Lawrence Ray Bio-Lawrence Ray Wiki
The verdict against Lawrence Ray was handed down in a federal courtroom in New York City. Ray was convicted on all 15 counts he faced, including sex trafficking, extortion, and racketeering conspiracy.
AGE:
Lawrence Ray is 62 years old.
DETAIL OF INCIDENCE:
A man accused of moving into his daughter’s college dorm room at Sarah Lawrence College and sexually and psychologically abusing a group of her schoolmates and other young people was convicted on Wednesday,
In late 2010, Ray moved into his daughter’s room during her sophomore year at Sarah Lawrence, a prestigious liberal arts college in Bronxville, N.Y., just outside of New York City. Shortly thereafter, he began giving “therapy sessions” to his daughter’s roommates, purporting to “help them with psychological problems,” the indictment handed down against him after his 2020 arrest said.
It was through these “sessions” that Ray laid the groundwork for psychological conditioning that would “eventually lead these young adults to become unwitting victims of sexual exploitation, verbal and physical abuse, extortion, forced labor, and prostitution,” FBI Assistant Director in Charge William F. Sweeney, Jr., said at the time
The abuse continued the following summer at Ray’s apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, where several students moved in with him in 2011, prosecutors said.
According to the indictment, Ray, who presented himself as a father figure, a psychologist, and a spiritual advisor rolled into one, and “learned intimate details about [the victims’] private lives, vulnerabilities, and mental health struggles under the pretense of helping them. Ray alienated several of the victims from their parents, and convinced several of the victims that they were ‘broken’ and in need of fixing by Ray.”
Ray would often coerce his victims into giving false confessions for offenses they did not commit, and then would extract payment in compensation for those imagined offenses.
The New York Times reports that former student Claudia Drury testified that Ray coerced a false confession from her that she had poisoned him. Subsequently, Ray demanded payments from her and threatened she could go to prison. After that, Drury testified, that he convinced her to become a sex worker. Over a four-year period, she testified she gave him about $2.5 million in earnings.
Another former student, Santos Rosario, testified that Ray convinced him he’d damaged about $100,000-worth of his property, threatening that he could go to prison for 400 years, the Times reports. After that, Rosario testified that he stole $100,000 from a business his mother ran to placate Ray.
The investigation into Ray was prompted after a story titled “The Stolen Kids of Sarah Lawrence” was published by New York Magazine in April 2019, prosecutors have said.
The Washington Post reports that twice during Ray’s trial, which lasted less than four weeks, he was taken from the courthouse on a stretcher after saying he was having medical issues. Another former Sarah Lawrence student, Isabella Pollok, is currently awaiting trial as Ray’s alleged co-conspirator. In March 2021, she was charged with extortion conspiracy, sex trafficking conspiracy, racketeering conspiracy, and money laundering. She has pleaded not guilty, the Associated Press reports.
In a statement issued after the verdict against Ray, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said, “Twelve years ago, Larry Ray moved into his daughter’s dorm room at Sarah Lawrence College. And when he got there, he met a group of friends who had their whole lives ahead of them. For the next decade, he used violence, threats, and psychological abuse to try to control and destroy their lives. He exploited them. He terrorized them. He tortured them. Let me be very clear. Larry Ray is a predator. An evil man who did evil things. Today’s verdict finally brings him to justice.”
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