October 04, 2007
AVWatch: Antonio Villaraigosa panders at gala supporting fashion designer charged with rape (Anand Jon, McAuliffe)
Anand Jon is a fashion designer who's been charged with 59 counts of sexual assault or rape involving women between 14 and 27 (link). The number of charges was recently raised from 46 in June, and he's now in jail. His lawyer says it's all fabricated.Meanwhile, on September 15th, former MEChA leader, Hillary Clinton campaign co-chair, and Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa attended a gala organized by Jon's sister for the "Friends of the South Asian American Communities". It featured a large number of people wearing t-shirts saying, "We Support Anand Jon" (link).
In addition to Tony Villar, former DNC chairman and current Chairman of the Hillary Clinton for President campaign Terry McAuliffe was there (note the "We Support Anand Jon" t-shirt):
What a party indeed.
...members of the fashion community participated in [Jon's sister's] Fashion extravaganza in support of global independence, civil rights and her brother the crown prince of couture designer ANAND JON... A line up of stunning models wearing "WE SUPPORT ANAND JON" opened a spectacular fashion presentation on the 15 of September for the annual gala event for FOSAAC celebrating 60 years of Indian independence... [...a video "humaniz[ing]" Anand Jon was shown...]UPDATE: In comments, "Intimately Involved" says:
After the LA Mayor introduced Terry McAuliffe, Sanjana Jon, Marla Maples, Camille McDonald, and Amrita Thapar took the stage and made a plea to the community and politicians to take a strong stance and consideration regarding the violation of individual's civil rights. GUILTY BY COLOR should be eradicated and justice served was the main message promoted through the show.
The Honorable Mayor of Los Angeles Antonio Villaraigosa had greeted the audience with "Namaste". The Mayor expressed his warm gratitude towards the South Asian community, he had said, "you have always supported me whether it was for State Assembly or the Speaker of Assembly and now as Mayor." The Mayor had said, "It is not only India’s Independence but it is Mexican Independence as well, our flags are similar and so are the people. It is my honor to be the Mayor of Los Angeles, where my grandfather had come a hundred years ago with a dream. ...[American dream, Mahatma Gandhi, etc.]... So the connection between Mahatma Gandhi, the Indian people, Mexicans, Americans of every nationality is deep and profound. ...["peaceful co-existence among the nations", etc... ...[Los Angeles is a] diverse city in America and a diverse city in the world...
[McAuliffe said:] "...The South Asian Commuinty has been with us in our good and bad times. I will never forget what you have done for the Clinton family. You have been our friends and you have made us stronger."
This accusation is completely false. I was intimately involved with the event and the fact is that sanjana jon, anands sister, was hired explicitly as a professional to create a 15 minute fashion show to commence the evenings schedule of awards and dinner. The event never was advertised in anyway to be connected with Anand John. The true summary of the events, rather than a blog post that ambiguously states names, is locate here: http://indiapost.com/article/communitypost/1053/1/print/ The event was to celebrate Indian Independence Day with an award show and dinner. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was invited to introduce Terry McAulife, the guest of honor, and to present him his award. Please get your facts straight next time. This kind of slanderous garbage deserves to be in tabloids, as there is no 1st person verification, and John and Ken drew their sources from a blog post.The "best" defense from the Villar/McAuliffe perspective would be that the "blog post" is a pro-Anand inflation of the events. Does "Intimately Involved" deny that there was a pro-Anand video and that pro-Anand statements were made? Even if only a small part of the event was pro-Anand, shouldn't Villaraigosa and McAuliffe have distanced themselves from that part of the event, and shouldn't McAuliffe have avoided having his picture taken with someone wearing a "We Support Anand Jon" t-shirt? Wouldn't, for instance, Hillary run from a photo op with someone wearing a Che t-shirt? The indiapost link says Sahara One Television was there; perhaps someone has a tape. I note also that "my facts" are the ones not in italics; the only contradiction between "Intimately Involved"'s description and mine is the extent of his sister's involvement in organizing the event. And, assuming the italicized quotes from Villaraigosa are accurate, he's still a pandering fool.
UPDATE 2: Whether Sanjaya Jon "hijacked" the event or not, it should have been abundantly clear to anyone watching the fashion show that support for Anand Jon was a major part of it. Both Villaraigosa and McAuliffe have been around the block multiple times, so surely they must have wondered who this "Anand Jon" was. Despite that, McAuliffe still had his picture taken with someone wearing one of the shirts. Here are four photos from http://www.newsasia.us/fosaac-pics.asp, click for a larger version:
UPDATE 3: Kevin Kaul (fosaac.com/kevinkaul/bio.html) - founder and chairman of the "Friends of the South Asian American Communities" (fosaac.com), the group that organized the event, is a Hillraiser (hillaryclinton.com/feature/HillRaisers).
And, from fosaac.com/images/fosaac%20ad%20sep%2015th%20jpeg_1.jpg here's the flyer for the event:
The "Cultural Program Highlights" section says "Fashion extravaganza by international fashion designer Sanjana Jon. This special event will also mark the runway debut of Donald Trump's beautiful daughter Tiffany Trump." There's no mention of her brother that I can see. It also features what appears to be a letter from George Bush, and it lists another "chief guest": Lee Baca. It also says that Barbara Boxer was invited; apparently she had other things to do.
Posted to Los_Angeles at October 4, 2007 03:54 PM
