Nicole Daedone, center, founder and former CEO of OneTaste, departs Brooklyn federal court on Tuesday, June 13, 2023 in New York. (AP Photo/Jeenah Moon)
On a drizzly Brooklyn Monday, potential jurors filed into a federal courtroom where sat Nicole Daedone and Rachel Cherwitz, two California women accused of abusing staff at a controversial organization that promoted sex acts — namely women’s orgasms — as a method to achieve higher meaning, deeper universal connection and healing of trauma.
In reality, prosecutors say the pair used abusive and manipulative tactics to gain control over their employees and demanded absolute commitment to Daedone, the founder and CEO of OneTaste.
Members lived under constant surveillance in group homes and were encouraged to limit contact with people outside the community — and once under the control of Daedone and Cherwitz, the company's former head of sales, were subjected to further abuse, according to their indictment.
Daedone calls the group’s flagship practice “orgasmic meditation,” or OM, pronounced like the sacred sound and spiritual symbol commonly invoked in yoga and meditation. In court Monday for the first day of jury selection, several of her supporters held prayer beads as prospective jurors entered the courtroom; Daedone herself did the same, while silently chanting during pretrial hearings.
Far from the ancient, solitary practice of meditation, Daedone’s invention is a partnered practice that typically involves the methodical stroking of a woman's genitals for 15 minutes.
As part of their employment at the Bay Area-based OneTaste, members had to engage in sexual acts with current and prospective investors, clients, employees and beneficiaries, prosecutors say.
“Daedone and Cherwitz also instructed the OneTaste members to engage in sexual acts they found uncomfortable or repulsive as a requirement to obtain ‘freedom’ and ‘enlightenment’ and demonstrate their commitment to OneTaste and Daedone,” the indictment says.
OneTaste, which Daedone founded in 2004, hosted coaching and events where the cost to enroll ranged from hundreds to tens of thousands of dollars each. From its roots in California's tech hub, the operation spread across the globe, reaching New York City, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, London and other cities. It received celebrity endorsements from Khloe Kardashian and Gwenyth Paltrow.
Daedone and Cherwitz are accused of intentionally recruiting and grooming people who suffered past trauma and touted their teachings as a way to heal sexual trauma and dysfunction. Members went into debt if they couldn't pay, and the government says OneTaste leaders helped them take out new credit cards to pay their bills in some cases.
Employees were also promised wages and commissions that Daedone and Cherwitz later declined to pay, and their employment status or location could change without notice — part of the scheme to render them reliant on OneTaste and under its leaders’ control, according to the government.
“Resistance to the directives of the defendants was not tolerated. The defendants Nicole Daedone and Rachel Cherwitz subjected the OneTaste members to public shame, humiliation and workplace retaliation if they failed to adhere to the defendants' directives,” the indictment says.
Daedone and Cherwitz deny the charges and each pleaded not guilty to forced labor conspiracy. If convicted, they face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
“OneTaste was a community of consenting adults, not a criminal enterprise,” Juda Engelmayer, a spokesperson for the defendants, told Courthouse News.
Defense attorneys strongly contested the government’s evidence in the months leading up to trial, which was originally scheduled for January, accusing prosecutors of improperly using materials that were under attorney-client privilege or even outright fabricated.
In March, they succeeded in getting key evidence nixed from the government’s game plan after arguing that journals one witness was set to present detailing her OneTaste experience had in fact been faked for a 2022 Netflix documentary, "Orgasm Inc.: The Story of OneTaste."
“The government no longer believes that the disputed portions of the handwritten journals are authentic,” prosecutors said in a letter explaining they would no longer seek to admit the journals or call that witness.
Engelmayer pointed out that the government admission came months after the original trial date: “They were prepared to go to trial with bad information.”
“We’re prepared to expose the government’s tactics and prove that this is a political prosecution targeting unconventional ideas — not a case grounded in law or fact,” Engelmayer said.
Representing Daedone is attorney Jennifer Bonjean, whose high-profile sex crime defense client track record includes R. Kelly and Bill Cosby. Most recently she helmed the defense for Harvey Weinstein at the producer’s rape retrial in Manhattan, which is ongoing, but the scheduling overlap forced Daedone to jump ship and skip the remainder of Weinstein’s trial.
Trial before U.S. District Judge Diane Gujarati, a Donald Trump appointee, is expected to last about six weeks with more than 20 government witnesses taking the stand.
