New York State Police Senior Investigator Rodger Kirsopp has been involved with NXIVM-related matters for the past decade – and during that time, he has proven to be quite a mysterious figure. His first known involvement involved an investigation into the origin of Gaelen, the child whom NXIVM leaders first claimed was privately adopted by the now-deceased Barbara Jeske – but who, as readers of Frank Report know, was actually the child of Keith Raniere and Kristin Keeffe.
Somehow, during the course of that investigation, Kirsopp seemingly got turned around – and went from investigating Raniere and his sex slaver NXIVM cult to investigating several of the people who were trying to expose the realities of the Raniere/Bronfman crime syndicate. People like John Tighe, Toni Natalie, and Joe O’Hara.
But before he went over to the other side, Kirsopp was contacted by John Tighe about comments that had been left on his Saratoga In Decline blog which indicated that Raniere had been having sexual relations with underage Mexican girls – and about some very graphic death threats that Tighe had received. Tighe met with Kirsopp at the State Police barracks in Malta, NY to discuss the matter – and, according to Tighe, at Kirsopp’s direction, Tighe left behind the passwords that would allow Kirsopp to access John’s blog so that he could track down the sources of the comments about the underage girls and the death threats (According to Tighe, Kirsopp told him that because he couldn’t officially accept that information, Tighe should write it down on a piece of paper and leave on the table on his way out) .
Fast forward a few months – and here’s Kirsopp leading the early morning raid on Tighe’s residence to seize all his computers (Simultaneous raids were also being conducted at the residences of Toni Natalie and Joe O’Hara). And, lo and behold, a few weeks later, the New York State Police Computer Crime Unit discovered child pornography on Tighe’s computer.
Eventually, Tighe, Natalie, and O’Hara were arrested on charges that they illegally accessed the computer that hosted NXIVM’s website with the sign-in credentials of Mary Jane Pino. Although Tighe pled guilty to that charge as part of a broader plea deal that also included the child porn charge, Natalie and O’Hara refused to do so.
During the course of fighting the computer trespass charges, Natalie and O’Hara discovered that Kirsopp had met more than 44 times with attorneys representing Raniere and Clare Bronfman. That included Steve Coffey, Pam Nichols and Mike McDermott – all of whom worked for the O’Connell & Aronowitz law firm in Albany, NY (That, of course, is the same law firm that was involved in the attempt by Raniere and Bronfman to obtain the bank records of – and other personal information concerning – several federal judges in the Northern District).
Natalie and O’Hara also discovered that the original computer trespass investigation had started in Saratoga County – which made sense because that’s where the computer that hosted NXIVM ‘s website was actually located. But after then-Saratoga County District Attorney Jim Murphy refused to bring charges against anyone, Kirsopp immediately began working with the O’Connell & Aronowitz attorneys and the Office of the Albany County District Attorney, P. David Soares, to bring similar charges in that venue.
Not once did Kirsopp question how NXIVM’s computer magically jumped over the Mohawk River from Saratoga County to Albany County – and he even went so far as to swear, under oath, that the NXIVM computer was located in Albany County at the time of the illegal accessing, a claim that he must have known was false.
Kirsopp also claimed, under oath, that Ben Myers was an Internet Technology Specialist who provided consultant services to NXIVM – but he failed to disclose that Myers was, in fact, part of the NXIVM cult. In addition, he falsely claimed that in her affidavit, Mary Jane Pino said she had not signed onto the NXIVM website since 2008 – when, in fact, what she said was that she had not done that since 2003.
Even after the charges against Natalie and O’Hara were subsequently dismissed, Kirsopp insisted that they could only get their computers back after they had been “wiped clean” because that was the NYS Police’s “standard policy”. But Natalie and O’Hara proved that to be a lie – and eventually got their computers back intact (Subsequent forensic analyses have turned up some very interesting facts as to what happened to those computers while they were being held by the NYS Police – but that will be the subject of another post at some point in the future).
Kirsopp, of course, also has at least one other interesting connection to NXIVM. That’s because he’s the law enforcement official who helped Kristin Keeffe and Gaelen escape from the clutches of the NXIVM cult. Interestingly enough, as soon as she and her child were free and clear, Keeffe stopped communicating with Kirsopp – which led him to try and track her down by other means.
Rumors have circulated for years that Kirsopp was somehow compromised by NXIVM – and there has been at least one formal request for the NYS Police’s Internal Affairs Unit to investigate his relationship with the cult and Kristin Keeffe. It is not known if any such investigation was ever undertaken or, if so, what the results of it were.
Kirsopp also was involved in investigating child sexual abuse allegations involving Esther Carlson’s son. But that investigation also did not lead to any charges — and witnesses subsequently claimed that there had been a cover-up – a cover-up that Kirsopp helped NXIVM achieve.
So, why did Rodger Kirsopp ask for the passwords to John Tighe’s blog? Did he lie about what John Tighe said to him on the morning of the raid? Kirsopp claims that Tighe said “Please don’t tell my wife what’s on my computers”. Tighe claims that what he said, “All of the computers and the guns in the house belong to me – and please don’t shoot me”.
What caused Kirsopp to stop investigating all the illegal activities of the Raniere/Bronfman crime syndicate that he had been told about – and to, instead, start persecuting those who were trying to expose NXIVM?
Rodger Kirsopp – a most mysterious man…