More than half of the 59 charges against India-born celebrity fashion designer Anand Jon have been dropped by the US prosecutors
SILICON VALLEY: More than half of the 59 charges against India-born celebrity fashion designer Anand Jon have been dropped by the US prosecutors, just as the jury selection was set to begin in his trial for allegedly sexually assaulting aspiring models.
Prosecutors in Los Angeles announced that they were striking 30 of the 59 charges against the 34-year-old designer without specifying reasons for the move on Wedenesday.
The decision to strike the counts, involving 10 of the 20 alleged victims, was made just as jury selection was set to get under way in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
Jon is a well-known figure in the celebrity fashion world and designed clothes for Paris Hilton, singer Mary J Blige and 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.
Prosecutors with the LA County district attorney's office said they still have "a very strong case" against Jon, local media reported.
"These are the victims that prosecutors are electing to proceed with at this time," Jane Robison, a spokeswoman for the district attorney's office, was quoted as saying, adding that lawyers for the other alleged victims could move to reinstate the charges during trial.
The charges against Jon include forcible rape, lewd acts upon a child, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, sexual battery by restraint and attempted forcible oral copulation.
The alleged incidents occurred from August 2000 to March 5, 2007, prosecutors said. Many of the alleged assaults were said to have occurred in Jon's Beverly Hills condominium.
Jon's New York attorney, William Petrillo, said the prosecutors' choice to dismiss 30 charges confirms what he has been saying all along - that many of the cases against his client are weak.
"California seems to think half its witnesses are unbelievable," Petrillo was quoted as saying by 'Newsday'.
Gloria Allred, a Los Angeles attorney who represents Natalie Pack, one of the women accusing Jon, said the Los Angeles charges involving Pack were dismissed.
However, she said she believes prosecutors are merely "streamlining" their case and expects that Pack will still have a role in the case against Jon, but did not say what.
The stricken charges involved 10 alleged victims aged 16-26. The remaining 29 charges involve another 10 alleged victims aged 14-21.
According to the New York-based designer's website, he has won numerous fashion honours, including a 2002 People's Choice award for "Best New Designer" and was named the 2002-03 Fashion Week of the Americas "International New Star."
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