Dr. Danielle Roberts on YouTube: Branding, DOS, and Her Fight to Reverse License Revocation

Roberts Blames Media for License Revocation

Former osteopathic physician, NXIVM member, and DOS slave, Danielle Roberts, went on YouTube and said New York State took her medical license because of the media.

The medical board revoked her license in 2021 after she performed branding on women in the NXIVM subgroup DOS.

Roberts said the case was driven by “social repugnance, prejudice, and gossip” tied to NXIVM. In short, they thought NXIVM was garbage, and DOS was insane. The board had no veneration for NXIVM founder and DOS’s secret Grand Master, Keith Alan Raniere, formerly of Albany, latterly of Tucson, AZ.

Branding or Medical Treatment? The Central Question

Roberts has centered her defense on whether the branding ceremonies constituted the practice of medicine.

She asked. “Is it the practice of medicine if you’re a doctor versus a tattoo artist or a layperson?” In other words, a tattoo or scarification “artist” could brand your pubis without being a doctor, whereas the same artist could not remove your appendix.

The State’s Medical Expert vs. Roberts’ Defense

Roberts said the state relied on the testimony of Dr. Richard B. Grant, a New York plastic surgeon who has served as an OPMC expert in several cases.

Grant, perhaps creatively, said Roberts was acting as a physician because by branding slaves she was treating their “psychic pain” just like a plastic surgeon does when he adds silicone to a woman’s breast because she feels psychic pain from their natural size.

Roberts said the committee “took everything from one expert witness” and ignored evidence that the procedure was much closer to tattooing than any medical practice.

Roberts said that the branding, part of a ceremony that required the recipient to thank her master for the honor of sporting the secretive brand, was a private act among consenting adults. She took part as a DOS slave, not as a doctor.

Roberts Accuses Regulators of Judicial Theater

“Clearly my story has not been told by me,” she said. “My story has been told by all the other people in the world besides me.”
Roberts told viewers she believed the state had ignored her own expert’s testimony because the result had been predetermined.

“They did whatever they wanted,” she said.

Branding as Body Modification, Not Medicine

Roberts spent much of her livestream on the testimony of her expert, Dr. David Mayer, a Long Island surgeon and attorney.
Dr. Mayer had testified that Roberts had acted as a “branding tech or scarification artist,” not as a doctor. He testified that branding is not taught in medical school, is not part of any residency, does not treat any illness or deformity, and does not create a doctor–patient relationship.
Roberts, echoing his thoughts, said, “He doesn’t believe branding is the practice of medicine… He doesn’t believe there was a patient-physician relationship.”

Mayer had said cosmetic surgery becomes medical practice only when it corrects deformity or functional loss, not when it addresses “emotional dissatisfaction.” “The branding was not the practice of medicine according to (NYS) statute 6521,” he said.

The Court Ruled Branding Was a Medical Practice

In 2023, a state appellate court upheld the state’s revocation of Roberts’ medical license, ruling that the branding she performed on DOS slaves was the practice of medicine under New York law.

In a Feb. 16, 2023 opinion, the Appellate Division, Third Department said “substantial evidence supports” the finding that Roberts used an electrocautery device to burn permanent scars into at least 17 women, altering a “physical condition.” The court said that it fell under Education Law § 6521, which defines the practice of medicine as “diagnosing, treating, operating or prescribing for any human disease, pain, injury, deformity or physical condition.”

The judge noted that Roberts’ standing as a physician was “well-known” inside NXIVM, and witnesses said they felt “comforted” knowing a doctor was doing the branding.

Her expert, surgeon-attorney Mayer, said the procedure was body modification, not medicine. The court said photos showing second-degree burns undercut his view and deferred to the hearing committee’s judgment.

The court also cited Roberts’ post-branding care. Witnesses said she gave ointment, bandages, and instructions, and that members were told not to seek another opinion. The panel said this showed a physician–patient relationship.

Court Finds Doctor–Patient Relationship in DOS Ritual

In her video, Roberts did not address one fact established in the NXIVM criminal case: the DOS brand contained the initials of the highly revered leader of NXIVM, Keith Raniere.

