Brooklyn jury finds ‘sex cult’ leaders guilty of forced labor conspiracy

BROOKLYLN (CN) — After more than 12 hours of deliberation, jurors on Monday convicted two former leaders of a sex-focused Bay Area company on a count each of conspiracy to commit forced labor, agreeing with prosecutors’ argument that the pair manipulated and coerced victims to do menial jobs and sex work for little to no pay.

Defense attorney Jennifer Bonjean described the verdict in the five-week federal trial as a “punch to the gut."

“Not how we had hoped things would shake out, but these are very strong women — they are absolute inspirations, and they will make it through this storm, and so will we. The fight is only beginning,” she told reporters.

The defendants plan to appeal.

“Even as lawyers, some cases hurt more than others, and this one really hurts,” Bonjean said. “We believe fully not only in their actual, factual legal innocence, but in their humanity and their goodness as people.”

Bonjean represents**  Nicole Daedone, who founded OneTaste in**** San**** Francisco  ** in 2004. The company established branches in cities including New York City, London, Austin, Texas, and Boulder, Colorado, and later sold the city branches to franchisees.

Daedone, now 57, sold her shares in the business for $12 million in 2017.

OneTaste’s core product was “orgasmic meditation” or OM, pronounced like the sacred sound and spiritual symbol commonly invoked in yoga and meditation. Despite its branding, “OMing” is a far cry from those ancient practices; instead, it’s a 15-minute partnered practice that involves stroking a woman’s genitals — or in the case of “male OMing,” giving a man a hand job.

Former employees who testified at trial likened the company, which touted its practice as a means to deeper universal connection and healing of trauma, to a “sex cult.”

They described Rachel Cherwitz, 44, Daedone’s co-defendant and OneTaste’s former head of sales, as a cruel and abusive manager, and said top brass preached women’s empowerment while ordering them to sexually service men via the “OM” practice and otherwise, particularly potential investors and high-paying clients.

“It was the expectation that I would be open to OMing with anybody off the street,” said Becky, the first of eight women who testified for the government.

Leaders also assigned members “research partners” with whom they would share a bed and “practice” a relationship in communal housing, and broke up relationships that didn’t serve the group’s interests. Cherwitz even outright directed employees to have sex to break up sexual tension, according to testimony.

Witnesses said they worked around the clock on little sleep and for little pay, or as volunteers training to become employees. They were instructed to evangelize the company at all times and to respond promptly to a constant stream of messages; if they needed to take a shower or use the bathroom, they had to notify the group chat. When Daedone visited, they had to clean bathrooms, make beds, grocery shop for her and drive her to appointments for hair, nails and tanning.

Several employees worked for years to pay off debt for monthslong courses that cost over $10,000 to become trained as an “OM” coach.

Daedone and Cherwitz were each charged with one count that carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

Defense lawyers characterized the OneTaste community as a sexually liberated environment where open relations flourished, and argued that the government’s victim witnesses, who were in their 20s when they joined the group, had full agency and could leave at any time.

“Every witness admitted this is what they came for. OMing changed their lives and they loved it,” Ballard Spahr attorney Celia Cohen, Cherwitz’s defense lawyer, said during her closing argument. “They weren’t being forced to stay, forced to have sex. They wanted it … they wanted it badly.”

Throughout trial, witnesses repeatedly agreed on cross-examination that no one had physically forced them to stay — but said they understood that saying no to Cherwitz or Daedone meant being shunned from a community that had become their sole source of connection, purpose and professional development.

“Just because the defense was so flippant about what these women went through does not mean you have to be,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Kayla Bensing said Friday in her rebuttal argument.

U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Joseph Nocella Jr. praised the verdict in a statement Monday.

“The jury’s verdict has unmasked Daedone and Cherwitz for who they truly are: grifters who preyed on vulnerable victims, by making empty promises of sexual empowerment and wellness only to manipulate them into performing labor and services for the defendants’ benefit,” he said. “I commend the witnesses who testified at trial notwithstanding the trauma that they experienced at the defendants’ direction. It is my hope that the just conclusion of this process will bring them closure, and that future charlatans think twice about exploiting human beings in this manner.”

The government didn’t seek to remand the defendants, who are out on bail packages, but U.S. District Judge Diane Gujarati, a Donald Trump appointee, said she would consider all options under the statute and set a bail hearing for Tuesday morning.

Outside of court Monday, Daedone appeared upbeat, flanked by defense attorneys and supporters.

“No matter what I do, I’m just going to keep doing the exact same thing I do wherever I am,” she said. “There is nothing but the original aim that I set out for — that’s liberation of all people, liberation of women. I’ll do that wherever I am.”

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