Day: April 13, 2025

IN THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK, A CRIME OF IDEAS

In the Eastern District of New York, the US Attorney indicted Nicole Daedone and Rachel Cherwitz on a single charge of forced labor conspiracy. Not forced labor, but conspiracy. A crime of ideas. The difference was the idea was built around orgasms.

The two women from San Francisco, Daedone and Cherwitz, called their company OneTaste. A strange name. But the world is strange. People go looking for something they cannot name. Sometimes they find it.

But the government said Nicole and Rachel promised sex too boldly. Sold the idea of sex as healing too well. It was a conspiracy. A plan. A trick. Forced labor, without ropes, locks or cages. Only words about sex.

THE JUDGE FROM A DISTANT STAR

Judge Diane Gujarati sat above it all. As if from a distant star. As if the real crime wasn’t what OneTaste sold, or how they sold it, but that they sold an idea about orgasm and sex that sex need not be dirty or guilty.

You needn’t believe it. You did not have to take a course. In fact you had to pay just to get in.

There are a few things that are hard to understand. One of them is sex. That is why people lie about it. They said Daedone and Cherwitz were criminals. But what they really were — were saleswomen. Selling what everybody in America sells — hope. Except their hope sounded like this: Love is not a trick. Desire is not shame. Sex is not your enemy.

THE PEOPLE WHO CAME LOOKING FOR SOMETHING

People came to OneTaste. Lonely people. Brave people. Lost people. Strong people. People with old wounds. People with wallets. People looking for something that didn’t fit inside a Sunday church or a Tuesday meeting or a regular kind of life. And sometimes they find what they are looking for. Sometimes they don’t.

Sometimes, years later, after life has moved them to a different city, in a different house, beside a different kind of emptiness — they look back and say: That thing I believed in — that thing I worked for — that was a mistake. And in America, mistakes need someone to blame.

So here came the lawyers. And here came the government. And the charge Forced Labor Conspiracy. Not because anyone was chained or physically restrained. But because someone dreamed too loud. Sold too big. Had more sex than they wanted. Or maybe conflating sex with love loved too hard and lost despite the sex. And the subsequent shame. The government called it Forced Labor Conspiracy.

But it was just work. Not forced. And hope. And people trying to build a life out of whatever they’ve got.

The court was in Brooklyn. Probably because no other jurisdiction would try it – certainly not San Francisco where the company was from. But what OneTaste did – absent selling dreams about sex – could have been anywhere. Because this happens everywhere.

WHAT HAPPENS EVERYWHERE

It happens in gyms and churches and companies and marriages and towns like Brooklyn. People believe. People try. People fail. But if you put sex in the middle —then the failure is not just failure anymore. Now it’s a crime.

That was the lesson in the Eastern District of New York. Not that sex is dangerous. But that dreams about sex are. Especially if they don’t come true. And so it ends like this: Maybe Nicole goes home. Maybe Rachel goes home. Maybe the jury says guilty. Maybe not.

But somewhere out there, tonight, in San Francisco, Austin or Harlem or wherever hormones rage or hearts are still seeking love— someone is lighting candles. Someone is writing the words. You can be anything you want to be.  Maybe you can get there if for once in your life you understood this crazy drive within you. It is not dirty. It is sex and maybe you ought to share it. Come in. Sit down. Be seen. Be touched. Be healed, maybe. Or maybe not. But be human here, if nowhere else. Learn. There’s room for you here.

And what a strange thing, in America, to sell that.

THE AGE OF REGRET AS EVIDENCE

Of course, you must understand: #MeToo has remade the world around sex. And the government was first to jump in. Every regret can now be a crime – if sex was involved. Every disappointment can be under federal jurisdiction – if it involved sex.

To be clear: The crime charged against OneTaste was not a sex charge. It was forced labor conspiracy. Not forced labor.

It wasn’t Sexual Abuse, Abusive Sexual Contact, Sex Trafficking, Rape, Sexual Assault, Sexual Exploitation, Indecent Exposure, Voyeurism, Prostitution, Solicitation, Sexual Harassment, Sexual Misconduct, Sexual Battery, Sexual Imposition, Public Lewdness, Sexual Torture, Sexual Coercion, Sexual Extortion, Sexual Servitude, Sexual Abuse in the Workplace, Sexual Abuse in Schools (they ran educational classes).

Consder this well: With all those sex crimes to choose from, the government did not charge one sex crime. They did not charge forced labor – sexual or otherwise. The government charged only conspiracy to commit forced labor.

THE NEW CRIME: SEXUAL DREAM FRAUD

The real crime was sexual dream fraud. They said the people who came to OneTaste were victims. But this is how it happens in every city and town, in every church, every company: People believe. People work. People love. Then they lose. Then they sue.

But if there is sex involved, then the government says: It was a crime.

Nicole Daedone sold a dream. Rachel Cherwitz asked people to work hard for that dream. The crime is that the dream involved sexual freedom. They sold it the way Wall Street sells futures or Silicon Valley sells data —but with the idea of freedom through sex. (You didn’t have to buy it. No one forced you to take a class. No one stopped you from leaving.)

THE CRIME OF FORCED MEANING

Forced labor conspiracy? It was just another story of people who wanted something more. Of people who lost. Of people who loved or thought they did and hoped too long. The prosecution of OneTaste was never about forced labor. It was about forced meaning.

The State had discovered the power to criminalize sexual ideas. Not sex acts.

Thirty thousand took the class. The government found a handful who later regretted. And regret was the new informer.

If this works, there will be trials for other crimes of language. A meditation coach who promised peace. A life consultant who promised love. A church that promised heaven. And the citizens could learn silence.

There was a country where you could dream in public. There was a country where you could fail. They called it a conspiracy because that was the word for Thoughtcrime when spoken aloud.

THE LAST ROOM

Daedone and Cherwitz sold the dream of ecstasy, purpose, connection — to adults who signed forms, paid fees. Who came and left when they chose.

Yet — to the government this was not freedom. Because freedom was no longer measured by action. It is measured by feeling. If a person felt regret — that is evidence. If a person felt shame — that is injury. Because there was sex. If a person failed — that was proof. The prohibition of failure is what it was — the abolition of risk.

In the Eastern District of New York, if they have their way, Consent is not Consent. Words are Force. Dreams are Crimes.

But if they escape the Brooklyn prosecutors, they’ll rent a room. They’ll light candles and hand out flyers and say,  You were born to get up. You were born to love louder than your wounds. Say this sadness I am carrying — I made it myself. And then say the braver thing: I can unmake it. Whatever you need, you have. Whatever strength is needed, it’s waiting inside you. Come in. There’s room for you here

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The post The Government vs. Orgasm: The Case of OneTaste appeared first on Frank Report.