Former DOS members who received the brand said they were told the symbol represented the four elements or a woman’s emblem.
The brand’s ingenious design, created by Raniere, who has told followers he is the smartest man in the world, is such that one cannot immediately determine that the brand is actually his initials – K-R.

Several said they learned it carried the glorious initials only after a photo of the brand was rotated 180 °.

Roberts has said DOS members, including herself, took a vow to be obedient slaves and that she could not disclose information about the secretive initials without permission from her “master,” Allison Mack.

While Mack knew about the initials and Raniere’s secret leadership of DOS, she had been commanded by the imperial one not to reveal his role as the only man and leader of the sorority without his express command.

In this way, he could manage his concupiscent desires with the slaves in a fashion that would most please him. He said this was all done to empower women.

Roberts could easily argue that withholding the initials was part of that master-slave structure. It is not a doctor hiding pertinent facts from patients, but as a private participant following rules she believed were consensual and empowering.

Informed Consent Breaks Down When Symbols Are Hidden

In medical and nonmedical body modification work, the rules differ. People – even slaves – must be told what design they are receiving and what it means.

They should not be told it is a symbol of the four elements when in reality it is the initials of someone who, in his own mind, combines and supersede all the four elements, and if there were any more elements – say 12 or even 18, he would supersede that as well.

In the non-Raniere world, failing to disclose a permanent symbol is treated as a material misrepresentation. In their narrow view, the state board found that secrecy, collateral (blackmail-worthy nude photographs and damning confessions made by slaves and handed to their masters to ensure their obedience) and the entire DOS structure made the slaves’ consent invalid, whether or not the act was “medicine.”

She Framed the Branding as a Growth Exercise

Roberts said the branding was not coercive, that every slave knew they were to sport the brand of the four elements – and that she wanted women to “become stronger.”

She implied that if men – who are adults – had chosen to do this, people would not have given it a second thought. It is only that society infantilizes women that this became an issue of law and revocation of her license.
Roberts said she herself obtained the brand first before administering it to others.

“My intent was to help these women become stronger,” she said.

Regulators had another view. They said Roberts placed DOS loyalty over medical judgment. The board said this created a risk of divided loyalty — a doctor taking direction from a private leader, no matter how glorious, rather than from medical ethics. It could be a slippery slope.

Today, the Grand Master commands a brand for women’s empowerment and keeps his initials secret. Tomorrow, he might command the removal of a finger to show true loyalty. While it may seem far-fetched, would Dr. Roberts have refused? Could she refuse? After all, she has vowed lifetime obedience.

It is not enough to argue that the compassionate one, Grand Master Raniere, would never so order such a thing, but that is not the point. The point is, did Roberts vow to obey her master, Allison Mack, who in turn vowed to obey Lord Raniere?

When Obedience Collides With Medical Ethics

As a side note: Allison broke her lifetime vow to forever obey her Master, and sank so low as to provide evidence to get him convicted of sex trafficking and racketeering. At some point – that point being when she faced 15  years to life in prison, her survival instincts kicked in and she rejected her vow of slavery.

What has not been tested is when or if Roberts would ever renounce her vow of slavery and reject Raniere’s grand lessons, which seem to be – secretly – the total destruction of his followers – in true psychopathic fashion – and with a great deal of success, I might add.
The NYS board did not understand these subtleties and, indeed, showed scant respect for Raniere, NXIVM, or even its sublimest achievement, DOS.
They were blunt:  If a physician performs one permanent, painful act at a leader’s command, regulators asked, what stops something worse?

Roberts Says Her Case Sets a Precedent

Roberts said her case shows boards can revoke licenses for private conduct. “If somebody makes up a lie about you, they can cite my case to be able to take your credentials away,” she said. She urged licensed professionals to watch her next legal challenge.

Roberts closed by urging supporters — especially licensed professionals — to “stand with me,” share her videos, and help fund her case. “They have revoked my medical license because they did not like what I was doing in my personal life,” she said. “Please make people aware.”

Frank Parlato

Frank Parlato is an investigative journalist, media strategist, publisher, and legal consultant.

Frank Parlato

Frank Parlato is an investigative journalist, media strategist, publisher, and legal consultant.

See Full Bio