Day 22 - June 12, 2019

Richard Guerci completed testimony about Pamela Cafritz's finances and the defense legal-expense trust. He reported approximately $135,000 in American Express charges from Cafritz's death on November 7, 2016, through February 8, 2018. On cross-examination, he agreed that Raniere had resigned as executor without relinquishing his beneficial interest and had signed his own name on the reviewed checks. Guerci had no evidence that Raniere signed Cafritz's name. Chiropractor Keith Donato identified 35 receipts charged to Cafritz's card after her death, all covering Raniere's treatment and some also covering Marianna's. He said Marianna manually entered the card numbers; he had initially assumed she used her own card. Guerci testified that most money paid from the $14 million defense trust went to very few law firms, although many received payments. He clarified that he was not offering an opinion on whether the payments were appropriate or legal. The court declined to assure jurors that the entire arrangement was proper. Instead, it instructed them that third-party payment of legal fees is not inherently improper and limited consideration of the trust evidence to the government's claim that an enterprise existed. Rick Alan Ross described his intervention work for the Sutton family, publication of critical ESP reports, and resulting civil litigation. He testified that he received private bank and telephone records and was told investigators hired by NXIVM had obtained them. The court admitted a Forbes article only as evidence of steps taken by people involved, not for the truth of its assertions. Ross also acknowledged a criminal acquittal and an adverse civil judgment exceeding $2 million arising from an earlier involuntary adult deprogramming, after which he stopped accepting such interventions. On cross-examination, he acknowledged that the Martin and Hochman reports were not peer-reviewed and that their authors had not interviewed the Sutton family or taken NXIVM courses. He corrected his account of a contribution check's handling, acknowledging deposit into the Institute account while maintaining that the funds ultimately paid legal costs. FBI forensic examiner Brian Booth described hard-drive analysis and photograph metadata. He read an October 18, 2005 EXIF timestamp for IMG_0078 and a serial number matching the camera in Government Exhibit 520. He acknowledged an unexplained file-system date discrepancy and identified EXIF as his preferred reference for when the photograph was taken. The court admitted image exhibits over defense objections and restricted jurors to designated binder pages. A Yahoo custodian authenticated account records, and a stipulation identified people in specified photographs. After jurors left, the court approved a planned agent display of a binder containing approximately 18 charged images described as child pornography, followed by optional further viewing by jurors.