TY Baker
Boatfags:
is this the Philly cocaine ship?
https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/636018276
MSC GAYANE
Liberian flag
TY
NXIVM defense: 'What Keith is really after isn't sex'
Starkly competing portraits of Raniere as case goes to jury
By Robert Gavin Updated 4:46 pm EDT, Tuesday, June 18, 2019
https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/NXIVM-defense-What-Keith-is-really-after-isn-t-14015570.php
NEW YORK — Keith Raniere's lawyer told jurors Tuesday the NXIVM leader created a secret "master/slave" club not for sex, but to capture the magical feeling of "gravity" when two people are attracted to one another.
Defense attorney Marc Agnifilo also rejected the notion that Raniere, who has been depicted by numerous witnesses as callous and controlling to his many sexual partners within NXIVM, was a misogynist.
"I submit to you that what Keith is really after isn't sex," Agnifilo told the jury as he wrapped up his closing argument at Raniere's trial in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn. "What he's chasing after is this thing that happens to people who are attracted to each other."
His comments came a few hours before the jury of eight men and four women received instructions from Senior U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis.
Deliberations could start as soon as late Tuesday. Raniere, 58, a purported self-help guru known within NXIVM as "Vanguard," faces a seven-count indictment that includes charges of racketeering, sex trafficking, forced labor and conspiracy.
In a summation that began Monday, Agnifilo suggested Raniere craved not sexual conquest but a feeling he likened to "gravity" around a star.
In the government's rebuttal, Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Lesko scoffed at Agnifilo's argument.
He dropped an object onto the floor and said, "This is what happens with gravity."
The prosecutor reminded the jury of Raniere's alleged plans to order bondage-related items from a California company, including a "jail cell" and "dungeon."
Raniere helped create Dominus Obsequious Sororium (DOS), a "master/slave" group within NXIVM whose name translates as "Lord/Master of the Obedient Female Companions."
"How about the dungeon? Did the jail cell help with that?" Lesko asked of Agnifilo's description of Raniere's supposed spiritual intentions. "If (DOS) is not created for sex, then what was going to happen in the dungeon? …Were they going to knit sweaters in the dungeon? Of course it was about sex."
Responding to Agnifilo's argument that his client had never been abusive, Lesko reminded the jury about the ordeal of a woman — one of three sisters from Mexico who became sexually involved with Raniere — who was forced to remain in a room for nearly two years in her family's home in Wilton Court.
He also noted that Raniere required the women in his circle, including DOS "slaves," to furnish him with photos of their genitals and other compromising material.
After Agnifilo suggested DOS was about members trusting one another, Lesko said if that were true, DOS "slaves" would not have been forced to hand over this "collateral" — including damaging information about themselves or their families that could be released if they ever failed to remain loyal.
"What courtroom was he in in the last six weeks?" Lesko asked in reference to Agnifilo.
Raniere, Lesko said, "was sexually abusive and he was psychologically abusive." Responding to the defense lawyer's suggestion that DOS was "strong medicine" that might actually have helped some of its members overcome their problems, Lesko said, "That's not medicine, that's a sex crime."
Lesko suggested Raniere created DOS, with himself as the "Grand Master," as his longtime lover Pamela Cafritz — one of more than 20 women in NXIVM sexually involved with Raniere — was dying of cancer. She died in November 2016.
She had been his "fixer," and recruited other sexual partners for him.
Lesko said after Cafritz died, Raniere leveraged his manipulation and "mind control" in DOS to get women for sex and keep them through the use of lies, coercion and collateral.
Agnifilo argued Raniere was not the CEO of DOS. In his rebuttal, Lesko agreed: "He was the Grand Master. He was 'supreme being' in their organization."
At one point during his rebuttal, Lesko held up the hard drive seized by the FBI that contained explicit images of a 15-year-old girl who Raniere was allegedly having sex with.
"She was a child," Lesko said.
Former Vancouver police detective sexually exploited witnesses in sex trafficking case, lawsuits allege
https://bc.ctvnews.ca/former-vpd-detective-sexually-exploited-witnesses-in-sex-trafficking-case-lawsuits-allege-1.4471970
CTV News Vancouver
Published Tuesday, June 18, 2019 1:15PM PDT
Former Vancouver police detective James Fisher is facing two lawsuits accusing him of sexually and psychologically exploiting two victims in a sex trafficking case who were assisting investigators.
According to separate notices of civil claim filed in B.C. Supreme Court Monday, both women – whose identities are protected under a publication ban – had been exploited by pimp Reza Moazami and testified against him at trial.
Fisher worked as a witness co-ordinator and victim support worker during the investigation, the lawsuits say.
Fisher used his position of trust, power and authority over (the plaintiff) to sexually and psychologically exploit (the plaintiff) by imposing unwanted sexual and romantic attention on (the plaintiff)," both lawsuits allege, adding that this included kissing, groping and "unwanted touching of a sexual nature."
One of the women's statements of claim includes an allegation that Fisher groped her genitals in a vehicle.
Both lawsuits allege Fisher threatened the plaintiffs by telling them that Moazami would go free if they told anyone about their alleged interactions with the former detective.
"Fisher knew that (the plaintiff) was afraid that if Moazami was free, Moazami would find her and harm her," the court documents allege.
None of the allegations made in the two statements of claim have been tested in court, and no responses to the lawsuits have been filed.
The lawsuits also list the VPD, two unnamed members of the force and the province, alleging that these parties breached their duty to ensure the well-being of the witnesses.
"Members of the VPD…and employees of the province knew or ought to have known that Fisher repeatedly breached and violated policies and standard practices that were intended to protect (the plaintiff) and other persons in (the plaintiff's) position," the court documents read, alleging that these defendants "took no steps or inadequate steps to enforce or implement those policies, which allowed and facilitated Fisher's exploitation of (the plaintiff)."
Since their alleged interactions with Fisher, the lawsuits claim both plaintiffs have suffered "psychological trauma and recurrence of an exacerbation of substance abuse disorder," as well as further fear of being harmed by Moazami.
B.C.'s Ministry of the Attorney General, the VPD and the City of Vancouver declined to comment on the allegations.
Fisher's lawyer has not responded to CTV News' request for comment.
Last summer, Fisher pleaded guilty to two counts of breach of trust and one count of sexual exploitation for kissing two vulnerable young witnesses involved in pimping and sex trafficking cases. He was sentenced to 20 months behind bars and two years of probation.
Before being arrested on those charges, he served 29 years as a VPD officer and was the recipient of a Chief Constable citation in 2015 for his work investigating Moazami. He retired in January 2017.
looks like aspie/HFA trying to maintain in the middle of a loud/bright crowd
WRWY crowdfags