Maximum Mess: Raniere’s SHU Saga Continues
Raniere’s Legal Calls Interrupted, In-Person Visits Restricted
Keith Raniere is still in the Special Housing Unit, also known as the SHU, in sunny Arizona in a maximum security prison called the United States Penitentiary, Tucson.
The Most Excellent One’s new lawyer Deborah Blum recently told Judge Nicholas Garaufis:
“In my limited communication with Mr. Raniere, it has become apparent that I will need to set up an in-person legal visit with him to finalize the submission.
During the one call that I had with Mr. Raniere, the call kept getting dropped and it is my understanding that this frequently occurs during his legal calls. Additionally, to my knowledge, Mr. Raniere has only been permitted four (4) in-person legal visits by USP Tuscon in the past nine (9) months.”
All this trouble with phone calls started in 2022, when Raniere, the most intelligent prisoner in the federal system, got pissed at the warden because he had a phone call with his lawyer interrupted.
He was in general population, then assigned to kitchen duty, when he commenced a lawsuit condemning the warden, and some of the warden’s top assistants at the prison.
Prison Fight Lands Raniere in SHU, Adversary Rewarded
The warden and his delegates seemingly reacted by having prisoner Adonis Withers act as a de facto delegate and sucker punch Raniere at breakfast, which landed both the attacker and the attacked in the SHU per prison regulations – for participating in a fight.
Adonis, who started the fight, was rewarded. After a few weeks in the SHU, prison officials let him out of the SHU and transferred him to FCI McKean in Pennsylvania, a medium security prison, and at last word, grateful prison officials might consider him for the minimum security camp.
Adonis Withers
Withers was sent away for sex trafficking and got 18 years. He is due for release on May 17, 2032, but for his good offices in sucker punching Raniere, he might get out early. Still, he is on track to get out 88 years earlier than the Primal One, whose release date is June 27, 2120.
Raniere has been in the SHU for more than a year, even though prison officials cleared him of wrongdoing for fighting with Adonis.
Indeed Raniere did not fight. He showed remarkable restraint in holding back his awesome judo power after being sucker punched by Adonis.
Yes, Adonis punched him, and Raniere went straight down on the floor. He waited for Adonis to approach. If Adonis had used his fists again, Raniere would have gotten him into a judo hold and sent him flying through the air and into submission.
Raniere, out of mercy to Adonis, remained on the ground, in the judo fetal position. Had the former Eastern Coast Judo Champion gotten up, he might have injured, possibly killed Adonis, by throwing him around the prison kitchen with its concrete floors and walls.
Instead, Raniere remained on the floor, crying out to guards to come quick and save Adonis.
Prison officials say they are keeping Raniere in the SHU for his own safety. He requested officials let him return to the general population, where he lived without incident for a year and a half before he decided to sue the warden and Adonis punched him.
Warden’s Plot: The Vanguard and His Unusual Cellmate
While in the SHU, Raniere had a splendid roommate in his 7 feet by 8-foot cell — Toni Fly – an intersex prisoner who went to prison for raping his underage daughter as a man, but has sued prison officials and inmates for
a. not recognizing him as the woman he identifies himself to be
b. treating him too much like a woman in a prison full of female-starved men – sexually harassing him for his gorgeous femininity.
Fly has made more than 75 official complaints.
The warden expected that Raniere and Fly in their tiny cell 23 hours per day was sure to be a disaster for Raniere.
The warden expected Fly to make a sex complaint against Raniere so they could ship him to super max Florence, Colorado or Terre Haute with Islamic terrorists, but somehow the two hit it off.
Raniere's SHU "cellie" is Toni Fly, a transgender woman who was sentenced to prison for rape when she was a man.
Raniere’s SHU “cellie” is Toni Fly, a transgender woman sentenced to prison for rape when she was a man.
Raniere was the only cellmate Fly did not make a complaint or sue. Raniere began to write Fly’s complaints for him.
The warden, not wanting to go up against the smartest prisoner in the world, pulled another trick to get rid of Raniere.
The guards came and pulled the two men out of their cell and placed them in tiny cages in the torture room at USP Tucson.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons has housed NXIVM's Keith Raniere in the USP-Tucson SHU with the troubled Toni Fly since August 15, 2022,n.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons had housed Keith Raniere in the USP-Tucson SHU with Toni Fly.
Into the side-by-side cages the two men went; Raniere’s cage was against a wall upon which Raniere observed feces streaked on the wall. Counting them, he observed there were 19 fresh streaks on the wall.
The odor of the feces wafted with the aromas of lunch served inside the cages.
MK10ART's Raniere in prison.
MK10ART’s Raniere in prison.
Then the warden sent the prison psychologists to observe Raniere and Fly.
Among other things they observed was that Raniere had a marked absence of normal appetite.
Marie White's Toni Fly and Keith Raniere
Marie White’s Toni Fly and Keith Raniere
The warden moved Fly out of his cell and sent him to USP Coleman. He has one year remaining on his sentence.
Raniere remains in the SHU, officials say, for his safety.
Legal Battles Continue as Raniere Faces Tough Conditions in SHU
It was not the smartest move the most ethical man ever made to sue the warden and his top assistants—the very people who control the locks, the keys, his clothes, which magically appear, and his food.
Raniere’s prison food just magically appears
They control every minute of every day, and he decided to use Clare Bronfman’s money to scare the daylights out of the warden.
According to records released in his lawsuit against the BOP, Raniere made 75 calls to attorneys within a few months and dozens of attorney visits. That was before he sued the warden.
Now, according to his attorney Blum, he has only had four legal visits. At these visits, he is chained and shackled, and must talk to his attorneys from the other side of a bullet proof glass screen through a poor-audio, high static phone.
He cannot write notes because he is handcuffed.
Most of his legal calls are now interrupted.
Not an actual photo of Keith Alan Raniere being transfered to yet another prison cell.
Not an actual photo of Keith Alan Raniere being returned to his prison cell.
Everyone needs a bit of hilarity to make the day pass and this is true especially for guards surrounded by prisoners and gray walls. The bleak hours pass slowly.
They haven’t had such fun since Steven Dale Green hanged himself in his cell.
But Raniere is too smart for them. He plans to stick it for the next 96 years, unless Judge Garaufis denies the guards their fun by letting the Vanguard out.
As the guards all say in Tucson, “Viva Executive Success.”
go home frank, you're drunk!