By Dick LaFontaine
Bad news for Keith Raniere.
This week an Arizona Federal Court Judge tossed Raniere’s lawsuit on technical grounds.
Judge Raner Collins ruled that the proper parties were not served by Raniere’s lawyers and dismissed Raniere’s action without prejudice.
Judge Raner Collins is a Senior U.S. District Court Judge in Arizona. President Bill Clinton appointed him.
In Federal Court, plaintiffs must serve defendants in a civil case within 90 days under strict requirements of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.
Judge Collins noted that Raniere’s time to do so expired on August 3, 2022.
Raniere’s Arizona attorney Stacy Scheff. Did she fail to follow federal procedure?
Raniere, who has been in the Special Housing Unit, at his prison, since July 26, was required to show that before August 3 that he or his lawyers sent valid legal process to each defendant sued in an official capacity by registered or certified mail.
Raniere is suing US Attorney General Merick Garland, BOP Director Collete S. Peters, the USP Tucson warden and the
Raniere’s lawyers failed to serve them properly.
None of the USPS Tracking printouts that Keith’s lawyers filed indicated if the items delivered were sent via certified or registered mail, who they were addressed to, or even the complete addresses of the recipients.
“More than 200 days have passed since Plaintiff filed his Complaint —well over the 90 days to serve a defendant required by Rule 4(m). Accordingly, dismissal of all Defendants is proper based on insufficient service of process,” Judge Collins ruled in his Order.
Arizona Federal District Court Judge Raner Collins ordered Keith Raniere’s case against the DOJ and the BOP dismissed without prejudice. Raniere’s lawyers will have a chance to re-file.
Frank Report has been covering Raniere’s suit since he commenced earlier this year, when he alleged the BOP was retaliating against him by denying him access to his attorneys and his power of attorney Suneel Chakravorty. Just when Raniere was about to file a Rule 33 motion seeking a new trial, and needed regular contact with his attorneys and Chakravorty, the BOP made it hard to speak with attorneys and cut Chakravorty off altogether.
Suneel Chakravorty coordinated reports of digital forensic experts for Raniere’s Rule 33 motion, alleging the FBI tampered with digital evidence in the Raniere trial.
Raniere’s lawsuit claimed that prison officials at USP Tucson (a BOP facility where he is housed) violated his First Amendment rights of access to the courts and his Sixth Amendment right to counsel.
He further charged that DOJ and BOP officials interfered with his ability to communicate with his attorneys and their agents.
The yard at USP-Tuscon is a place Keith Raniere hasn’t seen much of. He’s now in the SHU for his fifth month.
Raniere alleged USP Tuscon personnel retaliated against him for filing a Rule 33 motion for a new trial. He said prison officials threatened to cut off his telephonic and in-person communication with his attorneys the day after Raniere’s criminal defense attorney’s court filing.
Raniere also asserted a claim based on BOP and DOJ personnel’s alleged “deliberate interference” with the confidential relationship between him and his attorney.
Raniere contended that “substantial prejudices” prevented him from helping his attorney prepare for the hearing on the motion for the new trial, and prevented his attorney from providing effective counsel.
Vanguard also sought an injunction that would order prison officials not to “interfere with his attorney communications” while he exhausts the BOP’s administrative remedies before the Court can hear the suit, a requirement for prisoner access to the courts.
Keith Raniere at USP Tucson
That the case was dismissed without prejudice means Raniere still has a chance to re-submit his case.
The Court may even hear it if his lawyers can figure out how to send certified mail to the correct defendants and keep the receipts.
But the best part is for the lawyers is that they start from scratch, billing again by the hour for the things they did wrong. But before you get too outraged and sympathize with Raniere’s financial draining, remember his legal bills are funded by Clare Bronfman, the Seagram’s heiress who is also in prison in FCI Danbury.
Meanwhile, on a practical note, Raniere may have shot himself in the foot with this ill-advised lawsuit. When he started it, he was still in General Population. He pulled the trigger on the lawsuit when he missed one or two calls. Things have gotten much worse.
He remains in the SHU lodged with Toni Fly, a trans woman who went to jail for being a rapist when he was still a man.
He raped his underage daughter.
According to Raniere, Fly, as a woman in the men’s prison, has made over 75 allegations of rape and sexual harassment since she/he’s been in prison.
Raniere’s SHU “cellie” is Toni Fly, a transgender or intersex woman/man sentenced to prison for rape when she was still a man. Though Fly says he is a woman now, it was his penis that brought him to prison. He raped his teen daughter.
But things may get worse. Raniere claimed in court filings that officials at USP Tuscon threatened to arrange for his transfer to another prison.
Raniere remains in the SHU and may spend several more months there, while the BOP decides where he goes next.
What a spectacular fall from grace.
Once, he was an adored and worshiped Vanguard. Women vied for the privilege of washing his toes, doing his laundry, running his errands, making his clothes magically appear, as he made theirs magically disappear, and branding themselves with his initials on their pussies.
Now Raniere lives in a tiny, segregated cell. Raniere claims the walls where he was caged had 19 streaks of feces that he was forced to look at when he had lunch.
It’s a far cry from Vanguard Week, the annual ten-day birthday party for his holiness Keith, which he celebrated until 2017.
As of now, Raniere has 99 years to go until his release date.
No matter how much longer he lives, his antics, and the antics of his followers will almost guarantee he will live in a rotting, stinking, festering hellhole – the worst of the worst in federal prison.
Viva Executive Success!
For more info on how to become a Keith-built millionaire.
