MIAMI — Wealthy Miami Beach twins and a friend ensnared in a widely watched sex crimes scandal asked the court this week to charge the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office and its lead prosecutor with criminal contempt for willfully withholding evidence.

Attorneys for business moguls Oren and Alon Alexander and friend Ohad Fisherman have demanded for months that the state turn over affidavits and search warrants that led to the arrest of the men and electronic devices that were taken from them. They say the evidence — especially what’s stored in the computers and cellphones could exonerate the trio.

“We know there’s information in those phones that will exonerate our clients,” said Miami defense attorney Edward O’Donnell IV. “They know how important those phones are.”

But the state’s lead prosecutor in the case, Miami-Dade Assistant State Attorney Natalie Snyder, said she doesn’t have access to the evidence. Snyder says the warrants and electronic devices are in the possession of federal prosecutors with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, which has also charged the twins with federal sex crimes, and which has refused to share the warrants and the technology.

In December, the brothers, 37, were charged with rape and sexual assault in three separate Miami Beach cases, one dating back eight years. Fisherman, 39, was charged along with the brothers as taking part in one of the cases. The twins along with their older brother Tal Alexander, 38, are also facing federal charges of sexual assault and sex trafficking and are in a New York jail awaiting trial.

Earlier this month, when Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Lody Jean ordered the state to share the warrants and computer technology with the defense attorneys, Snyder produced a memo from New York federal prosecutors that said they would not comply with the request.

“In any event, even if we were inclined to provide the requested items, we understand that if shared with your office, these items will become public records under Florida law,” wrote acting U.S. Attorney Matthew Podolsky, adding that disclosing the evidence “would violate” a federal judge’s protective order.

The defense team’s 28-page motion for contempt filed earlier this week takes issue with Snyder’s response. It says she “failed to take all necessary steps” to obtain evidence from the feds, treating the court’s order to obtain the evidence as a “merely debatable request.”

It specifically refers to an email between Snyder and the New York federal prosecutors in which she says, “I know you do not have to give me anything, but I would like any evidence for my cases, especially if it doesn’t compromise your case.”

Prosecutors: We can’t force feds to turn over phones

The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office chose not to respond to Miami Herald questions about the contempt motion. Instead, it directed the Herald to a motion to reconsider that it filed with Judge Jean last weekend — ahead of the defense team’s Monday filing, but after defense attorneys met with the state to discuss the motion they had prepared, the defense attorneys said.

“Despite multiple good faith requests by the SAO, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (USAO) has refused to provide the information and documents this Court ordered the SAO to produce,” the state attorney wrote in the motion. “The SAO does not have the authority to compel a federal agency to produce documents or evidence.”

In the filing, the state attorney says the state and feds coordinated on the day of the December arrests, but there was no “joint investigation” leading up to that day. The seven-page motion for reconsideration says that all evidence is controlled by the feds and has never been reviewed by the state.

The word “joint” is at the forefront of the most recent tussle between prosecutors and the Alexander brothers’ defense team. The term is mentioned 63 times in the defense team’s motion. And that’s not by accident. Though it’s not known how Judge Jean will react to the motion, defense attorneys believe if the judge rules the arrests came after a “joint investigation,” it could force the feds and the state’s hand in delivering the warrants and electronics.

Evidence taken during Miami Beach arrests

The Alexander twins and their older brother Tal were awakened and arrested by federal agents and Miami Beach Police in the early morning hours of Dec. 11, 2024.

After several women filed civil lawsuits in New York saying they were drugged and sexually assaulted by the brothers, Oren and Alon Alexander were charged locally with three separate sexually battery cases on Miami Beach. Fisherman is charged with pinning a woman down as the brothers took turns raping her in one of the Miami Beach cases that dates back eight years.

In Japan with his wife celebrating their marriage when the warrants were served, Fisherman returned a week later and was taken into custody. He’s since bonded out of jail and had an electronic ankle monitor removed. He could go to trial as early as next month.

Federally, the twins and their older brother are charged with rape and sex trafficking. They’re now in a Brooklyn jail awaiting their federal trial. Prosecutors say the brothers used their wealth and celebrity in the high-end real estate brokerage world to lure women on trips throughout the U.S. and abroad, often drugging the women before they were raped.

A federal agent said in court that dozens more women have come forward with credible stories about incidents with the brothers and that additional charges could be filed.

Judge Jean set a May 12 trial date for the Alexander twins and Fisherman. Though Oren and Alon Alexander being released by the federal courts in New York in time for the trial is probably a long shot, Judge Jean said she’s prepared to move forward with Fisherman’s case.

The victim in that case, which is alleged to have taken place on New Year’s Eve 2016, told police she was enticed to go to one of the twin’s Miami Beach apartment after being sent photos of a barbecue with lots of people milling about. But when she arrived, there were no other guests.

After being escorted upstairs, she told police, Fisherman pinned her arms down with his knees as the twins took turns raping her.

Fisherman and the Alexander brothers have denied all the charges, both federally and from the state. In at least one of the cases, they claim the woman worked in cahoots with a personal injury firm to have the brothers arrested.

The Alexander brothers’ and Fisherman’s defense attorneys say they are being stonewalled from viewing information on computers and cellphones that could provide the best possible defense for their clients. They believe information stored on the devices goes back eight years, to when one of the alleged rapes took place.

“She [Snyder] knows there is nothing in those phones that is going to help her case,” said O’Donnell.

The next hearing for the trio is scheduled before Judge Jean on April 8.

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