By Dianne Lipson
This is part 4 of Nicole’s Friday testimony.
DOS Slave Nicole Takes Stand – Allison Mack Threatens to Release Her Collateral if She Quits DOS
Nicole Part 3: Keith Threatens Release of Collateral if Nicole Leaves DOS
Nicole is being examined by Assistant US Attorney Moira Penza. It was the 19th day of the trial of Keith Alan Raniere in Brooklyn Federal Court.
After her conversation with Keith – where he told her he would – even though he did not want to – have to release her collateral [just like Billy Budd had to be hanged] for the sake of DOS, Nicole walked around Clifton Park and started thinking about this.
She had three options.
1. To get fully on board with DOS and Raniere.
2 To commit suicide
3 To go into the witness protection program, [disappear.]
“Maybe if I disappeared, they wouldn’t have to release my collateral. I could just disappear and maybe they wouldn’t bother me,” she thought.
Then came a new assignment from Keith. She was assigned to seduce Robbie. [Robbie, readers may recall, was the man who had an affair with Cami, which drove Keith to fits of insane jealousy – such that he demanded Cami tell him whose semen tasted better to her, his or Robbie’s.]
[Robbie is the son of Raniere devotee and high ranking Nxivm leader Esther Carlson.]
It was arranged that Nicole would run into Robbie “accidentally” and strike up a conversation. She would use a fake name. She created a fake Facebook page, fake email, and separate phone number for him.
Keith said they needed to keep track of Robbie for his and the community’s welfare.
Robbie had been ordered to report to Lauren Salzman if he interacted with or was interested in any woman – for his own welfare, Keith had assured him.
Keith told Nicole to accidentally run into him at a track where he worked out.
Nicole like Robbie and Robbie also must have thought Nicole was nice. They met several times and Nicole started running with him.
Nicole was nervous about doing dishonest spying for Keith, but Keith said she was born to do this kind of work.
Nicole soon figured out that Robbie was Nxivm leader Esther’s son. And his stepdad was Jim Del Negro.
Nicole met his family and liked them, especially Robbie’s sister, Rose. Nicole didn’t want to be lying.
Keith said he understood how Nicole was feeling but the spying was needed, he said.
Keith said he could never do what she did because he wasn’t a good liar. It would be so hard for him to lie, he said.
Nicole was eventually supposed to sort of “hand-off” Robbie to Sahajo Haertel [another DOS slave – still active in DOS]. But Robbie was getting ready to join the Navy.
Allison was really insistent about Nicole getting Robbie handed off to Sahajo [so they could continue to spy on him or maybe set him up somehow and get some blackmail-worthy material on him.]
But Robbie, since he was going into the Navy, was uninterested in meeting anybody then.
Allison and Keith began to write text messages using Nicole’s phone, pretending to be Nicole and sending these to Robbie.
Allison said it was very important that Nicole didn’t fail in her mission to get Robbie to meet Sahajo.
Nicole was at some point ordered to cut off contact with Robbie. Keith told Nicole she should go to him and insult him.
***
In time, Nicole realized that India was one of Alison’s slaves. It came as a relief because Nicole wasn’t alone anymore. India and Nicole became close. In fact, India became good at talking Nicole “off the ledge” when she was having difficulties.
Nicole explained that there was “collective punishment”. If Nicole did something Allison or Keith didn’t like – both India and Nicole would have to take a cold shower, or their calories would be cut.
Allison and Keith realized that Nicole was the kind of person who cared about other people and they could keep her obedient easier with India because Nicole wouldn’t want India to have to reduce her calories because of something wrong she did.
As for calories, Allison wanted India to get down to 105 pounds and go on a 500 calories per day diet until she got there. Nicole said it was hard to watch India diet this way. [It was unhealthy].
On 500 calories a day, India would get really tired. Nicole said India was on 500 calories the entire time she knew her.
Allison was trying to get down to 103 pounds herself and was on a 500-600 calories a day diet.
Nicole was naturally skinny and did not need to lose weight. She met with Keith’s approval as to ideal weight.
