NXIVM jury could be on a tight schedule
Three jurors on the trial of NXIVM spiritual leader Keith Raniere have vacations set to begin June 24 — plans that could boot them from the case and cause jury deliberations to start all over again.
Closing arguments are expected to begin at 9 a.m. Monday.
The panel of eight men and four women is expected to begin deliberations in the trial of the 58-year-old purported self-improvement guru after lawyers on opposing sides deliver their final arguments Monday and Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn.
If jurors have not reached a verdict by the end of the day Friday, the panel could be called in to deliberate Saturday, said Senior U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis. He
said if there is no verdict by the end of Saturday, he would replace the three jurors who have vacations with three alternate jurors.
If that happens, deliberations would have to begin from scratch, he said.
That could potentially put jurors under a time crunch this week to decide the fate of Raniere, known as “Vanguard,” who is charged in a seven-count indictment with racketeering, sex trafficking, forced labor and conspiracy.
Federal prosecutors have described Raniere as the leader of a secretive and paranoid cult-like organization whose members used shame, humiliation and cruelty to break the law to attain control, power and sex.
Raniere is accused of operating a secret “master/ slave” organization within NXIVM known as The Vow and, later, as Dominus Obsequious Sororium (DOS), Latin for “Lord/ Master of the Obedient Female Companions.” The clan included only women and Raniere. Women in the group were physically branded and told to submit embarrassing “collateral” to ensure loyalty, testimony has revealed.
All other members — from “first-line slaves” who answered directly to Raniere to lower-ranking “slaves” within DOS — were required to give the collateral to ensure their obedience, which included naked photos or false claims implicating their loved ones in sex crimes and in one case, as a terrorist.
Former members of DOS have testified that they were lured into DOS under the idea that it was a women’s empowerment organization that would be good for them. They testified that they unwittingly became “slaves” and were ordered to produce additional collateral every month and to do whatever their masters asked, which included assignments to seduce and have sex with Raniere.
The “slaves” were paddled, forced to nearly starve by adhering to 500-calorie daily diets and physically branded with Raniere’s initials in a painful process performed with a cauterizing pen.
Prosecutors and witnesses have said Raniere helped a family move from Mexico to Halfmoon. He ended up having sex with three sisters, according to testimony. One sister was 15 years old at the time, according to testimony. Another sister testified she was allegedly forced to stay in a room on Wilton Court in the Knox Woods apartment complex, where more than two dozen NXIVM leaders lived, because she showed interest in another man.
Raniere went to trial on May 7 after his five codefendants pleaded guilty earlier this year. They were NXIVM president Nancy Salzman; her daughter, former high-ranking NXIVM and DOS member Lauren Salzman, who testified against Raniere; television actress and high-ranking NXIVM and DOS member Allison Mack; NXIVM director of operations Clare Bronfman, a Seagram’s liquor fortune heiress; and former NXIVM bookkeeper Kathy Russell. Testimony revealed all the women had a sexual relationship with Raniere at one point.
On Thursday, Nancy Salzman agreed to forfeit more than $515,000 that investigators seized on March 27, 2018, in a raid on her home on Oregon Trail in Halfmoon. She also forfeited properties in Knox Woods at 7 General’s Way, at 8 Hale Drive (Raniere’s so-called “executive library”); three of NXIVM’S office buildings on New Karner Road in Colonie; First Principles Inc., a Delaware corporation she owned; and a Steinway piano that was in her home.