Sex cult lawyer: ‘Being mean is not a crime’ 

BROOKLYN (CN) — Prosecutors say leaders of a Bay Area company described by witnesses as a “sex cult” groomed and manipulated employees into doing menial labor and sex work for little to no pay. A defense attorney on Wednesday said it was the government that was manipulating the narrative to fit a criminal scheme that didn’t exist.

The company’s founder, Nicole Daedone, 57, and former head of sales, Rachel Cherwitz, 44, each face one count of forced labor conspiracy for their dealings at OneTaste, a startup that branded sex acts as a form of meditation.

During four weeks of testimony, former employees who testified said they stayed in jobs where they were publicly humiliated, screamed at, sleep-deprived and ordered to do sexual favors for investors and wealthy clients because they feared losing their connection to a community that had become their whole world.

“They didn’t see themselves as victims. Not until the government came knocking years later,” said Celia Cohen, a defense attorney for Cherwitz, during closing arguments Wednesday, referencing social media posts and messages where they praised Daedone and OneTaste.

OneTaste clients paid thousands of dollars for courses and coaching programs in a practice Daedone dubbed “orgasmic meditation,” or OM, pronounced like the chant invoked in yoga and meditation. In stark contrast to the traditional solo practice of meditation, however, Daedone’s invention is a partnered sex act that involves methodically stroking a woman’s genitals for 15 minutes — or in the case of “male OM,” giving a man a hand job.

Former sales employees said they were expected to OM with anyone off the street. Some were assigned to sexually service OneTaste’s main investor in its early days, Reese Jones, who was Daedone’s boyfriend at the time.

Cohen, of the firm Ballard Spahr, said that while witnesses may now look back and regret being part of the community in their twenties, they were willing participants at the time.

“Every witness admitted this is what they came for. OMing changed their lives and they loved it,” Cohen said. “They weren’t being forced to stay, forced to have sex. They wanted it … they wanted it badly.”

Witnesses also described Cherwitz as a cruel and abusive boss who ignited fear that if they stepped out of line, they would be publicly shamed, shunned and chastised.

“If she was calling people names and making them feel bad, let me be clear: Being mean is not a crime,” Cohen said.

If the punishment for disobeying the group’s rules was social ostracization, she reasoned, “we might as well go out and arrest the high school bullies.”

Cohen encouraged jurors not to look at OneTaste through the lens of what’s typical at most companies and reminded jurors it’s not their job to judge the OneTaste teachings.

“You are not here to determine whether they violated some kind of standard of decency,” she said.

In the government’s view, it’s more straightforward.

“No company has the right to direct employees to have sex with one another or with potential clients,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Nina Gupta said during her summation. “It is absolutely not normal to provide sexual services for your boss’ partner.”

Debt and indoctrination

Some witnesses said they went into thousands of dollars of debt while working at OneTaste — some were immediately indebted to the company itself, having signed up for courses they couldn’t afford as part of a work trade program. Others, including at Cherwitz’s urging, took on tens of thousands in credit card debt.

At the same time, OneTaste was indebted to Jones — and to keep him happy while sales people worked around the clock to profit enough to pay him back, Daedone purportedly provided him with a “string of sexual servants.”

“These women lived with him, they cooked for him and they gave him daily hand jobs,” Gupta said, speaking of three witnesses’ testimony that spanned more than a decade. “They did this so that Reese Jones would continue to fund the company.”

One witness, Lianna, said Cherwitz ordered her not to sleep until her sales goals were met. Another witness, Max, wasn’t paid for months while working hours that ended just before 1 a.m. They could not take days off, some witnesses said.

When employees pushed back on their lack of pay, Cherwitz showed disdain, according to messages shown in court. Gupta recounted that “she called the fact that people wanted to be paid ‘so fucking dumbass stupid.’”

Instructions at OneTaste often came through a shared language that reinforced Daedone’s beliefs — for instance, members were lectured if they were “off stroke,” both a literal reference to the genital-stroking practices and a metaphor for actions that contradicted the group’s goals.

“Nicole Daedone taught these concepts so that her employees would only say yes to her,” Gupta said.

Several witnesses said they were “brainwashed” by the group and had a difficult time talking to regular people after leaving the organization.

“The way that I understood reality and what my identity was was really just based on groupthink at OneTaste,” Max said during their testimony. “I didn’t have a sense of self anymore; it’s hard for me to understand even now what happened to me there.”

Another witness, Becky, corroborated this and said she underwent daily verbal abuse that escalated to unwanted sexual touching by Cherwitz, her boss, who toward the end of Becky’s tenure called her a “virus,” scolded her and directed the rest of the group not to talk to Becky or the virus would “infect” them, too.

“And they listened. Everybody stopped talking to me,” Becky said.

Shortly afterward, Becky declined to participate in an “OM” demonstration — a major violation. After some back and forth, she got up anyway and participated. Then Cherwitz took over and began “stroking” her. Becky said knew she was supposed to project her enthusiasm to the room, and she tried to fake it.

“It didn’t feel good. I didn’t want to be there. I had said no,” she testified.

The session turned into another public humiliation, Becky said, with Cherwitz again laying into her, telling Becky that her orgasm was “broken” and she was “not good at this anymore.”

Becky had had enough of Cherwitz, but she testified, “I still foolishly, crazily wanted to be committed to this purpose, this mission.” She got transferred back to San Francisco instead.

More than a decade later, Becky said she’s still recovering psychologically from her experience in OneTaste.

“It’s really hard to be in the room right now, for example,” she testified with a nervous laugh.

As she walked jurors through the monthlong trial testimony, Gupta laid out the tools the government says Daedone and Cherwitz used in their alleged forced labor conspiracy: indoctrination, manipulation; public shaming; disruption of personal relationships; and psychological, sexual and financial abuse.

Gupta said, “This case is about a group of women who gave everything to these defendants: Their money, their time, their bodies, their dignity and ultimately their sanity.”

Defense closing arguments will continue Thursday.

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