Dianne Lipson was in court Tuesday afternoon for another gripping session in the Nxivm trial, including the cross-examination of witness “Jaye.” Here’s Dianne’s report…
Direct testimony from Jaye has ended. Cross-examination has begun, with Keith Raniere’s attorney, Marc Agnifilo.
Agnifilo asked Jaye to describe why she was impressed by the Nxivm 5-day intensive. Jaye freely admitted that she had breakthroughs on the 5-day, and it was a good bonding experience.
Agnifilo brought up that at an earlier point Jaye had taken courses in Scientology. Jaye’s opinion of Scientology is that it contained universal principles, but it was dumbed down. Agnifilo’s point was that Jaye found Nxivm more valuable.
Jay said that her punishments were mostly journaling about her failures.
Agnifilo showed in evidence a journal entry where she had expressed a positive view of The Source. Jaye said the found The Source curriculum really great. It was different from other acting classes. Jay said it “helped me as an artist.”
Agnifilo brought up the limited calorie diet Jay was on in DOS; First 1000 calories a day, then 800, to as low as 500-600 calories. Agnifilo asked if she saw any value in this diet. Jaye said it was promoted as a discipline. Jaye often failed in the diet. Women were not getting their periods. Jaye only saw it as valuable for a short period of time. Agnifilo asked, Was the value in this diet to push against your indulgent impulses? But Jaye still maintained that she saw value in it only in the beginning. Agnifilo: Did you see the value in maintaining the diet as a function of keeping your word? Jaye: In the beginning. Agnifilo: Was it important that you keep your word? Jaye: I don’t understand the question. Agnifilo, (consulting Jaye’s journal): Your mom left when you were young. [In direct, Jaye had revealed that her mother and father were arrested and jailed for drug use.] By you showing discipline in yourself, you could teach your mother that she could have discipline? Jaye: No. Agnifilo: You linked your commitment of the diet to your mother, correct? Jaye: That was not a thought I had come to by myself. India said ‘If you don’t keep your word, you make it OK for your mother to not keep her word.’ I wrote that as a part of my failure.
Unlike other witnesses, Jaye’s demeanor did not change on cross. She was not fazed or intimidated by Agnifilo. She exuded the same solidity and strength as before.
Agnifilo: After the assignment, you were not sure how you felt about Keith? Jaye: I was very confused during that time. Agnifilo: The assignment changed your perspective? Jaye: Yes. Agnifilo: You held Keith in high regard? Keith wanted to help the world. You thought they were doing good work? Jaye: Yes. Agnifilo: How old were you when you took the 5-day? Jaye: 26-27. Agnifilo: You didn’t like Scientology, but you thought Nxivm might be what you were looking for? Jaye: Yes. Agnifilo: You were very emotional when you met Keith. Describe this. Jaye: The experience I had, coupled with the belief that Keith created this to help people, and people were trying to do good; This was very moving to me.
Agnifilo showed in evidence a card that Jaye had written to Keith. She wrote this card after she had been given the assignment to seduce him. It was a nice card, full of laudatory statements to Keith. Agnifilo asked her why she wrote this card. Jay said it was for multiple reasons. She was really confused. She knew the assignment was not good. But she did want to say thank you because the curriculum had helped her. She also did not want to let Keith suspect that she was going. Agnifilo went over each complimentary statement in the card, and each time, he asked her if she meant what she had written. Jay said there were parts of what she had written that she did mean. Agnifilo, reading from the card: ‘I’m feeling bliss and carrying a sense of myself.’ Did you mean that? Jaye: Yes, I said I’m feeling bliss, because I know I’m leaving.
In response to questioning, Jaye said it was her idea to take screenshots of the collateral. Agnifilo: Did you think that was honest? Jaye: What do you mean? Jaye subsequently explained that she was allowed to be in the Dropbox, she never showed the collateral, and she did it merely to protect herself. Agnifilo: You gave it to your ex-boyfriend? Jaye: For safety meaures. I told my ex-boyfriend not to open it. Agnifilo: You gave it to Mark Vicente? Jaye: Yes.
Jaye had revealed on direct that when she was 20 years old, she had married a gay man from a foreign country so he could stay in the United States. She got paid to do this. Agnifilo zeroed in on this. Agnifilo: You were involved in a sham marriage? Jaye: He was a gay friend. Gay marriage was not legal at that time. He asked me to help him. Agnifilo: You didn’t do it as a favor, you got paid. Jaye: He did offer to pay me. Agnifilo: Did you tell the FBI that the man paid you $18,000? Jaye: I don’t remember what I said. That was the original agreement, but I was paid less than that. Agnifilo asked if she was interviewed by federal agents at the time of the marriage. Yes, she had been. Agnifilo asked her if she lied to the agents. Jaye said yes. She and the man pretended they were in a real romantic relationship. Agnifilo: You had a plan with him to lie to the Agent? Jaye: Yes. Agnifilo: And that’s what you did? Jaye: Yes. Agnifilo: And you didn’t tell the agent you were doing it for money? Jaye: Right.
