By LARRY NEUMEISTER

NEW YORK (AP) — A two-decade pattern of alleged sex trafficking by two luxury real estate brokers and their brother wasn’t “just men behaving badly,” a federal judge said as she left their indictment largely intact and rejected defense efforts to minimize the gravity of crimes involving dozens of women.

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In an Oct. 17 opinion unsealed Wednesday, Judge Valerie E. Caproni expressed skepticism about some of the arguments defense lawyers offered as they tried to get the charges thrown out.

“As much as Defendants want to characterize the charged conduct as just men behaving badly, that is not what the Indictment charged,” she wrote.

She said the charges allege “that three grown men conspired to entice women and girls” to travel domestically and sometimes

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