He was once a rising star in the fashion design world, but in 2008, Anand Jon Alexander was convicted of multiple counts of sexual assault and received a life sentence in prison. He is widely believed to have been wrongfully convicted of these crimes.
Now he is suing the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) after he was stabbed repeatedly in the face by an inmate.
In a complaint filed last Tuesday, Mr. Alexander claims that he was “waiting by the telephones to call his mother for her 70th birthday” on May 18, 2019, when he was attacked by a Level IV inmate.
His attorneys are calling this “a grievous assault perpetrated by another inmate” and believe this “was likely a racially motivated hate crime.”
Write his attorneys: “The attack caused grave bodily injuries, including multiple stab wounds to his face and right eye (requiring over a dozen stitches at the upper orbital), five facial fractures, a lower orbital floor blowout, sinus and nasal fractures, a deviated septum, a 50% abrasion of the right cornea, long term impairment of his vision and respiration, serious nerve damage, PTSD, psychological collateral damage, ongoing therapy, work, and education restriction.”
At least two serious surgeries have been recommended by medical examiners and “they presently cannot rule out permanent damage.”
The perpetrator of this is serving a 25-year-to-life sentence for murder and was convicted of gang crimes as well.
Mr. Alexander, considered a lower level offender, was for reasons unknown placed in the same yard. The suit quotes a correctional officer who called the perpetrator “a beast” and stated “I don’t 
know why he is on my yard.”
Nevertheless, he was able to “sneak up on Mr. Alexander from behind” and stab him multiple times in the place.
“While bloodied and blacked out on the floor,” he was “[k]icked and beaten.”
Writes his attorney: “This attack on Mr. Alexander was nothing less than an attempted murder…”
This attack was followed by a death threat on May 25 from another inmate.
In their complaint they allege that CDCR and the named correctional officers “failed to protect Mr. Alexander “by knowingly allowing a known violent Level IV assailant to be housed with, and have open access to, Mr. Alexander, a Level II low risk inmate with no history of violence classified as a sensitive needs inmate.”
They argue, “At no time should these two inmates have been on the same yard, much less the same floor, at the same time.”
They further allege that the staff at Donovan “have attempted to cover up the incident.”
The complaint notes that no criminal complaint has been made and no referral filed to local authorities even though the stabbing and beating of Mr. Alexander “prima facie qualifies” as an “attempted murder,” “assault with a deadly weapon” and the infliction of “great bodily injury.”
Further, they allege that “despite the serious(ness) of the attack and Mr. Alexander’s injuries, it took over 10 days after the incident before (he) was transferred to an appropriate sensitive needs lower yard.”
Anand Jon Alexander is serving a 57-to-life sentence for sexually assaulting numerous young women and girls on the pretext of modeling work. He has always maintained his innocence, claiming the encounters were consensual and his attorneys allege massive prosecutorial and juror misconduct.
Jeffrey Deskovic, himself an exoneree and head of the Jeffrey Deskovic Foundation, told the Vanguard, “Anand Jon’s case is fraught with prosecutorial misconduct and bad lawyering. It is no wonder he was wrongfully convicted.”
In a letter, Mr. Deskovic added, “I have never seen a wrongful conviction case as broad and complex as this one. It’s absolutely stunning!”
Former California Assemblywoman Patty Lopez, the author of Assembly Bill 1909, described the injustice against Anand Jon Alexander as “one of the worst cases of police misconduct…utterly shocking…poster boy victim of 1909 violations.”
Corey Parker, Counsel for American Justice Alliance, argues in his amicus curiae brief, “Unless this Court rectifies this wrongful conviction, minority groups and individuals in the State of California will live in fear of being subject to such similar state-sponsored discrimination and underhanded, unconstitutional tactics by the very law enforcement tasked with protecting them.”
—David M. Greenwald reporting
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