This post is for the followers of Keith Alan Raniere. Some of them told me they do not believe Keith had sex with Camila when she was 15.
Camila is expected to make a victim statement at Raniere’s sentencing later today.
Raaniere’s followers claim that Camila will be lying if she testifies that she and Raniere began their sexual relationship when she was 15. They went further, however, and said that, if Cami’s story is true [which they do not believe it is], they would denounce Raniere.
Similarly, they think the child porn pictures of Camila were tampered with – and that Keith never took nude pictures of her when she was still a child. Once again, they will denounce Raniere if they are convinced otherwise.
I told some of them the story of Rhiannon, who wanted to testify at the trial of Raniere but the judge did not let her because he felt it would be too prejudicial.
Raniere was not charged with raping Rhiannon, which allegedly occurred in the 1990s, when she was 12. He was 30 at the time.
When I told the story to his followers, they sought to discredit it. Why did she come around so late? Who was behind it? The Illuminati? The World Jewish Congress?
I said, “This was long before Raniere became Vanguard – and long before any powerful world forces were out to get him.”
When Rhiannon met Raniere, she lived with her mother, who worked at his Consumers’ Buyline Inc., which was later closed down by the New York State Attorney General. His followers think the government was out to get Raniere and closed him down.
Rhiannon was 12 when Raniere started having sex with her, she claims.
In 2012, the Albany Times Union published In Raniere’s Shadow wherein a then 33-year-old Rhiannon claimed Raniere had sexual encounters with her when she was a child.
The TU wrote, she was “a 12-year-old with feathered bangs and long blond hair…Her mother was a saleswoman for Raniere’s members-only buying club, Consumers’ Buyline Inc… When Raniere offered free tutoring, the girl’s mother jumped at the opportunity. At the same time…one of Raniere’s longtime girlfriends, Pamela Cafritz, hired Rhiannon to walk her dog twice a day.”
Keith Raniere at the time he was allegedly raping Rhiannon.
Pamela Cafritz came up with a way to bring Rhiannon over to the house.
Pamela Cafritz had a Cocker Spaniel named Jack. She paid Rhiannon to come over to the house and walk the dog twice a day.
The Times Union continued: “Cafritz encouraged the girl’s visits to the townhouse she and Raniere shared with other women. And Raniere showered the girl with attention. She said he urged her to talk about her life. He gave her a necklace — a heart with a stone in it….
[Raniere] told her she hugged like a child, her arms wrapped around him but her hips pushed away. He taught her to hug the way adults do, pelvis-to-pelvis… The girl liked being able to hang out with Raniere and the women around him. She thought sex was just part of fitting in.
“They told me I was smart and took an interest in me; they let me spend every afternoon at their house,” she said. “… I was perfect picking… To have someone that mature and that well thought of to be interested in me, it was flattering. I was young, inexperienced, overwhelmed, out of my league.”
3 Flintlock Lane, the townhouse where Raniere allegedly raped Rhiannon
The Times Union continues: “Raniere [had] sex with her not only in his townhouse but in empty offices, in an elevator and in a broom closet at the plaza that housed Consumers’ Buyline, she said. But after several months and about 60 sexual encounters with Raniere, she said, her emotions had changed. She started skipping school and running away from home. He lived nearby, and as her uncertainty about the relationship grew, she didn’t feel safe at home.”
Raniere brought Rhiannon to Consumers’ Buyline’s offices in Clifton Park where he allegedly raped her.
Consumers’ Buyline’s offices were on the second floor. Raniere allegedly raped 12-year old Rhiannon in the elevator, she claimed.
Defenders of Raniere said Rhiannon was paid by the Times Union to make up the story. However, according to a deposition Rhiannon signed in 1993, she told New York State Police that she had “sexual intercourse with a man named Keith Raniere” some 19 years before the Times Union story was published.
Rhiannon [then 15] told police the sexual intercourse “occurred when I was approximately 12-13 years old and occurred either at Keith’s townhouse at 3 Flintlock Lane, Clifton NY or his business located at Rome Plaza, Clifton Park, NY.”
Here is a copy of the police report.
The Times Union continued: “[Rhiannon] refused to wear a wire and confront Raniere to capture incriminating statements… The girl didn’t want to see Raniere again and didn’t think he would fall for a police plan to have her wear a wire…
“He took my innocence,” she said. “I can never get that back.”
The Times Union also spoke with Rhiannon’s mother: Her mother confirmed the story.
A 1994 school district document provides further evidence that Rhiannon wasn’t paid years later to make up the story.
The document confirms Rhiannon ran away from home, was placed in a detention center for three years, contracted Hodgkins Disease and underwent treatment with radiation and chemotherapy.
The school report continues:
For his part, Raniere went on to become a teacher of ethics, and founder of Nxivm, calling himself Vanguard, and enjoying sexual encounters with many female students.
After a 20 year run leading Nxivm, he was arrested for sex trafficking and other crimes on March 26, 2018, some 27 years after he allegedly raped Rhiannon. He was convicted on all charges by a jury in Brooklyn federal court after a six week trial on June 19, 2019. He faces life in prison.
He will be sentenced today at 11 a.m.
He was never convicted, nor will he serve any time for raping Rhiannon.
It might be well to remember, as his followers try to disbelieve Camila’s story, that more than a decade before Camila was allegedly raped by Raniere, another little girl alleged the same thing happened to her– and documents show that shortly after the time it happened, this girl, at just the age Cami was when she was first raped, told her story to police.
She had no reason to lie then. And last year, she was ready to testify under penalty of perjury about what happened to her in 1993.
Today, she may have another chance to tell her story…
