Exclusive! Keith Raniere Most Recent Message to the World: ‘I Will Be Killed in Prison – Soon!’

My mistake – In the case of Camila, you are correct. Third degree since Camila was 15 years old. Second degree for those he raped under 15 years old. And I agree that he was, sadly, never charged for those actions.

You characterized it as “extensive prison time in retribution for a crime [ he had] never even been charged with”; I don’t see the original poster characterizing it as such. I see that they are angry that Raniere’s followers seem to want the baby thrown out with the bathwater by using an accusation of tampering with one piece of evidence to argue that his convictions were not valid. Regarding the predicate act of child pornography, even if you exclude that photo evidence because it may have been tampered with, the other criminal acts for which he was charged and convicted remain.

I think his defenders should absolutely pursue legal means to help Raniere appeal his verdicts if they really believe evidence tampering occurred. I also believe that Raniere took those photos of Camila when she was 15 and had sex with her along with several other girls who were the same age and even younger. Rather than question whether Raniere deserves the lengthy prison sentence he received, I question the motives and arguments of those trying to defend him. Given the deceit and manipulation that many in the group (and Raniere in particular) used on victims, I find it more likely that either: the same deceit and manipulation is being used now in an effort to recast Keith’s history; or the defenders themselves have been and continue to be deceived and manipulated.

What you’re describing from your point of view is in line with the teachings of Keith Raniere, what you’re describing is inner misogyny. The deferment to men and to disbelieve women. “They are flakey and not true to their word.” What you’re describing is how Keith describes women. Victim blaming.

A lot of people don’t understand coercive control and how that plays into criminal rape. Yes, manipulation and deceit can be illegal if it was used in a criminal act. Rape. Consensual sex in which a condom is removed during the act is considered rape in some countries because consent was removed and reproductive coercion is added to the charge.

It was only in the 1990s that marital rape was criminalized in all 50 States. It was not long after that, that Keith was regularly raping Toni Natalie in their home together. The police of that era would have deferred to Keith’s ownership of her, had she reported it. She consented once, that’s his all-access pass, right?

Police don’t recognize it, the justice system is only now recognizing it. Coercion is something women are blamed for, and it’s not something easily defined. Victim blaming is a common reaction if you don’t understand the system in which it exists, down to historical and cultural socialization and expectations of women, and how that’s used to manipulate boundaries. The economic coercion of prostitution is recognized as paid rape throughout the world. Survival sex.

(b) Sexual Assault.—Any person subject to this chapter who — (1) commits a sexual act upon another person by —(A) threatening or placing that other person in fear;(B) making a fraudulent representation that the sexual act serves a professional purpose; or(C) inducing a belief by any artifice, pretense, or concealment that the person is another person;

US law is only now catching up with coercion in the context of cults. Rape is an underreported crime, with few convictions or meaningful prison time. The system fails rape victims as a matter of normalized practice. In decades past, rape victims of Keith Raniere came forward and they were denied again and again. That’s a point to linger on and question, improper sentencing, if it even gets that far. The system failed in its rejection of many rape charges against Keith, Judge Garaufis righted that injustice.

Judge Garaufis said, “No, we’re not sentencing him on a perspective, “I’m sentencing him on his behavior. His illegal behavior.” The context of testimony and victim impact statements and history documented through decades are all legal means to establish sentencing. He laid it out very clearly in detail.

And that’s exactly what his behavior was, illegal, whether he was charged for any particular act or not. This is where some of the conspiracy and trafficking charges come in. DOS was a personally engineered rape recruitment organization that used blackmail to rape and recruit more women to be blackmailed and raped, in the model of an MLM pyramid scheme.

Believe perpetrators, that’s the NXIVM way.

It’s true, if Keith targeted gay people or black people, this would be a hate crime. Misogyny is the only hate that’s so normalized, it doesn’t even rank hate crime status when targeted sex-based violence is used. It was just women, who seemingly said “Yes” because coercive control was not recognized by officials for a multitude of reasons.

@onecuppajoeAlison – have another cuppa with me here. I didn’t see you as necessarily being a defender of Raniere’s. If you do characterize yourself like that, I would encourage you to pursue legal remedies to help Raniere if you feel there was a miscarriage of justice.

I do not have the same doubts as you because my personal experiences with Raniere mirror many of the experiences described by witnesses in court. I left him because he was abusive to me and that abuse was clearly developing. When he blocked me into a corner with his body, when he physically sat on me so I could not leave – those were just the final physical straws – the whole heap on the proverbial camel’s back was already high and deep with mental and emotional abuse.

I can see why, given your background as you described it, you may have doubts. It is uncomfortable when a family dynamic falls into an us vs them dichotomy so your loyalty to family decisions is considered more important than trusting your own judgment on a person. If you know any of the court witnesses personally and it feels like “W@hy did they change their tune” on Raniere, please consider that one of the biggest factors in abusive relationships is secrecy. The public face is much different than the private face, and that often leads to disbelief and victim-blaming when someone is finally able to leave an abusive situation or even to begin talking about it.

One of the major tenets of NXIVM and DOS was “Keeping it all a secret.”

Given my experiences with Raniere and his deceitfulness and his playing people against each other, I find I am suspicious that his defenders are perhaps carrying on in his image and using the same deceit, manipulation, and gaslighting techniques to make a case for him being unjustly convicted and sentenced. Which is why I’m still on here willing to chat with his defenders. Like you, I would rather confront my doubts and search for reality than just follow my own initial mental “programming”.