MIAMI — The artist never expected to file a lawsuit against the Miami brothers she says drugged and raped her in 2011. When she did, she hoped to stay anonymous.

But on Wednesday, a judge in New York denied a request to keep the 39-year-old woman’s name out of her civil claim against Oren and Tal Alexander, and two other defendants. Last week, days before her name would be released, she sat in the basement of her art gallery in Brooklyn.

She was nervous and scared. Her voice wavered and the memories she had long placed in “small boxes” kept escaping.

But Lindsey Acree had made up her mind.

“Fortunately, I’m in a position where I will never need money from anyone, certainly not theirs,” she told the Miami Herald on Thursday. “But these men built their business using women as the bricks for that foundation, and I would like to try to blow that down. Not just for myself, but for every victim.”

In February, Acree joined over 30 women who would file civil lawsuits against one or more of the Miami-raised brothers — Oren, Alon and Tal Alexander. When she was 24 and living in New York, she was raped by Oren Alexander at his apartment, according to her lawsuit. A few months later, she was invited to the Hamptons by a woman she considered a new friend, the suit says, only to discover that the brothers had secretly arranged the trip in order to drug and sexually assault her.

When Acree sued the brothers, she was identified as a “Jane Doe.” Anonymous, she said, because the assaults were not what she “wanted to be known for.” She wanted to join and support the other women filing suits.

“In making this decision to fight for them, I found comfort in one small mercy — that my name would not be associated with the most painful, horrible thing that has ever been done to me.”

Other women are facing the same predicament. Last month another “Jane Doe” disclosed her name: Trisha Romero, the sole plaintiff in a case against Oren Alexander originally filed in February. At least half of the women in other cases remain anonymous.

The Alexander brothers have been accused in civil, state and federal cases of systematically raping and sex trafficking women in Florida, New York, Colorado, Mexico and Russia. Federal prosecutors say that more than 60 women, including a minor, have come forward. In December, the brothers were arrested in Miami by federal and local authorities, and are currently awaiting trial in Brooklyn’s federal detention center. All three brothers pleaded not guilty and their attorneys have denied the allegations.

‘Like an avalanche’

In June 2024, Acree was in her home studio in New York when she saw a Real Deal article describing two women who had accused the brothers of rape in separate lawsuits. At first, she thought she knew one of the women — someone who had told her she had also been assaulted by the brothers. But it wasn’t her and it wasn’t one woman, it was two.

And the articles kept coming.

“It just unfolded like an avalanche,” she told the Herald.

In the summer of 2024, Acree recounted parts of her story to a New York Times reporter. After the article ran, women started reaching out to her about similar experiences at the hands of the brothers.

She later found Lilian Timmermann, an attorney that she felt comfortable with. Acree reported what had happened to her to law enforcement. She didn’t plan to do more.

But in January, Acree read that one of the defense attorneys for the brothers, Howard Srebnick, told reporters outside of a federal bond hearing that the women filing lawsuits were trying to “profiteer from any sexual activity they had many years ago.”

She wanted a chance to respond.

“No one is going to make up a rape story and go against some of the most powerful people for a buck,” Acree said. “They’re not going to do it like that. (It) just doesn’t make any sense.”

Timmermann, a West Palm Beach attorney who represents Acree and another client in separate cases against the brothers, said that for each plaintiff who chose to file with her, she heard of three women who were victimized and did not want to pursue a case because of the issue of anonymity.

Victims of sexual assault, in general, worry about not being believed, Timmerman said. When they do disclose their names, they’re put in a spotlight and often criticized for not speaking earlier.

“It’s unsurprising to me that these kinds of cases keep women silenced.”

When considering a plaintiff’s request to remain anonymous in civil suits, courts weigh 10 factors, including vulnerable ages, cases against the government, or demonstrated risk of retaliation or harm. Most of the women who are suing the Alexander brothers for sexual assault fit under a category for cases of “a highly sensitive and personal nature,” but lawyers say it is unlikely to be sufficient.

Plaintiffs in other high-profile cases have recently found themselves in the same position, or may soon. A slew of lawsuits, many filed anonymously, have accused Miami Beach compound owner Sean “Diddy” Combs of sex trafficking and rape. At least two cases have been dismissed after a court ruled they could not proceed anonymously.

In September, Gisèle Pelicot — who was drugged and raped by her husband and other men over the course of years — waived anonymity and made her trial public. Her rapists also had to disclose their names in a landmark trial in France.

“I wanted to ensure that society could witness the debates that we had,” Pelicot said in December, after the verdict was announced. “I never regretted this decision.”

In the argument to keep Acree anonymous, Timmermann pointed to the sensitive nature of the suit, and the potential for emotional distress and humiliation if made public. The judge ruled that was not sufficient.

“While the Court recognizes the profound burdens that confront sexual assault survivors who step into the public square, it nonetheless concludes that the Sealed Plaintiff factors do not permit Plaintiff to proceed anonymously here,” wrote United States District Judge Ronnie Abrams on Wednesday.

