Sarah Lawrence Cult Leader Convicted of Trafficking and Extortion

Two of Mr. Rosario’s sisters, whom he launched to Mr. Ray, additionally testified. One, Felicia Rosario, mentioned that Mr. Ray had directed her to have intercourse with strangers whereas she was in a romantic relationship with him.

He then instructed her she owed him massive sums, partially as a result of she had “cheated” on him, she testified, and mentioned throughout a visit to Washington, D.C., in 2012 that he would organize for his legislation enforcement associates to “come after” her if she didn’t do as he directed.

Ms. Rosario testified that she tried to kill herself throughout that journey.

“I felt so responsible, due to the issues that he was saying that I had finished or had participated in that I hadn’t,” she mentioned. “I used to be fully overwhelmed and terrified.”

Ms. Drury mentioned that Mr. Ray created an environment wherein folks had been pressured so typically into false confessions that they grew to become simple. “As soon as I kind of began confessing to these issues, every one was like additional proof of all of the others,” she mentioned.

Mr. Ray demanded funds from her after she falsely confessed to poisoning him, she testified, and threatened her, too, with jail. In 2015 she grew to become a prostitute at Mr. Ray’s suggestion, she mentioned, working seven days every week for 4 years and giving him about $2.5 million in proceeds.

She fled New York, she mentioned, after an incident in 2018 wherein Mr. Ray got here to a lodge room in Midtown the place she was staying, handcuffed her bare to a chair, choked her with a leash and collar and repeatedly positioned plastic baggage over her head, inflicting her to gasp for oxygen.

Mr. Ray was taunting her all of the whereas, Ms. Drury mentioned.

When he was not utilizing the luggage to chop off her respiratory, Ms. Drury mentioned, Mr. Ray held them in his palms, toying “very delicately” with them and creating “rustling” and “snapping” sounds.

“He did that all through the course of the evening,” she testified. “It was terrifying.”