An ex-convict who obtained tens of millions of {dollars} by subjecting his daughter’s ex-college roommates to pressured labor and prostitution was sentenced Friday to 60 years in jail by a choose who labeled him an “evil genius” who used sadism and psychological torture to manage each side of his victims’ lives.
Lawrence “Larry” Ray, 63, was sentenced in Manhattan federal courtroom by Decide Lewis J. Liman.
“There is no reason to believe Mr. Ray will age out of criminal behavior,” Liman mentioned, noting that the crimes started when Ray moved in late 2010 into his daughter’s on-campus housing at Sarah Lawrence College, a small New York liberal arts college.
The choose mentioned Ray charmed his victims together with his “exaggerated sense of self” and his intelligence earlier than “robbing them of their relationships, self worth, memories and then their bodies” after convincing them that they had poisoned him and owed him for it.
“Through psychological terror and manipulation, he convinced them what they knew to be true was in fact false,” Liman mentioned. “He beat his victims. He tortured them and at times he starved them. He degraded them sexually to the point where they lost any self worth.”
As soon as his susceptible victims have been diminished, Ray extorted them, pressured them to interact in labor and intercourse trafficked one lady, Liman mentioned.
“He had the evil genius to take people who were young, not minors, and he broke them … and then he used them for his evil needs,” the choose mentioned.
Liman introduced the sentence after Assistant U.S. Lawyer Mollie Bracewell requested a life sentence, citing Ray’s “unspeakable cruelty.”
Given an opportunity to talk, Ray expressed no regret however decried his jail situations and bodily illnesses.
“Being in jail has been horrible,” he mentioned, noting that his father and each step-parents lately died in the identical week.
Protection legal professional Marne Lenox argued towards a life time period, saying the 15-year necessary minimal was adequate, significantly as a result of Ray has skilled harsh situations whereas in federal jails.
She mentioned her consumer nonetheless believes he is harmless and that his victims poisoned him.
Ray was convicted at trial final April of prices together with racketeering, conspiracy, pressured labor and intercourse trafficking.
Through the trial, one girls testified that she grew to become a intercourse employee to attempt to pay reparations to Ray after turning into satisfied that she had poisoned him. She mentioned that, over 4 years, she gave Ray $2.5 million in installments that averaged between $10,000 and $50,000 per week.
Lawrence Ray — the federal informant whose data helped result in the arrest of former NYPD commissioner Bernie Kerik — has been arrested by the FBI on intercourse trafficking and different prices, in line with the FBI and U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace for the Southern District of New York.
In a press release learn aloud at sentencing Friday by a lawyer, the girl mentioned she had been subjected to “unremitting sadistic torture” by a person who provided a “twisted, empty and broken version of life.”
“Experiences I had while being sex trafficked haunt me today,” in line with her assertion. She mentioned Ray had pressured “us to hold his evil for him. … Each time we tried to put it down, he brutalized us.”
One sufferer who spoke mentioned he was dwelling a contented, thrilling life as a university sophomore when he met Ray “and all of that went up in smoke.” He mentioned he’d tried suicide greater than as soon as.
One other sufferer mentioned in courtroom that he fears Ray will discover a technique to hurt him from jail.
Throughout Ray’s trial, a number of college students testified that they have been drawn into Ray’s world as he informed them tales of his previous affect in New York Metropolis politics, together with his position in ruining the profession of former New York Metropolis Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik after serving as the very best man at his marriage ceremony years earlier.
Ray had, in reality, been a determine in a corruption investigation that derailed Kerik’s 2004 nomination by President George Bush to steer the U.S. Division of Homeland Safety.
Ray was arrested in February 2020. On the time, then-U.S. Lawyer Geoffrey S. Berman mentioned an investigation was launched after an article appeared in 2019 in New York journal.
As he imposed the sentence, Liman credited victims prepared to testify for bringing justice for the type of crimes “difficult to detect and difficult to prosecute.”
“This case reveals the energy of the human spirit and the dedication of legislation enforcement,” Liman mentioned.
The choose mentioned Ray’s try to “extinguish lives” had failed and the sentence he introduced will guarantee Ray won’t ever once more hurt another person.