Forced labor verdict sticks in sex cult leader case

BROOKLYN (CN) — A federal judge on Monday denied a bid to overturn the forced labor conspiracy conviction against two leaders of a Bay Area company that sold ritualized sex acts as a form of meditation.

Nicole Daedone, 57, and Rachel Cherwitz, 44, the respective CEO and head of sales at OneTaste, failed to meet the “heavy burden” required to win their Rule 29 motion, U.S. District Judge Diane Gujarati said, after making arguments the judge previously addressed and others that fall outside the rule’s scope.

“Defendants’ reiterated and/or repackaged arguments are no more persuasive now than when previously raised,” the Barack Obama appointee wrote in the 5-page order.

Jurors convicted the pair on one count each after a five-week trial where former employees testified that they were expected to work long hours for little or no pay and perform OneTaste’s core practice of “orgasmic meditation” — essentially stroking a woman’s genitals for 15 minutes, branded as a means to deeper universal connection — with “anybody off the street.”

Daedone also instructed women who worked for her to sexually service her former boyfriend, Reese Jones, an investor in the company, and Cherwitz directed employees to have sex to break up tension and boost sales.

Gujarati swatted down Daedone and Cherwitz’s claim that the guilty verdict was based on an unconstitutional prosecution of their belief system and that the government’s evidence was insufficient.

“As the government points out, certain of the arguments advanced by defendants do not properly fall under Rule 29, notwithstanding defendants’ efforts to shoehorn those arguments into a sufficiency-of-the-evidence challenge,” Gujarati said. “Assessed under the well-settled legal standards governing Rule 29 motions, the trial evidence … is sufficient to defeat the motion.”

Throughout trial, witnesses recounted similar stories about their entry to OneTaste: They sought community and higher purpose and believed Daedone’s teachings would provide it — but as they became more deeply involved with the group, they lost their sense of self and the outside world. They described love-bombing, public shaming, manipulation and sleep deprivation — they worked late and slept in shared beds assigned by OneTaste leaders — and the use of a shared vernacular that, along with surveillance practices, helped leaders keep tight control over their time and relationships.

For instance, Daedone, who has described herself as a survivor of incest, taught women that they should learn to “find the turn-on in every stroke” and to “always be a yes.”

Through a concept called “aversion practice,” OneTaste leaders pushed employees to participate in sexual experiences they weren’t into. Saying no was a sign they’d departed from their spiritual path. And those who wanted to have sex only with people they were interested in were scorned for believing that theirs was a “golden pussy.”

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

Multiple former members characterized OneTaste as a sex cult. Defense lawyers described it 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.

Witnesses agreed that no one physically forced them to stay — but said they understood that saying no to Cherwitz or Daedone meant being shunned from their sole source of connection, purpose and professional development.

“Nearly every trial witness described how Daedone, Cherwitz, and their coconspirators engaged in a campaign of indoctrination, grooming, isolation, manipulation, use of past trauma, monitoring, public shaming, relationship disruption, sexual abuse, physical exhaustion, and financial harm to force the labor of certain employees. The totality of these coercive tactics caused the victims to perform labor and services under serious harm,” prosecutors wrote in their opposition memorandum.

Daedone and Cherwitz were each convicted of one count that carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. The two women were out on bail ahead of trial, then remanded following their conviction.

Attorneys for the defendants did not immediately return a request for comment Monday.

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