D.A. to drop half of 'unbelievable defendants' in Anand Jon case

Washington, Sept 2 : The district attorney involved in Indian fashion designer Anand Jon has declared her intention to drop 50 percent of the alleged victims, and more than half of the 59 counts against him.

Jon has been in the Men's Central Jail in downtown Los Angeles for more than a year, awaiting trial.

His charges included, rape, sexual exploitation of a child, sexual battery and forcible oral copulation.

Now, deputy district attorney Frances Young has said that she would be filing an amended indictment on Sept 2 to reflect the reduced charges, as jury selection begins.

"We're left with 10 victims and 29 remaining counts," Jon's attorney Tony Brooklier told Sharon Waxman, an American journalist who has been a correspondent for The Washington Post and The New York Times.

A rep for the district attorney refused to comment, citing a gag order by the judge.

However, a source in the prosecution office said that a decision was simply made 'to streamline' the process, and get Jon 'on the solids.'

The defendants that will be dropped include some of the most unbelievable evidence - Katie W., the innocent young farm girl from outside Montgomery, Alabama who accused Jon of raping her in New York, but then followed him to Los Angeles where, she said, he raped her again.

Chloe N testified that Jon had raped her vaginally and anally but also said that she had been molested as a child and that 'stuff like that' had happened to her before.

She also testified that she'd told no one of being raped by Jon, not even her therapist, until the moment of the grand jury testimony.

ANI