That was the end of cross. It seemed to me that Agnifilo got little from Jaye.
In re-direct, Lesko asked Jaye why she was in Albany at the time she gave Keith the card. Jaye: To get the rest of my things. Lesko asked if Jaye knew that Keith was the head of DOS. Jaye had had suspicions about that. Lesko: Did DOS still have your collateral? Were you worried about that? Jaye: Yes. Lesko: You gave the collateral screenshots to your ex-boyfriend for safety reasons? Jaye: I didn’t know how far they were willing to go. I gave it to him for in case something happened to me.
In re-cross, Agnifilo asked if they told her to have sex with Keith. Jaye: My feeling was that the assignment was to have sex. Agnifilo: The words were to seduce Keith? Jaye: That was the words. Agnifilo: When you got the collateral, did you give it to the police at that point? Jaye: No.
Jaye’s testimony was over. She strode out of the courtroom as confidently as she had come in.
The next witness was Anthony Valenziano. He was a lawyer in the firm of Sherman and Wells. Stephanie Franco was a client of the firm in the litigation involving Franco, Rick Ross, and Nxivm.
This was the case involving the videotape of Nancy Salzman teaching a class. Nancy had made claims about the program that she shouldn’t have, for example that they could cure blindness. Vicente testified that he edited out these claims, in a way to make it look like the tape had not been edited.
The case dragged on for 15 years of litigation. There were suits and counter-suits. Nxivm had at least 10 law firms representing them. In the end, a settlement was reached in which Franco was required to pay one dollar.
Kristin Keeffe was part of the lawsuit. But Rick Ross dismissed his claims against Ms. Keeffe when she left the employ of Nxivm.
Regarding the tapes that had been altered, the witness found them suspicious. The things that Stephanie Franco said were there, weren’t there. Nxivm represented that the tapes were produced in unedited form. The witness said the tapes appeared to have jump cuts in them. But hiring an expert to see if the tapes were edited was cost-prohibitive.
The next witness was investigator Richard W. Guerci. He currently works for a company that contracts financial investigators for the IRS. Prior to that he was an IRS agent with the criminal division. His work there involved investigating financial crimes, including money laundering. Guerci testified about the use of Pam Cafritz’s credit cards and bank account after her death. There was a will showing that Raniere was executor of Pamela Cafritz’s estate. Also shown was a petition for Keith’s resignation of his executorship of the estate. This was on June 21, 2018, and it was notarized in Mexico. There were credit card statements showing transactions up to 7 months after Pam’s death. There were many many charges.. Also shown were bank statements showing checks written from Pam’s bank account, also after her death. Checks were drawn from Pam’s bank account to pay the monthly balances of the credit cards. These checks were signed by Keith. (Sadly, one of the charges was for a Domino’s Pizza in Brooklyn. IN BROOKLYN.) There were email chains between Clare and Keith, in which Clare attached the credit card statements for Keith’s approval to pay the balance.
After Pam was dead for 8 months, the total drawn from her bank account was $328,305.84.
In evidence, an ID was shown for a woman named Ashana Chenoa. This woman had died in a car crash in 2003. Yet there was a Homeland Security document regarding a personal encounter with a Lisa Chenoa in 2004, in a vehicle near the Canadian Niagara falls border. Lisa Chenoa had the same date of birth as Ashana Chenoa. The personal encounter happened December 24, 2004. (I believe this was when Daniela crossed the border with a fake ID.)
The irrevocable trust set up by Clare to pay Keith’s defense costs also had a small deposit from Jack Levy, $1,030.
The last document was a PACER printout from a court case in which the plaintiff was Keith Raniere, and the defendants were Microsoft and AT&T. In the document Keith claimed he did not have $400,000 and therefor he was unable to comply with the court order. Prosecutor Penza juxtaposed this with another view of the many checks paid from Pam’s bank account.
There will be cross of Investigator Guerci on Wednesday morning. It is not known who the next witness will be.
End of Day 21.
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Posted by Tony Ortega on June 12, 2019 at 13:50
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Tony Ortega is a journalist who was formerly the editor of The Village Voice. He’s written about Scientology since 1995, and in May 2015 released a book about Scientology’s harassment of Paulette Cooper titled ‘The Unbreakable Miss Lovely,’ and more recently a compilation of his stories, ‘Battlefield Scientology.’ He continues to monitor breaking developments in the Scientology world, as well as other subjects at The Underground Bunker. You can reach him by sending him a message at tonyo94 AT gmail.com (Drop him a line if you’d like to get an e-mail whenever a new story is posted.)
