Maegan Rees completed records testimony, and Dawn Hughes testified about coercive control and trauma without evaluating case participants. Nicole described joining DOS, providing collateral, and trying to leave. The court instructed jurors that expert testimony was not proof that the charged crimes occurred.
Full day summary
Maegan Rees completed testimony about account records, photographs, and communications. She read image dates, described similarities between furnishings in photographs and video, and read records of Camila's appendix surgery and subsequent treatment. While disclaiming medical expertise, she identified abdominal and leg scarring in a photograph that the court permitted jurors to inspect. She also read Cami's email describing a seduction assignment and consequences for disobedience. Cross-examination addressed the loss of WhatsApp encryption when chats were exported as email attachments and the limits of Rees's knowledge about email recovery. On redirect, she confirmed reviewing similar chats in Camila's Gmail and Raniere's Yahoo accounts.
The court accepted Dawn Hughes as an expert in clinical and forensic psychology, specializing in interpersonal violence and traumatic stress, over renewed defense objections. Hughes emphasized that she had reviewed no case materials and interviewed no participants. Offering general research and clinical knowledge, she discussed gradual disclosure, trauma-related memory difficulties, coercive control, and continued contact or compliance as ways of managing danger. She acknowledged that sex within a coercive relationship can sometimes be consensual, emphasizing the circumstances and a person's ability to refuse. Defense questioning addressed research populations, fabrication, and individualized assessment. Hughes acknowledged limits on generalizing findings from people in treatment to nonclinical populations.
Nicole began her account of entering NXIVM and Allison Mack's mentorship group. She testified that, after disclosing depression and suicidal feelings, she provided damaging letters she described as false and a sexually explicit video as collateral. She said Raniere's involvement and any sexual component had not been disclosed before she accepted a lifetime commitment to The Vow, later known to her as DOS. Nicole described restrictions, an attempt to leave, Mack's refusal, and her resulting belief that departure would cause her collateral to be released. She also described Mack directing her to contact Raniere repeatedly.
After disputes over the expert-instruction wording, the court told jurors that expert testimony was not proof that the charged crimes occurred and could be accepted or rejected, wholly or partly, like other testimony.