Former members of group say “Kay Rose” rallies are meant for cult-like group’s leader

NEW YORK – Outside Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center, a group of people dance every night to support federal inmates, including one in particular: Kay Rose.

There is, however, no inmate by that name in the Brooklyn facility — or anywhere else in the federal prison population, for that matter. But “Kay Rose” shares the initials of someone who has spent the past two years in the downstate lockup: Keith Raniere, the leader of the formerly influential and now shattered organization known as NXIVM.

Former NXIVM members say what has been billed by a group called We Are As You as a campaign to buck up prisoners as they live under peril of COVID-19 infections is being organized by a group of the remaining loyal disciples of Raniere, the 59-year-old convicted sex trafficker from Halfmoon known within his cult-like personal growth group as “Vanguard.”

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We Are As You has met outside the detention center every night at 8 p.m. since July 3. Its members — who post about their activities on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter — blast music, dance and even do backflips. While the former NXIVM members acknowledge it’s impossible to know how many of the participants are familiar with Raniere, they say the organizers of the street rallies have a single audience member in mind.

“It’s a cover movement for Keith Raniere — it’s a Trojan Horse,” said Mark Vicente, a filmmaker and former high-ranking NXIVM member who was a key witness against Raniere during his trial last year. “Why are all the key figures Raniere loyalists? This is all in tribute to Raniere.”

Vicente told the Times Union that he recognized at least six people leading the dancers as well-known members of NXIVM. He noted that