors substantially relied on the law firm’s evidence to file their sex-battery case, so they should be required to share it with the defense as part of the discovery process.

It is an issue that strikes at the core of attorney-client privilege and will likely be addressed at a hearing on Feb. 27 before Circuit Court Judge Lody Jean.

“Here, Peebles/Morgan & Morgan are not acting as a neutral third party, they are part of the prosecution team,” Miami attorney Jeffrey Sloman, representing Fisherman, wrote in a motion to compel state prosecutors to hand over the law firm’s evidence.

“They initiated the prosecution by contacting the State Attorney’s Office, interviewed key witnesses before law enforcement, coordinated witness statements, collected evidence, and attended law enforcement interviews,” says the motion, which was adopted by the Alexander brothers’ lawyers, Joel Denaro and Edward J. O’Donnell IV.

“By the time the [alleged rape victim] finally sat down with police, her allegations had already been shaped by the attorneys whose financial interests depended on framing the [criminal] case to support a multimillion-dollar lawsuit.”

In response, Peebles issued a statement on Thursday, calling the defense team’s accusations “false and offensive.”

“We believe this motion lacks legal merit and mischaracterizes what occurred,” said Peebles, who works in the Fort Lauderdale office of Morgan & Morgan, a law firm well-known for its ubiquitous TV and billboard advertising.

“Quite simply, Mr. Fisherman is attempting to access information that is protected by attorney-client privilege,” Peebles said. “Our client came forward to cooperate with prosecutors’ pursuit of the sexual assault charges and to pursue a civil case against the criminal defendants for one reason: to seek justice. Any suggestion otherwise is both false and offensive.”

The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s office refrained from answering specific questions about the motion filed on behalf of Fisherman and the Alexander brothers.

“All the pertinent discovery material related to this case will certainly be provided to the defense at the appropriate time,” said Ed Griffiths, spokesman for the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office.

While it is commonplace for civil lawyers to collaborate with criminal prosecutors in developing parallel cases, a legal expert told the Herald that the “coordination” between the Morgan & Morgan law firm and Miami-Dade prosecutors was significant, based on emails and other evidence in the defense team’s motion.

Mason Kerns, a criminal defense attorney who has also done civil work, said the defense motion to compel the state attorney’s office to turn over evidence belonging to a third party, such as the Morgan & Morgan law firm, is not that unusual.

“This is the right motion for them to file,” Kerns said, adding that “it’s not a fishing expedition.”

Kerns, an adjunct law professor at the University of Miami, described the defense team’s discovery request as “well-reasoned” because it’s likely to uncover information that could be presented as evidence in court.

Kerns said the legal issue boils down to attorney-client privilege, which rests solely with Morgan & Morgan’s client, the alleged rape victim identified as “M.W.” He pointed out that if the state prosecutors already possess some of the law firm’s case records including statements by the witnesses, they should be required to turn them over to the defense. But if they don’t, a judge must decide whether the defense team should be allowed access to Morgan & Morgan’s records.

State rape case

According to the state’s criminal case and the law firm’s civil lawsuit, “M.W.” told police she was invited by Alon Alexander to a 2016 New Year’s Eve party at his Miami Beach apartment on 59th Street and Collins Avenue. She said Alon, with whom she had previously socialized, texted her pictures of people barbecuing on the balcony and told her to come over. Once there, the woman said Alon met her in the lobby and they hopped into an elevator that took them directly to his apartment.

But there was no party, the woman told Miami Beach police detectives. Only Alon, Oren and Fisherman and two women, who she believed were maids, were present. She said she was led to a bedroom where the door was locked behind her. And then, she said, Fisherman put weight on her back and held her arms on the bed while Oren and Alon Alexander took turns raping her. She said, after calling a share ride, that the brothers warned her not to say anything.

Fisherman, who operates a hummus catering business, was only charged in MW’s criminal case, though he wasn’t named as a defendant with the twin Alexander brothers in her civil suit. He denies the allegations and has pleaded not guilty.

Oren, a once-celebrated luxury real estate broker, and Alon, who worked in the Alexander family’s security business, were charged with sexual battery in MW’s case, while Oren was also charged with raping two women on Miami Beach in 2017 and 2021.

All three defendants in the state case face a maximum sentence of life in prison.

