https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/NXIVM-loyalist-Danielle-Roberts-loses-license-for-16501584.php
Doctor who branded women for Raniere loses medical license
Danielle Roberts, second NXIVM doctor punished for misconduct, faulted for saying she wasn't "brainwashed, yet she expressed no real remorse" about involvement in group
ALBANY – The state Department of Health has revoked the medical license of NXIVM loyalist Danielle Roberts, the physician who branded the initials of cult leader Keith Raniere onto the pelvic areas of 17 of her fellow “slaves.”
In a 3-0 decision, a hearing committee agreed with allegations of the department's Board of Professional Medical Conduct that Roberts engaged in 12 forms of professional misconduct. The committee said Roberts had tremendous potential as a physician but was "deeply troubled" by her refusal to admit regrets of her poor choices.
"(Roberts) denies being brainwashed, yet she expressed no real remorse, which represented to the hearing committee her distorted reality and the very real concern that others remain vulnerable to her future brandings," the decision said.
Roberts, who belonged to Raniere’s secret “master/slave” club known as Dominus Obsequious Sororium (DOS), used a cauterizing pen to brand the women. As preparation, she was branded herself by an artist in Brooklyn — and practiced on "fruit and pigs knuckles," the decision said.
When women were branded, they cried, screamed, squealed, flipped off the table and bit down on a towel. One woman described the experience as "incredibly painful." Another woman said it felt like "an acute fire in the most sensitive part of my body," the decision said.
The decision followed hearings held between June 2020 and March 2021.
Roberts, 40, a doctor since 2009 and onetime hospitalist at St. Peter’s Hospital in Albany, committed misconduct that included willfully abusing a patient, practicing medicine with gross negligence, moral unfitness, services not authorized by the patient and failing to use appropriate infection control practices, the decision stated.
Roberts, formerly of Halfmoon and Long Island, is the second doctor in NXIVM to lose a medical license. In 2019, the department revoked the license of NXIVM member Brandon Porter, who conducted human brain activity experiments and other unsanctioned research in Halfmoon on NXIVM-linked people.
Raniere, 61, the self-help guru known as "Vanguard," whose philosophies were behind the teachings at NXIVM and its Executive Success Programs (ESP) based in Colonie, is serving 120 years in federal prison for his trial conviction of sex trafficking, forced labor conspiracy and racketeering charges.
Roberts could not be reached. Her attorney, Anthony Z. Scher, told the Times Union that he believed the decision was legally incorrect. Scher argued that Roberts was acting as a "branding technician" and not in her capacity as a doctor. He said Roberts is considering an appeal of the ruling to the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court's Third Department in Albany.
A Long Island-based general surgeon, David Mayer, testified at the hearings on Roberts' behalf that she could "put aside her white coat" during brandings. The decision said Mayer's argument was inconsistent with his referring to himself as "always a physician."
Roberts, who joined NXIVM in 2013, was recruited into DOS, also known as “The Vow,” in 2016. In DOS, various tiers of "slaves" took lifetime vows of obedience to "masters" who, in turn, were slaves for higher-ranking masters who, in turn, were slaves to even higher masters. At the top of the DOS pyramid were eight "first-line" slaves and then, at its zenith, stood Raniere, the only man in DOS and its “grand master.”
The women repeatedly handed over blackmail material known as "collateral" that could be used against them if they ever turned on DOS. On the command of Raniere, DOS members lived on only a few hundred calories a day, wore chains to symbolize collars, were in some cases ordered to sexually please Raniere and, for many others, were branded with the symbol they later learned was Raniere's initials.
Roberts was a "slave" for DOS master Allison Mack, the former actress on the television show "Smallville" who was among Raniere's eight highest-ranking "first-line" slaves in DOS. Raniere instructed Mack that women were to be branded in a sacrificial position and to request the branding so as to not appear coerced.
The decision noted that Roberts said she joined NXIVM to enrich her skills as a doctor.
"The evidence shows, however, that she deliberately chose to adhere to her DOS 'vows of obedience' instead of providing the women she branded with 'all the things that a physician does' because to do so would have resulted in 'breaking (her) vow' and 'went quite the counter to what the whole purpose was,'" the decision said.
"In other words, when faced with any conflict between NXIVM and her responsibilities as a physician, she chose NXIVM," the decision stated. "For these reasons, the hearing committee believes she abdicated her values as a physician and failed her profession, herself, and everyone else involved."
Roberts performed the brandings, which took 20 to 45 minutes to complete, using a cauterizing pen on women who were not given anesthesia, the decision said.
"While an electrocautery device can be used as a scalpel, it is not intended to be used directly on the skin surface because it can cause significantly more skin damage extending beyond the tip or point of contact," the decision said.
The ruling said that Roberts was evasive, defiant and inconsistent when she testified at the hearing. She refused to disclose the circumstances of joining NXIVM, the whereabouts of videotapes of brandings and was hesitant to admit the symbol in the brand was Raniere's initials — then acknowledged it, the decision said.
The committee, in a 2-1 ruling, found Roberts also committed professional misconduct in 2016 when she failed to report a flu-like communicable disease outbreak that severely infected attendees at the YMCA Silver Bay resort on Lake George. The conference, which drew 438 people including 76 children, was at the site where NXIVM for years held "V-Week," an annual weeklong celebration of Raniere's birthday.
She was among NXIVM loyalists who in 2020 danced outside Raniere's former federal lock-up in Brooklyn in a show of support. Roberts is on a website for "The Dossier Project," made of admitted DOS members who defend its purpose and claim that it no longer exists.
Mack, her former "master," cooperated with prosecutors and now rejects NXIVM and DOS. The actress was sentenced to three years in federal prison for racketeering and racketeering conspiracy.
