Richard Luthmann is a writer, commentator, satirist, and investigative journalist with degrees from Columbia University and the University of Miami. Once a fixture in New York City and State politics, Luthmann is a recovering attorney who lives in Southwest Florida. Luthmann also spent time with Keith Raniere when both were at MDC awaiting trial.
By Richard Luthmann
“Get Ready for Court”
“Lift your balls.”
“Good.”
“Now turn around and spread ‘em.”
Keith Raniere heard those words every morning at about 6:00 AM, while Bureau of Prison (BOP) guards prepared him to be transported to the Brooklyn Federal Courthouse from the Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC).
After scrutinizing his genitals and orifices, Raniere would be tossed a tan, institutional “court jumper,” told to get dressed, and shuffled into a holding pen with twenty-five or so other pre-trial detainees with court business that day.
Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center
At about 7:00 AM, one of the guards comes with a tray of brown-bag breakfasts for the prisoners, consisting of an amalgam of cardboard and sandpaper in a small Styrofoam cup (which passes as bran flakes for prisoner consumption), two past-date half-sour half pints of skim milk, and a mealy apple that you wouldn’t feed a farm animal being sent to the slaughter. Bon Appetit.
Then the waiting continued. It started a few hours earlier.
Keith had been awake since about 5:00 AM, right after the guard on his unit finished the prisoner count and knocked on his cell door: “Get Ready for Court.” There’s no shower or cup of coffee.
By 5:15 AM, Keith was out of his cell, red-eyed and half-awake, standing in the cold, sterile MDC hallway, waiting for a guard to transport the prisoners from the upper floors of this human storage facility to “R & D” down on the first floor, into holding pens next to the loading bays.
Hopefully, Keith was one of the first people through the “court jumper” gauntlet, and he scored himself a place in the 15-seat cell that often accommodated twice as many prisoners. If he was lucky, he got to sit around, stare at the walls for the next hour and a half, and not be forced to stand there the whole time until the U.S. Marshals began chaining everyone up for transport in the prisoner vans.
The U.S. Marshals are responsible for the prisoner movement to and from the Brooklyn MDC and the Federal Courthouse each weekday morning and evening. The U.S. Marshals generally arrive at the MDC loading dock around 7:30 AM each day, and then proceed to “hang out” and bullshit with the MDC guards, drinking coffee and eating donuts. It might sound cliché, but the two constants at R & D were the coffee and donuts and the ever-expanding asses of the women who worked there.
At a little after 8:15 AM, the U.S. Marshals would chain up each of the prisoners in the holding cells, then move them out of R & D into the waiting vans in the loading dock.
By 8:30 AM, the vans were on the road, making the four-mile, twenty-minute drive from the MDC to the courthouse. This was “magic time” for the detainees. There was actual life on the streets. Men and women were headed to work, children to school, and the hustle and bustle of the City were all around the prisoner van. But that ray of sunlight was short-lived, because Raniere and company quickly arrived at another sub-basement loading dock in the Brooklyn Federal Courthouse building, where the prisoners would be put into filthy holding pens with no windows, no clocks, and cold aluminum benches.
You might ask, how do I know all this? Because I was there – in the Brooklyn MDC, in the vans, in the holding pens, and with Keith Raniere back in 2018 and 2019.
A few months earlier, I appeared at that same Brooklyn Federal Courthouse as an attorney representing clients in various civil matters.
Then I pissed off a few politicians, was tagged as a Mob Lawyer, and bang – there I was, a pre-trial detainee with no rights and even less hope.
Before, I would have a driver drop me off at Cadman Plaza to make my court dates.
Like Keith, I was now subject to the physically rigorous, four-plus-hour, hurry-up-and-wait obstacle course to spend the day in the courthouse basement holding pens. For the next eight or nine hours, I could look forward to staring at the walls with only a “fit for prisoner consumption” bologna sandwich and another mealy apple as sustenance.
During these “Court Day” ordeals, I had the opportunity to speak extensively with Keith Raniere.
We commiserated several times about how physically taxing it was to get to court, the deplorable conditions of the Brooklyn MDC, the hypocrisy and institutional rot of the Justice System in general, and our shared “crazy prosecutrix” Moira Kim Penza.
Prison Conditions for Pre-Trial Inmates at Brooklyn MDC
By background, individuals remanded to pre-trial detention are held in overcrowded, cramped, and unsanitary conditions, at risk of mistreatment and violence.
These conditions are often far worse than for sentenced prisoners. Remand detainees (like Keith Raniere and I) have no access to work, education, or rehabilitation, and can languish in pre-trial detention for years.
Brooklyn Federal Court judges continue to pay lip service to this bitter reality, while simultaneously revealing the judicial branch’s impotence (or outright unwillingness) to change anything about this odious status quo.
