On June 17, Assistant US Attorney Moira Kim Penza made her closing arguments in the trial of Kieth Alan Raniere. She spoke of a variety of matters, most of them concerning the man known to his followers as Vanguard.
It became clear during her approximately four hour closing statement that Penza does not hold Raniere in the same high esteem that his followers do.
Her entire closing would take up the space of half a novel, but there are some fun excerpts that I would like to share with readers.
The first is her comments on the townhouse subdivision – called Knox Woods – where Keith Alan Raniere and many of his followers lived for years.
Knox Woods was built during the 1980s. It is located in Half Moon New York, in Saratoga County and is a suburb of Albany, the state capitol of New York State.
There are 21 streets in Knox Woods – Burgoyne Drive • Cromwell Drive • Flintlock Lane • Generals Way • Grenadier Court • Hale Drive • Hancock Way • Independence Boulevard • Knox Boulevard • Liberty Lane • Mayfield Drive • Minuteman Court • Monmouth Way • Putnam Court • Raleigh Drive • Redcoat Court • Schuyler Court • Victory Way • Washington Lane • Wilton Court • Yorktown Drive.
They are comprised of town homes and range in price from about $140,000- $200,000 each.
Here is Moira Penza speaking to the jury. [Her words are in bold.]
Penza:
Knox Woods, Clifton Park, New York.
At first glance, it looks like an ordinary subdivision in an ordinary suburb.
Manicured lawns, tree-lined streets, scenic train ride from New York City… It looked like the American dream, but … looks can be deceiving.
And it’s what is inside that counts.
127 Grenadier Court, a naked woman, held down, her arms above her head like a sacrifice, screaming, while the defendant’s initials are branded into her body.
2 Flintlock Lane, newly married Sylvie ordered to open her legs for the defendant before she could be intimate with her husband.
8 Hale Drive, the defendant’s executive library. A library with a sauna, a hot tub, a loft bed, and a collection of sexually explicit photos including of 15-year-old Camila. His trophy, his sexual conquest.
120 Victory Way, Nicole, lying naked on a cold wooden table. Her wrists, her ankles bound, blind-folded, not knowing that a video camera is pointed at her.
And 12 Wilton Court, Daniela, alone in her room for the 700th day in a row, with a pen, a piece of paper, and a foam pad on the verge of suicide.
The closed doors of these cookie-cutter homes had seemed straight out of a horror movie, but for the defendant’s victims, this was all too real.
***
Below are videos that were shown in court of the inside of 120 Victory Way, where Cami lived and where Keith took Nicole blindfolded and had her sexually assaulted.
Still have a hard time to Believe that Grenadier Court was the place for the branding… A condo in a residential area, not really well protected acoustically and yet no one complained about the noise? !
I doubt it’s the real place…Probably not.
I also doubt that the place Nicole was abused is the one cited there…Nicole stated that she didn’t knew where it was because they drove sometime (blindfolded for her).
Since Cami hasn’t really testified, she is the only one who could confirm.
To me, Knoxwood will never be the same. I’ve lived here for 19 years. Who knew that all this was going on right next door?
And yet some people who post here think that people living cross-country knew everything that was going on.
There are probably other cults still in Knoxwood right now, so it’s always been, and will always be the same. Just do as you’ve always done, stay in your apartment and don’t interact with your neighbors. Stay scared.
Isn’t some of it still going on?
Is there any effort among the neighbors to organize, and get Albany-area authorities to go after remnants of NXIVM, which almost certainly include some diehards who were involved in illegal activities such as immigration fraud and money laundering?
If you map it, though, it is ridiculously clear how the Nx structure worked.
The incoming/upcoming/entitled/wealthier/LESS VULNERABLE, the further from Knox Woods proper. And so close to Saratoga for the striving, want-to-be social climbers. You have to laugh to think how Vanguard played the vulnerable.
Knox Woods proper is the inner circle. So sleepy, so one-step-up from Consumers Byline, and the most ridiculous place for the Vanguard . The single family, larger, homes are only a road removed from the townhomes, and that makes the difference in the way these upstate developments were created.
PREFECT needed the larger, single family home. Bad move, Prefect. Lauren moves *out of the devdlopment*. And so the ethical breech.
It was all a scam from the beginning, a Monopoly board. No execeutive success. Ok, maybe a Brandon Porter, a doctor, could as he is a doctor, could move up, sort of. Everyone else came into it with money. The actresses and so on? They had places in Brooklyn, LA, etc..
Whatever one’s thought of an exburban, “ticky-tacky” development complete with cul-de-sac, do remember Vicente’s testimony regarding his amazement regarding how he was so impressed that his former Vanguard *ripped a paper towel in half*, expressing waste. Lol. Like, this was groundbreaking living to someone like Vicente.
For what it’s worth, the very essence of a “small living” place feeda into the lie that Vanguard lived the life of a renunciate.
Anyone, including Vicente, saw that there was an nearby circle of higher real estate dwellings circling the Raniere Camelot. Prefect had an outer circle, single home. The Porters. And outer, still, Lauren, themex, the Brofman, the…..You can see that the distance from Knox Woods with these inner circle people had so much to with the distance from and relative suze of dwelling.
Lol, Prefect has quite the downsize
Great article!
Moira did an excellent job!
Love your a$$ kissing, after criticizing her.
Scott,
Your memory span is too long, don’t you think? 😋
I’m looking at all of those properties and am embarrassed for anyone who had to live in one of them. The whole subdivision seems to be made of ticky-tacky. Even with a sex-cult premium they are nothing much. If I was going to follow a guru I would at least like him to live in a tolerable house.
Probably because they are fairly close to the city though they are quite expensive – it is similar in comnutable distance to London too.
And now a public service announcement posted solely for the purpose of tormenting Vantard, assuming that his sycophants are getting word to him:
Keith, close your eyes and imagine…
**Branded DOS slave Moira Kim Penza**
Sweet dreams there, Vantard.
Years ago ABC had the program “Desperate Housewives” set on Wisteria Lane.
NXIVM staged its own version called “Desperate Sex Slaves” set in Knox Woods.
Wisteria Lane?
Shadowstate seems to me you were a fan of Desperate House Wives.
“Shadowstate seems to me you were a fan of Desperate House Wives.”
I was a fan of the profits they brought to ABC and its parent company Walt Disney.
LOL