a quick dispatch from the OneTaste trial
what it's like to sit in a federal courtroom for seven hours
Hello from New York City, where I’ve been watching some of the OneTaste trial happening in the federal courthouse in Brooklyn.
I’ll be writing more about the trial in my upcoming book about OneTaste, and I’ll post some more thoughts about the proceedings here, too. For now, I wanted to share some on-the-ground color of what it’s like to watch the trial unfold.
Getting inside:
The courtroom is a fortress. To get there, you pull open heavy doors, surrender your phone and laptop to guards, go through a security checkpoint, head up the elevators, then through another checkpoint. No electronic devices, food or water allowed into the courtroom.
You pass through more double doors and enter the courtroom. No windows, high ceilings. The jury – seven women, five men, and a handful of alternates – sit off to the left. They can see the prosecutors, defense attorneys, the judge, and the two women on trial: Nicole Daedone, OneTaste’s co-founder, and Rachel Cherwitz, its former head of sales.
No cameras or recording allowed inside federal courthouses, so the only way to see the trial is to show up and sit in the gallery. Gallery seating is three rows of hard wood benches, which look like pews and are not comfortable. (Experienced court journalists know to bring a seat cushion)
The proceedings are somehow both dramatic and dull. The stakes are high: Nicole and Rachel could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted. There are moments of heart-wrenching testimony and heated cross-examination. But the questioning can also be slow, rigid, and repetitive. Sometimes it devolves into extended back-and-forth about trying to admit certain documents into evidence.
Nicole and Rachel mostly sit quietly and occasionally lean in to whisper to their lawyers. Nicole thumbs her prayer beads. (Nicole “has been and is a devout practitioner of first Zen and then Tibetan Buddhism,” her attorney said during opening statements.) At one point, an observer clambered off the gallery bench and down onto the floor, where she sat with legs folded in lotus position.
So far, the witnesses have included several women and one man who were involved in OneTaste. Several of the women have testified about being directed by OneTaste’s leaders to have sexual contact with potential customers or an investor for the company. The witnesses are questioned anywhere from several hours to several days – direct, cross-examination, re-direct, re-cross. Officials escort the witnesses in and out of the courtroom.
Who’s watching from the gallery? The days that I’ve been there, it’s been a mix, including some current OneTaste associates, former OneTaste associates, and reporters who cover the Brooklyn courthouse. Whenever someone new walks into the courtroom, everyone glances over to size up who they are and what role they’re playing here.
In the end, though, the audience that really matters is the jury. And we’re still several weeks away from knowing whether they believe that what happened at OneTaste was a crime.
More to come. In the meantime, there’s been coverage of opening statements and witness testimony in Courthouse News (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) and the NY Times (1).