In Crespo v. Carvajal, a Brooklyn Federal Court Judge noted the undisputed reality that over 90 percent of MDC Brooklyn’s inmate population is comprised of “high-security pre-sentenced inmates who are intended to only be held at MDC Brooklyn temporarily,” while awaiting trial.
These “high security” pre-trial detainees are found either to be “dangerous,” a “flight risk,” or both. While there are some evil dudes, the vast majority are dangerous because the Government says they are.
Some are “tagged” as part of a violent group with little or no real evidence, no connection, and no prior criminal history: street gangs, sex traffickers, white supremacists, organized crime members, child molesters, Islamic fundamentalists, white nationalists, domestic terrorists
A Brooklyn Federal Prosecutor rarely fails to get a defendant remanded to pre-trial detention once they baldly assert to a judge that the person standing in front of them is a member of one of these “heinous groups.”
Raniere was remanded because Prosecutrix Penza basically said he was Harvey Weinstein rolled into Jeffrey Dahmer with a sprinkle of the Zodiac Killer on top. While that may sound a bit over the top, I assure you it’s much closer to the truth than you would imagine.
Keith Raniere
I was found “dangerous” because the Government initially said I was a “Mob Lawyer.”
But my Federal Prosecutrix, Moira Kim Penza (the same as Keith Raniere), was later laughed out of court by the late Judge Jack Weinstein.
For all my “dangerousness,” even after unannounced early-morning raids on my home and office, the FBI couldn’t connect me to a firearm or a crook who wasn’t already on the FBI payroll.
Brooklyn Federal Court Judges have repeatedly noted that the MDC fails to provide constitutionally sufficient medical care, maintains inhumane housing conditions, denies access to sunlight and fresh air, and gives detainees spoiled and contaminated food. And yet, no one in the Government seems to care.
When I was there, the air was provided through a ventilation system that was last thoroughly cleaned in 2014, contained mold, and had vents visibly clogged and infested with unknown materials. We would make cardboard vent covers to keep out the hazardous materials. But we had to play a “cat-and-mouse game” with the MDC guards, because if they caught you with a vent cover, you could receive a “write-up” for the temerity of trying to breathe uncontaminated air. Too many “write-ups” and they send you to the SHU or “the Box,” (which is worse than you can imagine, and a story for another day.)
Special Housing Unit or the SHU
The mattresses we slept on were often stained with urine and feces. If you complained and tried to get another mattress, the guards loved to say: “This isn’t the Hilton,” which was a nice way of saying F-off.
The shower area is close to the living and eating areas, so fecal, urine, and other particulates circulated throughout the unit, which was entirely filthy. And the cells were even worse. There are generally two inmates per cell, with toilets located in each cell, approximately five feet from the inmates’ beds, and they do not have lids. MDC Brooklyn restricts how frequently inmates can flush their toilets, so you can often have feces and urine sitting in the open air and close to inmates for hours. And water access is completely shut off during lockdowns, which occur multiple times per week and can last for days.
MDC Brooklyn pre-trial detainees have limited access to fenced-in basketball courts with a small barred opening to allow in a small amount of sunlight and fresh air. Most MDC Brooklyn detainees do not see the sun or breathe fresh air until months or years after entering the facility, and the Brooklyn Federal Court Judges know this.
In Crespo v. Hurwitz, the Court noted that the food preparation areas “are habitually contaminated by the visible presence and droppings of rats, mice, cockroaches, and flies.” Such contamination is passed onto the food detainees eat, which is “frequently spoiled and moldy, rendering it unfit for human consumption.”
Prison guards routinely deny detainees access to necessary medical care and threaten them with punishment based on the corrections officers’ jaded views that detainees are “faking” their illnesses.
MDC Prison guards just stood by and watched as Jamel Flood slowly choked and died after a pepper spray attack. Proper medical care is not “rationed.” It is simply unavailable. And when what passes for medical care is provided, it is wholly deficient, examinations are cursory at best, and referrals to specialists are non-existent.
This is a sketch of the punishing baseline conditions that Keith Raniere, I, and the other 90% of the warehoused humans at the Brooklyn MDC had to endure daily. Why is this important? Because pre-trial detainees are not supposed to be punished under the United States Constitution.
Due Process and Unwarranted Punishment
In the case of Bell v. Wolfish, the United States Supreme Court made it clear that a detainee may not be punished before adjudication of guilt under the Constitution and due process of law. A person lawfully committed to pretrial detention has not been adjudged guilty of any crime. He has only had a judicial determination of probable cause as a prerequisite to the extended restraint of his liberty following arrest.
Additionally, as stated in United States v. Stein, the Federal Prosecutor crosses into unconstitutional territory when they infect the trial with unfairness. The Due Process Clause also requires Federal Law Enforcement to conduct themselves fairly. They may not engage in a host of behaviors: intentionally delaying indictments to prejudice defendants; obstructing a defendant’s access to potential witnesses, evidence, and attorneys; offering perjured or false evidence; entrapment – all these things are forbidden activities by the Due Process Clause.
