US: Designer Anand Jon accused of sexual assaults

Los Angeles, June 13: A celebrity fashion designer accused of raping or sexually assaulting 12 aspiring models was charged today with attacks on six more victims.

Los Angeles prosecutors have charged Anand Jon, who appeared on the popular television show ''America's Next Top Model,'' with 46 counts involving 18 girls and women between the ages of 14 and 27, all with ties to the fashion industry.

Jon, who had remained free on 1.3 million dollars bail, arrived at a Los Angeles court dressed in a dark suit and cowboy boots, his trademark long hair clipped short.

During a break in the proceedings, the 33-year-old, Indian-born fashion designer was taken into custody by authorities from Dallas, where he is accused of three other sexual assaults.

Defense attorney Danny Davis said he expected Jon to make bail again after today's proceedings in Los Angeles, then travel to Texas for an arraignment.

But Los Angeles County District Attorney's spokeswoman Jane Robison said prosecutors would ask that Jon's bail be raised to 2.3 million dollars in light of the new charges. He could face life in prison if convicted on all of the charges.

Prosecutors say Jon is a serial sex offender who lured women and girls with promises of modeling work. Superior Court Judge Eldon Fox has barred him from being alone with any woman under the age of 30.

Davis declined to comment in detail about the case. A previous attorney for Jon had said the sex was consensual and that the women falsely accused Jon because he did not make them famous.

The charges against Jon include forcible rape, sexual battery, sexual penetration by a foreign object, sodomy by use of force, forcible oral copulation, false imprisonment by violence, assault with the intent to commit a felony, lewd act on a child, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and sexual exploitation of a child.

Prosecutors said the attacks occurred between November 2002 and March, and that Jon was first investigated after one of the women contacted authorities. He was arrested at his Beverly Hills home in March.

According to a December profile of Jon in Newsweek which touted him as a ''person to watch'' in 2007 the designer has dressed such celebrities as Paris Hilton and Janet Jackson, plans to launch a new line of jeans and was developing a reality TV show about his life.

Reuters>