After a tense trial, the person behind a disturbing intercourse cult at Sarah Lawrence School has been convicted by a federal jury on intercourse trafficking, extortion, fraud, and abuse expenses.
Larry Ray now faces life in jail after being convicted of all 15 counts towards him on Wednesday afternoon in federal courtroom in New York Metropolis. Based on media experiences from the Manhattan courtroom, the 62-year-old was “impassive” whereas standing in entrance of the choose because the jury foreperson relayed the group’s “responsible” verdict for each depend on the docket after a five-hour deliberation.
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Ray was on the forefront of what prosecutors termed “The Ray Household,” an off-the-cuff group of Sarah Lawrence college students over whom he wielded uncommon and disturbing affect. Assistant U.S. Lawyer Mollie Bracewell instructed jurors concerning the authorities’s findings of wrongdoing through the trial, asserting that Ray manically managed a bunch of younger, keen college students and took benefit of them bodily, emotionally, and financially.
Bracewell stated at one level throughout courtroom arguments (beneath):
“When his victims have been fully subdued, once they have been underneath his management, he dedicated crimes to get them to pay — extortion, pressured labor, intercourse trafficking, obstruction of justice, monetary crimes. The defendant did all of this for management, for his personal greed, and to extend his energy, to cement his place within the organized group that he led.”
The federal government’s case argued that Ray had began his “intercourse cult” in 2010, when he moved into his daughter’s on-campus dorm room on the prestigious Westchester County-based faculty. He had simply been launched from jail in an unrelated case, and virtually instantly, he started grooming his daughter’s associates with fabricated tales about his alleged involvement in harmful international navy operations and legislation enforcement endeavors.
Federal investigators decided that by the summer season of 2011, the New York Put up experiences, Ray was capable of persuade “a lot of the scholars” to maneuver right into a one-bedroom house on the Higher East Aspect of New York Metropolis. There, for nearly a full decade, the convicted intercourse trafficker extorted his younger expenses, and compelled at the least one in every of them to enter prostitution. He laundered the proceeds of his unlawful scheme, too, and reportedly took house tens of millions of {dollars} by these actions.
To maintain the previous Sarah Lawrence School college students underneath his rule, prosecutors stated through the trial that Ray subjected his victims “to bodily, psychological, and sexual abuse.” He additionally apparently recorded coerced confessions made by the younger individuals, through which they have been pressured to confess wrongdoings towards him — which he then circled and used as blackmail.
Prosecutors argued that Ray’s most profitable scheme was overseeing the prostitution of 1 former scholar, Claudia Drury. The younger lady testified on the stand at trial that she labored seven days every week for about 5 years assembly wealthy purchasers who “paid her exorbitant quantities of cash in trade for intercourse,” per the Put up. In whole, Drury testified that she gave greater than $2.5 million to Ray from her pressured escorting work all through New York Metropolis.
At one level, Ray felt that Drury was “slipping from his management,” and he and alleged co-conspirator Isabella Pollok reportedly confronted her at a swanky NYC lodge. All through that night time, the 2 allegedly tortured Drury for “hours,” stripping her bare, handcuffing her to a chair, and suffocating her “repeatedly” with a plastic bag.
The traumatized younger lady testified concerning the abuse on the stand at Ray’s trial, emotionally recalling:
“I used to be terrified. I used to be trembling. You’ll be able to’t breathe. You wish to breathe lots. That simply makes it a lot worse.”
In an announcement following the responsible verdict, US Lawyer for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams stated:
“Let me be very clear. Larry Ray is a predator. An evil man who did evil issues. Right this moment’s verdict lastly brings him to justice. This verdict wouldn’t have been doable with out the victims who testified in courtroom. We’re in awe of their bravery within the face of unbelievable trauma.”
Ray will likely be sentenced later this 12 months.
His daughter, Talia, whose Sarah Lawrence School dorm he first moved into in 2010, has not been charged as a co-conspirator within the crimes. Ray’s alleged confederate Pollok has been charged for her alleged position, and has pleaded not responsible. She is scheduled to go to trial later this 12 months.
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