The twins, along with their older brother, Tal, 38, who was also a high-profile real estate broker, are separately charged in New York federal court in a sex-trafficking conspiracy case spanning 2010 to 2021. They’re accused of luring dozens of women to parties, apartments and hotels and plying them with drug-laced alcoholic drinks before raping them in the Manhattan, the Hamptons and Miami Beach.

The three brothers, who are being held at federal detention center in Brooklyn, have pleaded not guilty. If convicted, they face up to life in prison.

Details of motion

The 16-page motion filed by the defense lawyers highlights that the alleged victim waited nearly eight years to report her accusation of rape, pointing out that M.W. first brought it to the attention of Morgan & Morgan’s lawyer, Peebles. The lawyer, who works for a law firm that claims it has won more than $23 billion in damages over the years, then contacted Miami-Dade prosecutors while preparing a civil suit on her behalf last fall.

The motion demands that the defense be given access to all statements, notes, emails, transcripts, memos and investigative reports involving Morgan & Morgan and its client, M.W., focusing on evidence known as “Brady material” that may be exculpatory. Under the law, such evidence must turned over by prosecutors.

“Peebles controlled witness access, dictated what law enforcement received, coordinated strategy with prosecutors, and even conducted investigative work,” the motion says. “Peebles’ role wasn’t just civil litigation—she actively built the State’s case.”

The motion, along with exhibits, says Peebles first contacted the state attorney’s office on Sept. 23, 2024. Four days later, Peebles was talking with the office’s sexual-battery division’s chief prosecutor, Natalie Snyder, who asked if her client would be immediately available to give a statement to Miami Beach police detectives because the eight-year criminal statute of limitations was looming at the end of the year.

But, according to emails, Snyder told Peebles that she would not attend M.W.’s interview with the detectives. “I will not be present for the statement (intentionally),” Snyder wrote Peebles on Oct. 4, 2024, without explaining why.

While the prosecutor skipped M.W.’s interview with the detectives four days later, Peebles did attend and intervened while her client was answering their questions.

The motion further accuses Peebles of “dictating this investigation,” zeroing in on M.W.’s statement to the detectives about her 2016 rape accusation.

The motion, citing a transcript of M.W.’s statement, noted that Peebles stepped in when her client told the detectives that she took a shower after the alleged rape and Oren joined her.

“I just want to clarify — who was in the shower with you?” Peebles interjected while the detectives were questioning her client. Then, M.W. corrected herself, saying it was Alon.

“This moment is telling,” the defense motion says. “Peebles wasn’t clarifying—she was correcting.”

“She had already heard a different version and stepped in to steer M.W. back to it,” the motion says. “Rather than letting M.W.’s words stand, Peebles ensured her statement aligned with the version they had already committed to — one that supported the civil lawsuit they were preparing to file.”

Kerns, the criminal defense lawyer with no interest in the rape case, said he found it “problematic” that the detectives allowed Peebles to control the interview with M.W.

“But the good thing is, it’s now on the record,” he said.

Prosecutor’s emails

Snyder’s communications with Peebles continued through the arrests of Alon and Oren Alexander on Dec. 11. The prosecutor also reached out to another lawyer in New York, Evan Torgan, who was representing a few women who had sued the Alexander brothers, accusing them of sexual assault. Torgan, however, was not involved in M.W.’s civil case.

The following day, Snyder updated both lawyers on her criminal case, saying in an email: “I just wanted to let you know we are in discussions with defense re bond” for Alon and Oren Alexander.

“Based on the charges, the defendants are entitled to a bond except in the most exceptional circumstances,” Snyder wrote the two lawyers. “Keep in mind the federal hold is still in place, so they will just be transferred to federal custody.”

Then, Snyder sent the civil attorneys copies of the arrest warrants for Alon and Oren Alexander and Fisherman.

During this same period, another woman, with the initials, M.S., came forward and alleged she was sexually assaulted by one of the Alexander brothers. In an email, the woman asked Snyder, the prosecutor, if she could refer her to civil attorneys to pursue a lawsuit. Snyder responded in a Dec. 16 email, providing her with contact information for Peebles and Torgan. She pointed out that Torgan was also representing “Florida victims.”

©2025 Miami Herald. Visit at miamiherald.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.