Ohad Fisherman looks to rebuild his reputation after the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office announced it would be dropping charges against him in a nearly nine-year-old sexual battery case.
Fisherman, 39, sat hand in hand with his wife on Tuesday at a press conference after learning the charges against him would be dropped just one day before his trial was scheduled to begin.
“I am innocent,” Fisherman said.
Fisherman had been charged with one count of sexual battery involving multiple perpetrators, accused of aiding Oren and Alon Alexander in the assault on the victim.
Fisherman returned early from his honeymoon in Japan to surrender at the Miami-Dade County Courthouse. He was later released on $25,000 bond, with his new wife and mother-in-law putting up another $260,000 in collateral.
Following the filing of charges, prosecutors discovered a Facebook video purportedly showing Fisherman on a boat cruising Miami Beach’s Intracoastal Waterway at sunset on New Year’s Eve 2016, close to the time the alleged assault occurred.
“There was no deal, no compromise. The state dropped the charge because they knew I didn’t do this,” said Fisherman.
He was named as an accomplice by authorities in 2024.
“The first degree felony that he’s currently charged with; its a bondable offense,” the judge said at the time.
Fisherman’s attorneys said his alibi proved he couldn’t have committed the crime.
“A post on Ohad’s Facebook was 9 p.m. on December 31,” his attorney, Jeffrey Sloman, said.
In the video, which was posted on his profile around the time his accuser claimed the alleged rape occurred, Fisherman is seen wake surfing along Miami Beach’s Intracoastal Waterway at sunset on New Year’s Eve 2016.
“It prominently displayed the last sunset of 2016, which would have made it virtually impossible for him to have been where the accuser said that he was,” Sloman said.
On Monday, the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office released a statement echoing that sentiment, which reads in part:
“Fisherman claims that at the time of M.W.’s sexual battery, he was ‘on a boat in the water somewhere along the Intercoastal Waterway…We determined in good faith that we could not prove the case against Ohad Fisherman beyond and to the exclusion of all reasonable doubt, which is required by law.”
“Love and faith got me through this. Thank God we are still standing,” said Fisherman.
Fisherman’s attorneys said he’s focused on rebuilding his reputation now that the charges against him have been dropped.
State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle emphasized the decision applies only to Fisherman, while cases against Oren and Alon Alexander remain pending.