However, the Government’s unconscionable treatment of Keith Raniere and other pre-trial detainees at the Brooklyn MDC is no accident. It is a part of the “systemic infection” – a calculated scheme by the Government and acquiesced to by the courts. It is the “noble lie” of our time founded upon heuristics and pretext.
It is a rude awakening to those who naively believe in a functional Constitutional structure in today’s America (as I once did on the day I was first remanded). A defendant in custody faces greater pressure to confess and/or accept plea deals. Being in the inhumane conditions of a federal facility makes it exponentially harder to prepare a defense, consult with lawyers, or review prosecution evidence. When defendants are detained pre-trial, they are more likely to be convicted, enter a guilty plea, receive a jail sentence, and have longer jail sentences.
All these factors inordinately tip the scales in favor of prosecutors, who already have the full resources of the United States Government behind them.
Is it any wonder they have a 99% success rate? And the judges all know this. New York Southern District Court Judge Jed Rakoff conceded that innocent people plead guilty all the time and everybody – especially the judges – know all about it.
Brooklyn Federal Court is chock full of career judges and career prosecutors looking to become federal judges. In such a system, judicial independence and impartiality are rigidly protected, which may appear a virtue on its face. Realistically, it makes it impossible to discuss the ingrained and deeply problematic culture that has effectively pre-determined how these judges and prosecutors do their jobs, without reference to a detained pre-trial defendant’s constitutional and human rights or the actual facts the Government can prove.
For these reasons alone, it cannot be said Keith Raniere received a fair trial.
The government improperly denied Raniere the basic liberties necessary to mount a vigorous defense. Among other things, the government denied Raniere meaningful access to his lawyers.
Right to Counsel: The Government Monitors
The Sixth Amendment guarantees a speedy trial, the right to counsel, the right to an impartial jury, and the right to be informed of the charges against you.
The most important of these rights is the right to counsel, because without this protection, all other rights are illusory. But Raniere and all other pre-trial detainees are routinely denied the ability to freely and frankly discuss their case with their lawyers without the Government listening in.
The result is ineffective representation, no matter how good the defense lawyer is, because the fact-finding process is derailed.
Alan Dershowitz is Keith Raniere’s newly-engaged attorney in light of the revelations of the FBI and Federal Prosecutor’s “Unprecedented Corruption.” Dersh has been saying the attorney-client privilege is “mostly dead” for years.
The attorney-client privilege has not existed at the Brooklyn MDC for some time, because the FBI and Federal Prosecutors are listening in. Pre-trial detainees like Raniere are left with a Kafkaesque choice: tell your lawyers facts and information that will help your defense, knowing fully well that the Prosecutors listen to every word you say and read every letter you type; or say nothing and keep everyone (including your own lawyer) in the dark about matters that may establish your innocence.
How can this feature of dystopian fiction and Stalin-era Soviet show trials regularly happen on United States soil? Because of a systemic infection in the Brooklyn Federal Court and U.S. Attorney’s Office, which enables and reinforces the large-scale and wholesale deprivation of constitutional and human rights of un-convicted pre-trial detainees.
In the 2014 case of United States v. Asaro, a Brooklyn Federal Court Judge (and former Federal Prosecutor) ruled that prosecutors could read electronic communications sent between attorneys and their pre-trial detainee clients. In that case, the defense argued that the BOP and MDC’s refusal to provide “a privileged form of email communication” violated their client’s right to effective counsel under the Sixth Amendment. However, the judge ruled that “by implementing [monitored prisoner email] in recent years, BOP has not placed restrictions on inmates’ ability to contact their counsel, but rather it has significantly increased inmates’ ability to communicate with the outside world, including with their counsel, even if not currently in a privileged form.”
Fast forward almost a decade. The Brooklyn MDC has not improved its communication system for pre-trial detainees, and the Government still reads attorney-client emails. The Brooklyn Federal Court has failed to distinguish between pre-trial detainees and convicted inmates regarding the minimum constitutional standards for Government eavesdropping on attorney-client communications.
This flippant activity of the Federal Prosecutor remained standard practice even after COVID-19 when in-person attorney-client meetings at federal facilities were not permitted. And I have been in those “meeting rooms” at the MDC. I saw Raniere in those rooms with his lawyers all the time. If there aren’t Government-planted recording and listening devices in these rooms – at a federal facility – then there’s a bridge not too far from there that I’d like to sell you.
There are a few bright rays that peek through the maelstrom of the scorched sky. In United States v. Ahmed, a medical doctor with no prior criminal history detained pre-trial on a Medicare fraud case won a scathing ruling from a Brooklyn Federal Court Judge. Brooklyn Federal Prosecutors had the chutzpah to argue that attorney-client privilege doesn’t apply to emails sent for defendants warehoused in the MDC to their lawyers, because it was “too heavy of an administrative burden” to comply with the United States Constitution.
