NY jury finds Sarah Lawrence suspect Larry Ray guilty of 15 counts related to sex trafficking, extortion

A federal jury has discovered Lawrence Ray responsible of 15 counts associated to allegations he moved into his daughter’s dorm at New York’s Sarah Lawrence School and manipulated her associates right into a cult-like devotion to get free labor and hundreds of thousands of {dollars}.

The jury of six males and 6 girls returned its verdict round 1:45 p.m. native time Wednesday after deliberating for under about 4 hours, over the course of lower than two full days. Ray, 62, was charged with 15 counts, together with racketeering, intercourse trafficking, conspiracy, compelled labor, extortion, tax evasion, and different crimes. He faces a most of life in jail and a compulsory minimal sentence of 15 years. 

Ray wore navy pants, a light-weight blue shirt and a black leather-based belt and appeared cautious within the moments earlier than me realized his destiny. He appeared to don’t have any apparent response as he stood dealing with the jury. After studying of the conviction, he sat down and whispered in his protection lawyer’s ear. 

Federal prosecutors mentioned Ray, an ex-convict, began by charming his younger victims, then turned to bodily abuse and psychological torment to extort cash, intercourse and different favors.

He tricked some into believing that they had poisoned him, prosecutors mentioned. One lady testified she was coerced into prostitution.

Though he didn’t testify, Ray maintained via his legal professionals that he was falsely accused.

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Federal authorities started investigating Ray after a prolonged article in New York journal explored his relationship with college students at Sarah Lawrence, a small, personal liberal arts faculty simply north of New York Metropolis.

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On the trial, Ray was accused of spending practically a decade manipulating a circle of his daughter’s associates, who he met after transferring into her dorm in 2010.

Lawrence Ray is wheeled out of courtroom into an ambulance on Tuesday, March 22, 2022, in New York Metropolis. 
(Noah Goldberg/New York Every day Information/Tribune Information Service through Getty Pictures)

One among them testified that Ray inspired her to turn out to be a prostitute and pay him intercourse work proceeds as compensation for having poisoned him. She mentioned she paid Ray $2.5 million over a four-year interval, giving him between $10,000 and $50,000 per week.

In closing arguments, protection lawyer Marne Lenox contended that Ray was the sufferer, and that the younger folks he lived with had been “storytellers” who had made him really feel attacked and paranoid.

“Everybody was out to get him, Larry believed,” Lenox mentioned. 

The bizarre trial featured testimony from a number of of the women and men who lived with Ray for a lot of the final decade earlier than his arrest in early 2020 disrupted what Bracewell characterised because the operations of against the law syndicate she labeled the “Ray Household.”

The trial was twice interrupted so Ray could possibly be taken to the hospital for therapy of medical points that Decide Lewis J. Liman assured jurors was unrelated to the coronavirus.

In her closing, Lenox mentioned Ray within the fall of 2010 impressed associates of his daughter at her on-campus dormitory at Sarah Lawrence School along with his claims that he’d spoiled the rise of former New York Metropolis police Commissioner Bernard Kerik after serving as greatest man at his marriage ceremony.

BRONXVILLE, NY – FEBRUARY 12: An exterior view of Sarah Lawrence School is seen on February 12, 2020 in Bronxville, New York. Lawrence Ray, the daddy of a former scholar on the college, has been indicted on extortion, intercourse trafficking and different fees associated to his alleged abuse of a number of college students. 
(Getty Pictures)

She mentioned he informed them that individuals together with Kerik had been out to get him. 

Kerik was the town’s police commissioner from 2000 to 2001, serving through the 9/11 assaults, and he practically turned President George Bush’s homeland safety secretary in 2004, however his title was abruptly withdrawn because the nominee.

Shortly afterward, the Every day Information reported that Ray, who was beneath indictment in a inventory rip-off, had produced proof that Kerik did not report hundreds of {dollars} in presents he’d obtained whereas working for the town. Kerik finally served practically 4 years in jail for tax fraud and different crimes.

Assistant U.S. Legal professional Mary Bracewell mentioned Ray initially gained respect from the scholars along with his tales of affect as he moved into his daughter’s dormitory, however he shortly turned their belief towards them by convincing them that that they had poisoned him and owed him hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in compensation.

Then, she mentioned, he used violence and threats and terrified them into following his instructions.

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“Each single considered one of his actions was designed … to maintain management over them,” Bracewell mentioned, urging jurors to reject protection claims that Ray acted as he did as a result of he believed that they had poisoned him and he needed to construct a legal case.

She requested: “Why on earth would you share meals along with your supposed poisoners?” 

Fox Information’ Marta Dhanis contributed to this report, in addition to The Related Press.