In response to a request for comment, Deanna Paul, a defense attorney for Tal Alexander, referred reporters to a legal memo her team filed against Acree’s motion for anonymity. It states: “Plaintiff does not provide any evidence that she will be, or has been, subjected to any sort of threats or intimidation.”

“To the contrary, by her own admission, Plaintiff publicized her allegations months ago and has not been retaliated against; unpleasant comments written by trolls on public websites do not amount to threats or intimidation warranting proceeding by pseudonym,” the memo reads.

Originally from Hawaii, Acree for the past 16 years has lived in New York, where she’d moved two years before her alleged assault.

Last week, as she was weighing whether or not to keep her case, several factors ran through her mind.

She thought of her young daughter, and hoped her life would be different.

She thought of the other women with cases similar to hers, and what the Alexander brothers had done.

One thing was clear. She wasn’t in it for the money.

“I never need a dime from them,” Acree said. “It was to take something that was taken from me, and try to give it back to women who aren’t in my position of power.”

‘Fled home on foot’

Acree was living in New York when she met Oren Alexander at a night club in 2011. They moved through mutual social circles, and in April he friended her on Facebook, according to the lawsuit. Later in the spring, she ran into him at another nightclub.

At that club, he invited her to an afterparty at his apartment, but when she arrived, she was the only one there. She tried to leave, but he took her shoes and cellphone, pushed her on the bed and raped her, the lawsuit says.

She “took her shoes and ran into the street at night and fled home on foot without her phone,” according to the lawsuit.

A few months later, a new friend invited Acree to “luxury weekend in the Hamptons to stay in a guesthouse,” according to the suit.

When the women arrived at the Hamptons train station, they were met by two men in an SUV. One of the men introduced himself to Acree as Tal Alexander. She asked if he was related to Oren, according to the filing, but he said he “never heard of Oren, continuing the deception and furthering the illegal scheme.” The other man also identified himself, but Acree did not remember his name. He is only identified as “John Doe.”

Once at the home, Acree changed into a swimsuit and joined other guests at the hot tub. Tal and “John Doe” offered her a glass of white wine that she believes contained drugs, according to the suit. She took two sips and only has intermittent memory of what followed.

“Lindsey remembers Tal and John Doe checking to confirm she was ‘out.’ At times Lindsey remembers trying to escape, crawling on the floor, but she could barely make her body respond,” the amended complaint reads.

John Doe “batted” Acree like “a cat playing with a toy as her body was essentially limp,” the suit reads. At some point Tal left and returned with a tripod, according to the lawsuit.

Acree “remembers the sound of their laughter and the feel of their hands as they held her down.”

The two men took turns “brutalizing and raping Jane Doe in various locations of the vacation home.” Acree would come “in and out of awareness,” according to the suit.

When the drugs wore off “perhaps days later,” Tal and John Doe made fun of her chipped nail polish. John Doe waved the extensions he had ripped out of her hair and told her to get her things and leave the house, according to the suit.

Acree suffered “extreme emotional distress,” according to the complaint. That same year she ran into Oren while walking with her mom in New York City and as he passed them, he said, “Like mother like daughter.” Acree later broke down crying and told her mother what had happened to her.

‘I am not Jane Doe’

After Acree read the coverage of the Alexander brothers throughout the second half of last year, she was shocked by the sheer number of women affected. She turned to art, her therapy.

“As this story unfolded into this larger narrative, I understood how many other people had been hurt the same way I had been hurt. I wanted to understand what could possibly be the motivation behind it,” she said.

“How could people intentionally hurt so many people so callously?”

The amended complaint, filed Monday, which includes Acree’s full name, says that an acquaintance told her that the brothers were “telling everyone” that two of them had sex with her “and that they had deceived her about being brothers.” It also notes that investigators had found out the birth name of the friend who had taken her to the Hamptons “appears to be Hana Balout.” She could not be reached for comment.

The civil lawsuit accuses the brothers and “John Doe” of rape and sharing intimate photos they procured “without her consent during her violent sexual assault.” All defendants are accused of sex trafficking. Acree is seeking punitive damages in an amount to be determined at trial.

In Acree’s double-balconied guest room, next to a photo of her with her mother and daughter, hangs “The A Team,”: a three-foot high canvas of shadowy figures wearing crowns.

A stream of words surround the three men on the acrylic painting. “I won’t be blamed you’ll carry the shame,” reads one line. “You took a part of me that can’t be replaced,” reads another.

The painting, which she completed over the course of two days last year, represents “all the things I felt and I couldn’t say, as I tried to understand this story,” Acree said.

On Monday, by releasing her name, she hopes to send a message that rape survivors should be believed, even if lawsuits get dismissed. She’s also hopeful that other women will join her.

“For the women who will be forced to make a similar decision in the coming weeks, I want them to know this: there is no shame in being named,” Acree said. “There is strength in standing up.”

“I am not Jane Doe. I am Lindsey Sloane Acree.”

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