“‘That’s hogwash,’ said Judge Dora Irizarry. ‘You’re going to tell me you don’t want to know what your adversary’s strategy is? What kind of a litigator are you then? Give me a break.'”
But victories like these are small, few, and far between for pre-trial detainees like Keith Raniere, mainly where his Prosecutrix Moira Penza knew more about the evidence of Raniere’s purported crimes than even he did – because the FBI Agents under her supervision manufactured it.
Moira Penza
And simultaneously, Prosecutrix Penza could go before another “independent judge” and sell the bill of goods that Raniere was an evil, dangerous, sex-trafficking rapist with a private jet waiting at Teterboro waiting to whisk him away into the wind if he were released on a pretrial bond.
The only problem is that the Prosecutrix and those under her supervision conjured up the factual basis for these claims. Who needs to sow lies and plant evidence to ensure a guilty man is detained and then convicted?
The Grind and the Churn
If there is anything that struck me about Keith Raniere, he is one tough dude. Pre-trial detention is no piece of cake, and MDC Brooklyn is a grind for warehoused persons. By spending day after day in court, Keith gave up what little creature comforts there was incident to that onerous existence.
For example, if you choose to go to court, you know you are not having a hot meal that day. The “bus” from the court sometimes doesn’t return to the Brooklyn MDC until 7:00 PM. That means you aren’t back into your cell until close to 8:00 PM, three hours after the dinner “mainline” is over. On your way back upstairs to the churn of the unit, you’ll get a government-grade bologna or peanut butter sandwich. Your entire day’s sustenance is literally garbage, bereft of nutritional value, and generally unfit for human consumption.
The Brooklyn MDC allowed one small perk (if you could call it that, and the BOP calls it a “privilege”), which is Commissary. Once every two weeks, you could spend up to $170.00 on overpriced junk food, instant coffee, and miscellaneous toiletry products. If you got hungry and wanted any food to eat that wasn’t provided at mainline, the only place you could get it was the Commissary, once every couple of weeks, during a designated weekday.
Keith forfeited his “privilege” of shopping at the Commissary by opting to appear in court. Each night, he returned from the grind of a court day to the churn of his unit. He didn’t have a hot meal to look forward to. By the end of the trial, Keith Raniere didn’t have much nutritious food to eat for months. The Government ensures they slowly break down the man they are prosecuting through the warehousing process. And the Brooklyn Federal Court judges continue to be fine with this treatment.
Keith Raniere chose to go to court nearly every day during his extensive pre-trial hearings, and every day for six weeks for his trial. How his body didn’t break down is a mystery to me. When I was released from federal prison, I didn’t walk out. I wheeled myself out in a walker with substantial orthopedic (and other) treatment unavailable in the BOP. My diabetes and bodily pain levels were raging. The thought of doing even a few consecutive days of the court grind was a physical impossibility for me. The rigors of pre-trial detention (and not the merits of my case) made any consideration of taking my case to trial and establishing my innocence a non-starter.
But Keith was not deterred, despite the Federal Prosecutor and Brooklyn MDC’s best efforts.
I wasn’t warehoused in Keith Raniere’s unit, so I didn’t get a chance to play cards with him or exchange books. But I can’t imagine he enjoyed the churn of the unit when he wasn’t in court.
I sought to avoid court because it was too physically taxing. Imagine the ludicrousness of an attorney who thinks it’s too much of a schlep to go to court. That’s the infection that is the Brooklyn MDC.
Instead, I turned my cell into a law office. One of my prison buddies, “Russell” the Russian from Brighton Beach, was my bouncer, debt collector, and put my bets in with the unit bookie. I had a standing deal that I would look over the legal work for the Bloods, and they would provide me with any additional protection I needed. And I was doing legal work for many “clients”: Puerto Rican drug traffickers, young gang-bangers, and even Roger Thomas Clark, the number two man in the Silk Road.
My creature comforts were based on the time I spent on the unit. Since Keith didn’t spend much time on the unit, he didn’t have many creature comforts, if any. And that makes me respect him even more for his decision to face the Brooklyn Federal Court grind each and every day.
The level of unwarranted, unjustified, and needless pain Raniere endured as a detainee at the hands of the Government is one that we have not often seen in American history.
The Alien and Sedition Acts, WW2 Japanese internment, Guantanamo Bay, and the January 6 Political Prisoners all come to mind.
Japanese internment camp.
The Takeaway
It will be interesting to see how the Second Circuit Court deals with the apparent institutional infection once the Raniere case is held up to the scrutiny of the Court’s earlier decisions.
The Manhattan appeals court squarely said a prosecutor is presumed to have knowledge of information gathered in his own office’s investigation.
