NEW YORK _ Keith Raniere, the charismatic leader of the controversial NXIVM "sex cult," had trouble having sex, one of the cult members testified Thursday in the trial of the so-called "Grandmaster."
According to the Mexican woman, who said she was locked away for nearly two years as punishment for disobeying Raniere, the group leader had trouble carrying out the new member's first initiation.
The woman, identified only as Daniela, said Raniere had erectile dysfunction, and that the first time they had sex, just after her 18th birthday, his branding iron would not heat up.
Daniela said Raniere tried to convince her that he had penetrated her, and that she just couldn't feel it because she was "in her own head."
The prosecutor asked if Raniere had problems "getting or maintaining an erection," and Daniela said he did.
Daniela, who is 33 now, said she joined the group in 2002, abandoning an opportunity to attend an advanced boarding school in the Swiss Alps. The trip to NXIVM's "intensive" program in Monterrey, Mexico, was a 16-day gift from her parents. Her parents had told her Raniere was "the smartest man in the world."
She said she was overwhelmed and impressed by the caliber of people there, all of whom were adults. She was by far the youngest.
"As a 16-year-old from a small town in Mexico, I was very intimated," Daniela said.
After conferring with her parents, she decided to give up a full scholarship and take a "year off" and go to New York.
Meanwhile, Daniela said, she ended up doing menial tasks at the NXIVM "center" instead of learning anything. She said Raniere eventually took an interest in her _ she would later learn it was a sexual interest _ and offered to "tutor" her, convincing her not to leave to pursue her formal education.
"I will teach you," she said he told her. "Don't go to school."
According to testimony from another witness, Daniela was later disciplined for refusing to take a "naked nap" with the leader. Witness Lauren Salzman said the woman was locked away in a room for nearly two years with nothing but a mattress and a pencil and paper.
Raniere, 58, has pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking and other charges. He claims his encounters with the alleged victims were consensual.
Federal authorities said the self-help organization is a cult rife with female slaves amassed and literally branded for the sexual pleasure of its leader.
