Allison Pleads Guilty!

[Doranwen]

We won't know the full details of her plea until its made public, assuming that even happens. Her trial is set for September, and we have no idea how long that will last.

I hope they do eventually give us more than what we know for now.

Accepting a plea deal means she's not actually going to trial. You probably meant her sentencing, which will be in September, yes, after the trial is over - assuming the last three defendants don't all flip. But it's highly unlikely that Keith Raniere would, and Clare Bronfman may be deluded that her wealth can save her somehow, so I bet there will definitely be a trial. (I am expecting Kathy Russell to flip before the trial actually starts, though - will be surprised if she doesn't.)

Edit: Looks like Clare and Kathy both are flipping, so Keith is now alone. If it goes to trial (as I don't think they could offer him any plea deal worth anything at this point), we'll certainly be seeing Allison testify at some point, so that'll be interesting - and the level of her cooperation there will affect her sentencing.

https://artvoice.com/2019/04/19/breaking-news-clare-bronfman-kathy-russell-to-plead-guilty-today/

[Doranwen]

This has some hopeful lines in it: https://hollywoodlife.com/2019/05/10...aniere-update/

Particularly: "The spell has been broken for Allison. What I hear from my sources is that she’s no longer under Keith’s control. She’s still in the process of trying to come to terms with everything and I’m hearing she’s very bruised right now, but she has cut ties with Keith Raniere and she is now facing up to the ugly truth about him."

I hope this is true. I feel for her - it doesn't excuse the things she did for Raniere, but I definitely don't think she ever set out to do evil. Most of the people in NXIVM (other than the very top leadership - because I'm not sure about Clare Bronfman) were good people who got taken in by a sociopath. As Frank Parlato says on the post linked below, Raniere "could get intelligent and good people to gradually get sucked into his cult. Some he turned evil, some he got to commit bad acts slowly thinking it was not so bad – that the ends justified the means, and some he got them to work without even knowing he was rotten to the core, got them to think and believe and dedicate their lives to his cause, thinking the whole time it was a great cause, it was in the cause of humanity and that he was a great and good man."

https://artvoice.com/2019/05/11/mark-vicente-is-a-genuine-hero-of-the-nxivm-saga/

He described Allison as having been "corrupted" - and I'm hoping his words above mean that she really is waking up to what she's become and trying to heal from it.

[Doranwen]

It sounds as if she won't be testifying after all, and I can see why in one of the comments to this post: https://artvoice.com/2019/06/13/pros...ed-to-testify/

"it was clear AM wasnt going to testify as soon as nicole started. having her testify afterward wouldnt make any sense. it would be like having lauren testify only after dani did – when the jury would be much less likely to be sympathetic to her.
my guess is that AM is very unstable and would not do well under cross. she would make lauren look completely composed and stoic. also, the defense might use her testifying as a way to deflect blame onto her and away from keith. especially considering how suggestible she is, they might even have been able to push a false confession out of her. better to just leave her out of it."

I would have liked to see her testify, but they do have a point - I suspect her mental state is still quite poor. Unfortunately, as that article suggests, she may get more years in prison as a result (Lauren's testimony made the judge quite sympathetic, it seems - and it's likely the result of that will be a significant downward departure in sentencing - which Allison won't have a chance at). Some are predicting 3-5 years at least (the charge she pleaded to has a maximum sentence of 40 years)…

[Eleidich]

And what finally happened with AM? I read somewhere that was her idea branding the women. That’s sick.... but not sure if that’s true.

[Doranwen]

She's awaiting sentencing currently, which, given the judge's sentences for both Clare and Keith, could be longer than the recommendation (if he sees her as unremorseful) or perhaps not as bad (if he sees her as as much of a victim as anything).

Oh, Keith wanted everyone to think it was her idea, but if you listen to the conversation (or read a transcript of it) where he talked with her about it, it's very much:
KR: "this would be good"
AM: "ok"
KR: "and they should do this"
AM: "yeah"
for the entire conversation

She's just going along with anything he said. Her mental state was not the best at that point due to the 500-calorie diet and the lack of sleep due to readiness drills, so I doubt she could have been a mastermind of anything. I'm reasonably sure she did NOT invent that idea, it was all Keith. But she was definitely set up to take the fall as much as possible, even to having an article written quoting her something to that effect. Fortunately Judge Garaufis was not at all fooled by Keith's supposed lack of culpability in everything, and sentenced him to 120 years in prison; he'll never be a free man again. What will happen with Allison is still up in the air, but I'm hoping for some leniency (with the stipulation that she's not to have contact with anyone still in NXIVM) and that after a couple years she can have a chance to rebuild something of a life again. I don't think she ever set out to hurt other people, but Keith deliberately took everyone's good intentions and used those against them to turn off their ability to reason and trust their own judgments, and got quite a few good-intentioned people to do things that hurt others. Allison wasn't the only victim-turned-perpetrator, she was just the perfect pick for the front person because she was attractive and somewhat famous.

The Frank Report frequently has NXIVM-related updates, so I keep up with the latest there.