The Second Circuit’s opinions in United States v. Avellino and United States v. Payne are straightforward to anyone of ordinary intelligence. What goes on outside the courtroom gets pulled in and comes to a head in the person of the Lead Federal Prosecutor. The buck stops with them. That is who is responsible to the Brooklyn Federal Court Judge. And both the Brooklyn Federal Court and the Federal Prosecutor are accountable to the people.
I believe the FBI made a “concerted effort to tamper with evidence to obtain Keith Raniere’s conviction.
And that’s not the most egregious violation in the Raniere case. The Government’s systematic deprivation of so-called liberty and due process guarantees, promoted by the FBI and Federal Prosecutors and rubber-stamped by the Brooklyn Federal Courts, is the real story.
In the Raniere case, we have a microcosm of how our justice system has rotted from within. The Feds break the rules, and the Courts don’t care. FBI Agents and Federal Prosecutors lie, cheat, defame, and degrade to punish American citizens before a conviction and violate the Constitution. And instead of their own silver bracelets and a perp walk, they get accolades, promotions, and lucrative private sector job offers.
Richard Luthmann is a writer, commentator, satirist, and investigative journalist with degrees from Columbia University and the University of Miami. Once a fixture in New York City and State politics, Luthmann is a recovering attorney who lives in Southwest Florida and a proud member of the National Writers Union.
For Article Ideas, Tips, or Help: richard.luthmann@protonmail.com or call 239-287-6352.
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Keith doesn’t like fat people.
Full stop.
Vanguard believes it’s a sign of inner deficiencies and lack of integration.
Richard, Keith looked down on you. Heavily (pun intended).
Rich Luthmann may have broken the law….
..…Luthmann is not a murderer, arapist or a pedophile.
Nothing Rich Luthmann did in his life warranted being tortured.
Maybe Rich Luthmann was less than a model citizen. So what.
The man is a human being.
***
If Luthmann couldn’t offer legal expertise – he’d have been beaten, forced to pay protection money, and likely raped.
How much blood do you people need?
Wait.
“Raniere didn’t have meaningful access to his attorneys”
Or
“I saw Keith meeting with his attorneys in those rooms ALL THE TIME”?
Because those statements seem contradictory.
Also… Just for kicks…
Who won the 2020 presidential election?
Richard, you can make bank writing on legal topics with your law degree and experience, whether you’re a practicing lawyer or not. Best of luck to you.
I haven’t been this moved since “The English Patient”.
Rich, you made numerous great points. Would you like to be on my podcast? Another felon, who was on my show before he became a felon, hasn’t taken me up on my offer.
I resemble that remark.
Sure. You can reach out at richard.luthmann@protonmail.com.
Rich doesn’t do podcasts. He only does radio shows.
You don’t do either one. You’re a nutjob and a coward. LOL
Attention Richard Luthmann!
Everyone who appears on
Scott Johnson’s podcast receives a free Blockbuster coupon for 50% off your next movie rental.
Plus a free box Amway laundry detergent.
Do you know if Scott is still selling Amway’s Premium Duck Biscuits?
Hell yes. It’s the only way to get his moma to stop bitching at him. She has a basement full of premium duck biscuits. Scooter hustles his ass off to move those biscuits (please disregard the expiration dates on the packaging).
If Scott said it once, he said it a thousand times, “Ducks cannot read expiration dates!”
Ducks actually don’t like biscuits. They only eat quackers.
Yeah, I know. For Scott, it was a never-ending story of young ducks losing themselves, such that they were no longer ducks with any souls or characters, but pretty hens with fatty thighs and nice breast meat. Biscuit sales are almost zero.
Frank-
Off-course he is!
Scott’s in-laws love the biscuits.
Do you know how I could reach him. I am told there is a big market for them.
Someone is also a nutjob and a coward. LOL
You sound woke Richard, what are you, soft on crime?
Before we get too sad about keith’s treatment at the MDC, let’s compare that to what he did to Dani, whom he locked in an empty windowless room for nearly two years, and the other women of DOS and NXVIM:
“After scrutinizing his genitals and orifices…” – keith did this to over a hundred other women, mostly against their will, every day for years through blackmailed photographs and videos.
“Raniere would be tossed a tan, institutional “court jumper,” told to get dressed” – Dani wore the same clothes for two years.
” There’s no… cup of coffee” – Dani was locked in a room for 22 months. She didn’t get coffee either.
“standing in the cold…” keith would punish slaves by making them stand in the snow.
“..If he was lucky, he got to sit around, stare at the walls for the next hour and a half” – Dani was locked in a room with nothing on the walls, and nothing to sit on for 22 months. So an hour and a half seems pretty doable.
“At about 7:00 AM, one of the guards comes with a tray of brown-bag breakfasts for the prisoners” – DOS slaves had a diet of 500 calories per day.
