Frank Parlato
May 7, 2019 — United States Courthouse, Brooklyn, New York
This is the second installment in a series covering the federal trial of Keith Raniere. Part 1 covered the pretrial proceedings, anonymous jury, and judicial conduct issues that shaped the trial before a word of testimony was heard.
Anonymous juries are an extraordinary measure in federal court, reserved for cases where there is a demonstrated threat of jury tampering or intimidation.
There was no evidence that Raniere or anyone associated with him had ever threatened or attempted to influence a juror.
Judge Nicholas Garaufis told the jurors they could not talk to anyone about the case — not family, not friends. Not on social media. Not by text or email. Not by any means.
They were to be driven to and from the courthouse by U.S. Marshals. They could not leave the building during breaks without an escort. Lunch would be provided inside the courthouse. Their identities were sealed from the public.
“I will repeat this admonition every day of the trial,” Garaufis said.
Twelve citizens were placed under marshal escort, anonymized, and subjected to conditions that, whatever their stated purpose, inevitably communicate to a jury that the defendant sitting before them is dangerous.
The Talking Begins
Garaufis turned to the prosecution.
“All right. At this time, we will begin with opening statements. The government will give its opening statement first.”
Assistant United States Attorney Tanya Hajjar rose.
“The defendant Keith Raniere claimed to be a leader but he was a con man. He targeted people who were looking to improve their lives. He drew them in slowly with promises of success, of money, of better relationships, and once he gained their trust, he exploited it.”
“The defendant said that he was a mentor but he was a predator. He targeted young girls, selecting some for special attention, but this was an excuse. He offered to mentor them to teach them and that was an excuse to groom them for sex.”
Hajjar described how Raniere created organizations — NXIVM, DOS — that were “pyramid in structure with a rank and a hierarchy, and always the defendant was at the top.” His followers called him “Vanguard.” They called him “Grand Master.” He “sold himself as the smartest, most ethical man in the world” and “compared himself to Einstein, to Gandhi.” He recruited millionaire heiresses. He recruited TV actresses.
“No one could challenge his authority,” Hajjar said. “If they did, they were called ‘prideful,’ they were called ‘defiant,’ and they needed to be taken down a notch.”
He isolated his followers in a community in upstate New York, about thirty minutes from Albany. If anyone spoke out, “he told his followers to shun that person, to cut that person out of their lives and never speak to them again.”
Hajjar turned to specific victims.
Daniella
She told the jury about a Mexican family Raniere recruited in the early 2000s — three daughters and a son. The parents wanted their children to learn from Raniere. They moved from Mexico to upstate New York. “But the defendant wasn’t really interested in mentoring or teaching,” Hajjar said. “Instead, he had sex with all three daughters and in order to do it, he turned family against family, sister against sister.”
The middle daughter, Daniella, developed feelings for another man. Raniere told her family she had committed “an ethical breach.” She was confined to a room. It started as a weekend. It turned into nearly two years. When she finally left, she was driven to Mexico “with little more than a few dollars and the clothes on her back.”
Camila
Then came the youngest daughter.
“The defendant had a nickname for her,” Hajjar said. “‘Virgin Camila’ he called her. The defendant started having sex with Camila when she was just 15.” A photograph appeared — Camila at fifteen. “At that time, the defendant was 45.”
Raniere took explicit photographs of the girl — “close-up photographs of her private parts.” He kept them in a folder on his computer labeled “studies,” his “souvenirs.” Over the years, he built a collection of hundreds of images.
“In the defendant’s hands, these photographs didn’t just serve his sexual needs,” Hajjar said. “These photographs became instruments of coercion and of control. He used them to blackmail and to extort. He used them to increase his power.”
DOS
In 2015, Hajjar told the jury, Raniere started a secret organization called DOS — also known as “The Vow.” He recruited women to serve under him “as his slaves. That’s what he called them, his slaves.” These women then recruited other women who had no idea Raniere was behind it. “They thought they were joining a women’s-only group that was all about helping other women. They didn’t know the defendant was their grand master.”
Raniere demanded “collateral” — a slave’s deepest secrets, false accusations against family members, bank accounts, house deeds, and graphic naked photographs.
“In the defendant’s own words,” Hajjar said, “it should be so distasteful to break the vow that a DOS slave would rather die than break it.”
Women were told they would be branded with a cauterizing pen as a symbol of commitment. What they were not told was that the brand contained Raniere’s own initials: a “K” and a backwards “R.” In his own words, he wanted his slaves “branded with his monogram.” And describing the branding ceremony itself, Raniere said a slave “should be completely nude and held at the table like sort of a sacrifice.”
Nicole
Hajjar told the jury about Nicole, an actress in her thirties who believed she was joining a women’s mentorship group. Once inside DOS, Nicole was ordered to meet the defendant. “They met in a room where she was blindfolded and the defendant tied her to a table. Then a third person, someone Nicole didn’t know, came into the room and began performing oral sex on Nicole and Nicole felt she couldn’t say no.”
Nicole never learned who the third person was.
“But during the course of this trial,” Hajjar said, “you will learn that the third person was Camila, the same girl the defendant victimized when she was just 15 years old. Now Camila had grown up. The same girl the defendant robbed of her innocence and of her childhood became a woman he used to victimize others.”
“We will ask you to hold the defendant accountable,” Hajjar concluded. “Hold him accountable for creating and leading a criminal organization, hold him accountable for defrauding and extorting his victims, for taking advantage of them sexually, for producing and possessing child pornography. We will ask you to return a verdict of guilty on all counts.”
She sat down.
Recess
After a brief recess — prompted by defense attorney Marc Agnifilo’s announcement that he needed “three minutes to run to the little boy’s room” — the judge asked how long the defense opening would take.
“Longer than the Government’s opening,” Agnifilo said. “Maybe 45 minutes. Maybe 50 minutes. I don’t know.”
The government’s first witness was due up next after Agnifilo. The judge told the audience – including the sketch artist – that the witness’s face would not be sketched — another layer of protection that, whatever its justification, reinforced for the jury the idea that this case, and this defendant, were uniquely dangerous.
Next: Day 1, Part 3 — “My Island Home” — The Defense Opening Statement
The Trial of Keith Raniere: Day 1, Part 1 — ‘Please Stand, Mr. Raniere’
A note on the judge’s instructions:
A judge has no legal authority to suspend a citizen’s First Amendment rights. A juror who goes home and tells a spouse about the case has committed no crime. The instruction is designed to make jurors believe they are under restrictions that no court has the constitutional power to impose. If a juror disobeys? There is no penalty. No statute makes it a crime for a juror to talk to a spouse over dinner or use the interent to supplement their knowledge of the case. The daily judicial repetition is training citizens to believe they have fewer rights than they do.
Frank Parlato is an investigative journalist, media strategist, publisher, and legal consultant.
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