Eventually, Nicole met more of Allison slaves. In some ways, more slaves was a good thing, because now, she wasn’t so alone. In some ways, it was bad. Readiness drills got more intense because they were responsible for each other – to respond within 60 seconds – or all would be punished.
Now that they knew of each other, all of Allison’s slaves would meet once a week on Monday night. They called it ‘church.” The slaves would sit on the floor. Allison would sit on a chair.
Allison introduced the concept of the “family photo.” They had to take off all their clothes and look happy while a photo was taken. Nicole found out these photos were sent to Keith.
She became upset with that. But Allison explained that it was for scientific purposes – because Keith could tell their state of mind by seeing their faces. This was for their own welfare that he took the time to care about them.
[Keith texted back after Allison sent him one of these family photos — “all mine” with a devil emoji.]
On the witness stand, Moira Penza asked Nicole “How did this family photo feel?”
Nicole said, “I absolutely hated it.”
Nicole began crying on the witness stand as she said it made her feel really unsafe that this could happen. She described how such a photo could be required anywhere.
Allison could merely order them to do the family photo at any point, anywhere.
Nicole continued to cry as she explained, “I couldn’t say no. It was no control. You were just told to take your clothes off and you had to do it.”
Nicole would ask, “Why is this family photo part of it? How is it?” She started crying again.
Nicole pushed back against Allison, still crying, as she described how she felt.
“How is it empowering to make us take off our clothes for a man?”
Allison explained, “You don’t have to know the reasons for this.”
Nicole said it didn’t matter that she was upset about this.
Nicole said she felt furious at the requirement of additional collateral. New collateral was due by the first of the month.
She felt more and more stressed, more and more trapped.
She’s crying on the witness stand, as she says, “I hated it.”
She understood she had to provide additional collateral or her “first collateral” would be released. The collateral went into a Dropbox account. Nicole said she provided new collateral every month except for one month.
That was the month Alison presented them with a contract. The contract called for them to sign an agreement that if they ever spoke about DOS, they would lose a million dollars tied to any assets they had. [I doubt this contract could ever be enforced anywhere.]
At the time Nicole was thinking “Oh my god, this is really never going to end.”
Allison had booked to act in a play around that time and became busy. So the contract never was actually signed. It slipped through the cracks. That was the only month that collateral wasn’t demanded of Nicole.
As for collateral, Nicole was trying to keep her family out of it. Nicole and India each gave their credit card authorizations to Allison. Nicole wrote a letter saying that if she broke her word, her grandmother’s prized and beautiful 1938 wedding ring would be forfeited as collateral.
Michelle Hatchette [reportedly still in DOS – so her last name is given to protect innocent potential recruits] was one of Allison’s slaves.
Michelle’s family had a house in the Berkshires. They went there for a “bonding” trip. They hiked, made dinner, and had a nice time. After dinner, Allison said it was not just a bonding trip.
Nicole thought, “Oh gosh, what’s coming next?”
Allison explained she had another assignment, a close-up photo.
Allison said she’s going to take “a close up photo of all your pussies.”
Nicole pushed back. It was a back and forth with Allison but Nicole lost the argument.
They took off all their clothes. Each woman had to sit on the couch and spread her legs. Allison took the picture.
Danielle Roberts was first. Nicole was the last. When Michelle’s picture was taken, Allison said with delight, “It is a beautiful cunt.”
After pictures were taken, Allison said, “See, that wasn’t so bad.”
Allison ordered them to speak about how they felt. Nicole refused, not speaking was the only power she had left.
Allison said, “Oh, are you still throwing a fit over there?”
The slave pod of Allison Mack’s had nicknames. India was the Princess. Nicole was the Brat. Michelle was the Clown.
The “Brat” was not happy about having Allison take a closeup shot of her vagina. But she had no choice. She was a slave of Allison Mack [with plenty of blackmail-worthy collateral on hand to keep her in line] and the grand slave of Keith Alan Raniere, known also as the Vanguard, the smartest and most ethical man – they all said – in the world.