” I had the opportunity to speak extensively with Keith Raniere.” – Dani had no one to speak with for almost two years, except Lauren, and sometimes she wouldn’t come for weeks or months, and when she did, Lauren was mean to her.
” at risk of mistreatment and violence” DOS women were paddled, starved, branded, and raped. Was it worse than that?
“Some are “tagged” as part of a violent group with little or no real evidence, no connection, and no prior criminal history” – Dani was placed in isolation because she kissed Ben Myers.
” Too many “write-ups” and they send you to the SHU” – Dani did one thing to annoy keith, and spent 22 months in the vanguard SHU for it.
“The mattresses we slept on were often stained with urine and feces.” – Dani had no mattress to sleep on for 22 months.
“to allow in a small amount of sunlight and fresh air” – Dani’s window was ordered to be blacked out and locked.
“Prison guards routinely deny detainees access to necessary medical care and threaten them with punishment” – keith forced abortions with no medical follow up supervision, denied women cancer treatment, and fed a woman dying of cancer rat shit pellets laced with rat poison.
“The Sixth Amendment guarantees a speedy trial, the right to counsel, the right to an impartial jury, and the right to be informed of the charges against you.” – Dani was deprived of every one of these things.
“you could get it was the Commissary, once every couple of weeks” – I’m sure Dani would have loved a trip to the Commissary at least once in two years.
“.. so I didn’t get a chance to play cards with him or exchange books.” Dani was so bored she wrote a newspaper to keep her from going insane. keith confiscated it. Her only reading material were the ingredients on a bottle of shampoo.
” Government still reads attorney-client emails” – keith forced Dani her to write hundreds of apology emails, which he never read anyway, and just tormented her with hope.
“The level of unwarranted, unjustified, and needless pain Raniere endured ” – keith let Pam Cafritz wallow in misery in a pool of her own feces while on her deathbed, while keith ate his breakfast.
“inmates’ ability to communicate with the outside world” – Dani had no contact with the outside world, except one instance where she escaped briefly to read her email, and nobody had written to her.
All things considered, I’d say keith has earned his treatment.
I’m not woke. I’m just holding the Feds accountable. In New York right now, state court pre-trial detention is a revolving door with no cash bail. Those arrested are in and out within 24 hours, even with prior criminal history and even when the defendant could be a flight risk.
In the Feds, you have doctors and accountants getting detained pre-trial on Medicaid and Medicare fraud cases. If these people are on the outside, the only thing they are dangerous to is the Government’s case. If winning is that important to Federal Prosecutors, they should go play softball. Winning at the expense of justice is wrong, and in the Raniere case where evidence was fabricated and Government Agents and Prosecutors lied, people should go to jail – and get pre-trial detention once they are arrested.
Ice-Nine. Very well written!
Excellent rebuttal. It helps but this lament on Keith’s behalf put in perspective!
Ice-Nine,
I agree with you 10,000%!
***
“Sorry. kind of in a bad mood and need to unwind because just had to look at a bunch of disgusting criminals fondle their balls and spread their butt cheeks at 5 am”.
The prison workers have more call for empathy. Not criminals.
Because a bunch of baby men cannot assimilate to society or follow the laws that everyone else follows; other law abiding job holding men go to work trying to earn a paycheck and feed their families and are forced to look up these foul criminals dirty butts and behind their rancid ball sack.
It’s almost as if these incarcerated people cannot be trusted because they’re criminals.
And what if nobody checked for Contraband and Vanguard was shanked? What would all of his followers deadenders do then? Obviously sue the justice system and claim that there should have been safety protocols in place. Oh wait! There ARE safety protocols in place. For example: looking into orifices for weapons.
Those who have been arrested and detained can maintain their dignity while waiting for trial or they can have their friends bring them contraband to stick up their butts like Keith did. Multiple times.
Predator Keith ruins it for everyone. Vanguard is the exact type of inmate who makes everyday prison life so much worse for all the other inmates. By continuously trying to get over on people, screwing with the guards, acting superior, flouting all the rules and protocols, demanding special treatment and pretending to be a victim when there are real victims in the justice system.
Prisoners like Keith also make it very unsafe for the prison workers. By consistently bringing in contraband and endangering their lives. Not that Keith cares about anyone by himself. Not that his dead end followers care about anybody but Keith.
The guards had to look at vanguard’s shriveled old diseased scrotum and disgusting bunghole. Keith out of all the prisoners has a track record of having contraband. And Vanguard never drank coffee he criticized others for it and rarely showered. Most of that sounds like a typical Keith morning.
Are you saying Raniere thought he was caught breaking laws that prison was going to be Club Med.
Don’t lawyers bring their high paying clients like Raniere a sandwich and hot coffee to slam down while they are meeting with them before trial that day?
Raniere was able to get his hands in a cell phones while at the MDC. Why not some extra food during those long days at court?
Raniere had extra cash from his loyalists happening on the outside to help provide him things he wanted.
