Several readers have recently asked what’s going to happen to the Frank Report when the trial of Keith Raniere is over – and he has, hopefully, been sentenced to federal prison for at least 20-25 years.
While there are several possibilities – monitoring what the Northern District of New York does or doesn’t do in terms of investigating and prosecuting at least some of the other NXIVM-related crimes that occurred in that locale; focusing attention on other cases of injustice involving over-zealous prosecutors or, as in the NXIVM case, compromised ones; etc. – there is one thing for certain: the Frank Report will not rest until there is justice for John Tighe.
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Most readers know about John.
He was a local blogger based in Saratoga Springs, NY who saw first-hand the negative impact that NXIVM was starting to have on his hometown – and who decided to do something about it.
And so he began publishing stories about some of the things the cult was doing – and named names as he did so.
Along the way, he gained the confidence of some cult members who provided him with detailed information about some of NXIVM’s illegal operations: e.g., the money laundering, the statutory rapes, the perjuries, the entrapment of public officials, etc.
Raniere hated the fact that John was getting accurate and timely information from NXIVM insiders (He was particularly incensed when John published a detailed report of the secret cabal meeting on Necker Island — and published numerous photos from the festivities).
He was even more upset that John was casting a non-stop spotlight on the cult’s activities – and showing up at NXIVM events like Vanguard Week to take pictures of who was there.
John published a list of all the local properties that NXIVM had bought up.
He published a list of all the tax lines involving high-ranking members of NXIVM.
And he published a list of all the NXIVM coaches – and documented the pyramid nature of the company’s operations.
He exposed the fact that the Rainbow Cultural Garden (RCG) operation was both an unlicensed daycare operation and an unlicensed school.
He also revealed the fact that most of the nannies at RCG were unqualified to do their assigned jobs – and that many of them were in the U.S. illegally.
He wrote about the sham marriages that NXIVM set up so some of its foreign members could stay in the U.S. – and its other illegal immigration-related activities.
In short, he was unrelenting in his desire to expose the truth about NXIVM – in the same way that Frank Parlato is today.
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And then on October 23, 2013, John’s residence was subjected to an early morning raid by a contingent of New York State Troopers led by Senior Investigator Rodger Kirsopp.
At the exact same time, other NYS Troopers were raiding the residences of two of NXIVM’s other major critics: Toni Natalie and Joe O’Hara.
Based on eyewitness accounts, there were at least 15 NYS Troopers involved in the three raids.
And the alleged crime that led to all that firepower being deployed?
Illegally accessing the server that housed NXIVM’s website.
Just wrap your head around that for a minute…15 State Troopers conducting a highly-coordinated, early-morning raid in three different locations throughout New York State in order to seize the computers of three people who had allegedly accessed NXIVM’s website.
As we would later find out, the investigation into Tighe, Natalie, and O’Hara had started in the summer of 2011 in the County of Saratoga – which is where the server that hosted NXIVM’s website was located.
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Several months after his computers were seized by Rodger Kirsopp and his NYS Trooper cronies, John Tighe was arrested on child pornography charges.
Shortly thereafter, John was also charged – along with Toni Natalie, Joe O’Hara, and Barbara Bouchey – with illegally accessing NXIVM’s website (Bouchey had dealt herself into the mix by accessing NXIVM’s website several months after she first learned about the raids on the residences of Tighe, Natalie, and O’Hara).
Faced with the possibility of a 20-year sentence – and trying to deal with a life-threatening medical issue for which he did not have health coverage at the time – John opted to take a plea deal that resulted in him being sentenced to a 5-year term at a federal medical facility.
The “good news” is that the John has received excellent medical care while he’s been in federal custody.
The “better news” is that he will be released from federal custody in the not too distant future.
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But neither of those positive outcomes will ever make up for what’s happened to John if he is, in fact, innocent of the charges for which he’s been imprisoned.
Based on a reliable source who is understandably concerned about incurring the wrath of the New York State Police (NYSP) – and who has, therefore, chosen to remain anonymous – we are now raising questions that should have been asked a long time ago.