Things are not good at the MDC. It is what it is. People are not trying to stay away from there either.
Keith Rainier never stop when the stopping was good for him. He wasn’t even charged with all the crimes he could of been charged with because they happened in the NDNY.
Most people don’t feel sorry for him. Most people feel glad he is off the streets and the world is a safer place.
Most people are glad NXIVM got shut down and the abuse that was happening within the structure of their so called program is over.
People who feel sorry for Raniere need to shut the fuck up and get over yourself.
It’s his Karma
Sympathy for the Devil https://youtu.be/ZRXGsPBUV5g
This was authored by the joker who advertised his law office by offering trial by combat, posing with a plastic Thor’s Hammer.
https://abovethelaw.com/2019/09/trial-by-combat-attorney-going-to-need-those-fighting-skills-in-prison/
He was convicted in 2019 of fraud and sentenced to four years in prison.
So. Many. Jokes.
Seriously though, this is all he’s got to complain about prison life? Having to get up at 6 am and having bran flakes for breakfast?
News flash: lots of working people have to get up by 5 am. And we have to buy our bran cereal. You got yours free. And what’s wrong with baloney sandwiches? I kind of like baloney. Lots of people do I think, otherwise they wouldn’t stock it at the deli where I buy it.
Buy it. I don’t get it for free like you did.
Oh, but poor Raniere had to spend a lot of time waiting around.
What the hell else did he have to do with his days?He’s a criminal in prison!
There seems to be an awful lot of sympathy for poor Keith on the FR. Tales of unlawful conviction, tales of inhumane treatment in prison. I think Frank has joined Chakravorty and Clyne’s Free Raniere Club.
Hey Aristotle. The difference is that you never had to live with the threat of getting the prison sausage.
I’m not looking for sympathy. Piss on me all you want. But what do you say to the immigrant doctor who is detained for years pre-trial at the Brooklyn MDC on a white collar, non-violent, paper fraud case? Can you tell me that the basis for his pre-trial detention was anything other than the “heinous crime” of being Brown and Muslim?
Rich-
Don’t listen to Aristotle. He’s spent most of his life obsessed with comic books.
I ain’t kidding!
‘But what do you say to the immigrant doctor who is detained for years pre-trial at the Brooklyn MDC on a white collar, non-violent, paper fraud case? Can you tell me that the basis for his pre-trial detention was anything other than the “heinous crime” of being Brown and Muslim?’
You offer a legitimate example of an innocent victim of injustice within the BOP. There are many.
How does this fact relate to the case of Keith Raniere? A criminal with no legitimate complaint against the universal law of cause and effect aka ‘karma’? because he is guilty as charged. ie: not innocent.
Are you aware of your own devious argument here? I can’t be the only reader who is?
The factual information of prison life in mdc from somebody who has experienced it himself is very interesting and valuable. And of course inmates should be treated, housed and fed correctly. There is no doubt there is (a lot of) room for improvement.
But that’s the only part of this post that’s good. The rest is awful madman’s rambling. Richard Luthmann is of course innocent. No surprise there: all inmates are. And Keith is innocent too. And the FBI planted evidence in Keith case. And dominatrix (sorry: prosecutrix) Penza is corrupt and only interested in her own career. Luthmann kept the best for last: “the January 6 Political Prisoners”.
With that last statement Luthmann lost whatever little credibility he had.
If Moira Penza is a closet sex-worker (which I believe based on credible evidence), I would pay to have her make a German Sheiße video with the United States Constitution. It would cut to the chase.
Show your “credible evidence” already or stfu.
“which I believe based on credible evidence” LOL do you honestly expect anybody to believe you?
I agree with StevenJ, making a comment like that is dumber than your Jan 06 Political Prisoners comment, which was really fucking dumb.
And I do hope they clean up the federal prison system, just not before every one of the Jan 06 cop-killing, conspiracy theory, MAGA insurrectionist lying jerkoffs serve the hardest time there is, Trump included.
The only person who died on January 6 was Ashley Babbitt. You don’t like what I have to say because my commentary threatens your woke narrative.
Where is that proof about Moira? You didn’t supply it right now when you had a chance. You’ve lost all credibility.
“The only insurrectionist who died on January 6 was Ashley Babbitt, and that was her own fault.”
There, I fixed it for you. You’re welcome.
I can see why that would get you off…..
On credible evidence such as… ?
There is no evidence, Alex. Credible or otherwise.
Don’t you think Rich would provide any “credible evidence” if it existed?
Rich wouldn’t sit on “credible evidence”.
Rich actually has to be very careful what he sits on or it usually breaks under his considerable girth.
More likely Rich has spent many lonely hours fantasizing about Moira.
Rich and Kevin should exchange Moira Penza fan fiction.
It’s the same for the 2.1 million prison inmates in America. Why should Keith Raniere get special treatment? Is he privileged? And if so, why? Because he’s a pedophile and a rapist? That’s why he’s in Tucson. He could have ended up somewhere else.