(1) Did one or more members of NXIVM inform New York State Trooper LaBaron from the Bolton Landing barracks that John had attempted to poison the drinking water at the Silver Bay resort during a celebration of Vanguard Week?
(2) Was Raniere so enraged when the Silver Bay ploy did not result in John’s arrest that he ordered additional measures to be taken in order to shut him and his blog down once and for all?
(3) Was Ben Meyer tasked with the job of planting child porn on one of John’s computers?
(4) Did Clare Bronfman – and several other high-ranking members of NXIVM – provide false statements to Rodger Kirsopp about John?
(5) Why did Kirsopp not close-down the investigation when Jim Murphy, the then-Saratoga County District Attorney – and the Office of the New York State Attorney General – both refused to prosecute the computer trespass allegations against Tighe, Natalie, and O’Hara?
(6) Why did Kirsopp not raise any questions when the Office of the Albany County District Attorney suddenly indicated out-of-the-blue that it was going to start its own computer trespass investigation? At a minimum, why didn’t he ask how such a crime could have been committed in Albany County when the server in question was in Saratoga County at the time of the alleged illegal accessing?
(7) Why did Kirsopp arrange to have John’s computers destroyed as soon as he had entered a guilty plea?
(8) Why did Kirsopp and the New York State Police fight so hard to “wipe clean” the computers that had been seized from Natalie and O’Hara even though the computer trespassing charges against them had been dismissed?
(9) Who in NXIVM knows the truth about whether child porn was planted on one of John’s computers: Keith Raniere, Nancy Salzman, Clare Bronfman, Karen Unterreiner, Esther Chiappone, Siobahn Hotaling, Ivy Nevares, Ben Myers?
(10) Why during the course of his investigation of Tighe, Natalie, and O’Hara did Kirsopp meet and confer more than two dozen times with the lawyers representing NXIVM: i.e., Steve Coffey, Pam Nichols, and Mike McDermott?
(11) Why did Kirsopp not disclose the fact that the person who provided him with “evidence” of the alleged illegal accessing – Ben Myers – was, in fact, a member of the NXIVM cult (Kirsopp portrayed Myers as an outside computer expert)?
(12) Why did Kirsopp never have NXIVM’s server examined by the NYSP’s own forensic experts?
(13) How many other computer trespass cases have been investigated by the NYSP before – or after – this case?
(14) How many other cases of possession of child pornography that have been investigated by the NYSP only involved one file on one of the alleged perpetrator’s computers?
(15) How many other cases of possession of child pornography that have been investigated by the NYSP involved no file sharing by the alleged perpetrator?
(16) Why did Rodger Kirsopp shut down the investigation of child molestation by the son of one of NXIVM’s high-ranking members?
(17) Why did the NYSP not investigate Jim Odato and Suzanne Andrews for illegally accessing NXIVM’s server (They were both named as defendants, along with Natalie and O’Hara, in a federal civil lawsuit for computer trespass that was dismissed when it was determined that Clare Bronfman had perjured herself)?
(18) Why after helping her to escape Raniere’s clutches did Kirsopp try to hunt down Kristin Keeffe so he could charge her with stealing a computer that belonged to NXIVM?
(19) Why did Kirsopp include this statement in his report about John Tighe: “I contacted FBI, SA David Fallon regarding Federal Prosecution of TIGHE. Same advised that he has identified 50 images as child pornography, the videos received have problematic issues for prosecution since most of the videos are preceded by a banner indicating the models were 18 years of age. SA Fallon advised that federal charges would remain pending the complete review of the materials obtained from TIGHE’S residence.”
(20) Was Tighe aware of the problems prosecutors might have had in proving the case – or at least his intent – when he took his plea deal?
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The end of Keith Raniere’s reign of terror is in sight.
But even when he’s shuffled off to whatever federal prison may well be his home for the rest of his life, the Frank Report will continue on.
No rest until we have justice for John Tighe.