In the photo Richard Luthmann is no longer wearing his characteristic glasses with the round lenses. He looks much better like this. Did he read the comments?
Probably. But oddly Richard picked an even stranger photo to represent himself. Unless for some reason Frank supplied the picture and somehow had access to Richard’s Remedial High School prom for special kids who can’t function with other kids photo?
“Wah! Wah! Im too fat to go to court. Wah wah it’s the justice systems fault I’m so porky and out of shape!”
There’s no way this dude Richard has any friends. Imagine telling your friends or family, “I was innocent but was just too fat to go to court so I give up”
Are you freaking kidding?!
Call the Wambulance!!!
Jail sucks…we get it…but when you are a criminal and you end up in prison…no one gives a shit that you are treated poorly…it’s expected.
Title of this article should be “White privilege”
Constitutional rights aren’t White Privilege you doofus. “Jail sucks” isn’t a pretext to wipe your ass with the Bill of Rights. But that’s just what today’s Brooklyn Federal Prosecutors do with impunity.
And the vast majority of the pre-trial detainees – in the Brooklyn MDC and across the American Criminal Justice System – are disproportionately black and brown.
What’s your story now?
Oh come on Richard…You are a criminal, a drug addict and a felon…no one gives a shit about your opinions on Constitutional rights…I hope your insurance covered the injuries you sustained from falling off your high horse.
I am all for protecting peoples Constitutional rights…just not necessarily life long criminals like you, using it as a shield for your criminal activities.
Whats my story? Just a law abiding citizen over here. Boring I know…but at least I can look myself in the mirror. Without bow tie on…because I dont want to look like an idiot.
Maybe I was all these things in 2017 (except a criminal, I deny criminality). However, you deny rehabilitation, which the Congress views as a substantial factor in the basis of federal corrections under 18 U.S.C. sec. 3553(a). I am off the sauce and I have recommitted myself to a life modeled by my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
As to my Constitutional rights and the rights of others, they are our fundamental rights and they come from God. In America, we kneel to God and to God alone, and not to your altar of wokeness.
And in my new role as a journalist, I will be at liberty to hold corrupt lawyers, judges, and others to account in a way that is constitutionally protected and is my God-given right. You may not like it, but that is your opinion and your God-given right.
Richard (or should I call you “Dick?”):
What you’re saying is that you perjured yourself when you stipulated that you knowingly helped a company rip off scrap businesses and knowingly participated in a conspiracy to collect an extortionate debt.
I hope you did not also perjure yourself when you thanked Judge Weinstein for helping you get clean at Devens.
Finally, I hope you are complying with the terms of your Supervised Release, including taking your meds.
“Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son”
Once an alcoholic or a drug addict always an alcoholic or a drug addict. If you haven’t accepted that simple fact you will relapse if you have not already.
You can be in recovery. But you’re never going to be cured. You have a disease and it has to be managed for life no different than your diabetes.
Abusing drugs and alcohol and food certainly did not help your diabetes
Living a very high- risk lifestyle and being overweight while abusing multiple substances. That’s not the fault of the BOP or the DOJ.
Accept responsibility. Or at least try to do so.
You took poor care of yourself and the most valuable asset a human being has which is their health your entire life and then you committed crimes and were locked up and now you want to blame other people for the physical toll your entire lifetime of terrible habits took on your body?
That kind of long-term physical devastation did not happen while being locked up inside of MDC for a handful of months. That is decades of poorly managing your diet, lack of exercise and overall cruddy lifestyle. There is one person responsible for that and it is you.
If you knew that you were such a frail little bird then you should have really gotten a hold on all of your awful shenanigans. Because you should have known that you would never survive being locked up.
Everything about your attitude says re offender. Most likely you will find yourself back inside the walls before too long. It’s sad that no one around you cares enough to be honest with you. Be honest with yourself at least.
Sorry pal but you are by definition a criminal. I’ll add delusional to your list of wonderful traits.
Deny rehabilitation? Most certainly not. But someone who comes out of prison and starts spewing hate and misinformation is in no way rehabilitated. Claiming a new allegiance to God does not wash away the person you are…sorry to disappoint you.
Damn anybody with some twitter fingers can call themselves a “journalist” now. Talk about diminishing the profession. It is your right, I will give you that but for gods sake don’t call yourself a journalist because you are in fact, not a journalist.
Stating the obvious to Richard: You’re an excellent writer and have an interesting POV. My unsolicited advice to you is stay focused on your recovery and you can have an amazing second act.
I don’t like to ridicule someone ‘s religion, but born again christian Richard is making it very difficult not to:
“ In America, we kneel to God and to God alone, and not to your altar of wokeness.”
Richard went full throttle evangelical. But credits for the poetic find “altar of wokeness”.