A New York man convicted on charges of moving into his daughter’s dormitory at Sarah Lawrence College and abusing students at the elite school in a nearly 10-year scheme was sentenced Friday to 60 years in prison.
Manhattan federal court judge Lewis J. Liman said lawrence ray63, that his crimes were «particularly egregious.»
Ray was convicted at trial last year on charges including extortion, conspiracy, forced labor and sex trafficking.
An indictment and prosecutors allege he attacked students after he moved into his daughter’s dormitory on campus with her roommates around 2010, when they were sophomores, and began «therapy» sessions with some of them. students under the delusion that he was going to help them. with her psychological problems.
A woman testified at trial that Ray had convinced her that he had poisoned him. She became a sex worker to try to pay him back for reparations, giving him $2.5 million over four years in installments that averaged $10,000 to $50,000 a week.
Prosecutors said Ray also physically abused the woman. During one incident, he tied her to a chair, put a plastic bag over her head, and nearly suffocated her.
Others testified that they were drawn into Ray’s world after he told them stories of his past influence in New York City politics, including his role in ruining the career of former police commissioner Bernard Kerik after being the best man at his wedding years before. In fact, Ray had been a figure in the corruption investigation that derailed Kerik’s nomination to head the US Department of Homeland Security.
Court documents indicated that some of the students agreed to live with Ray in his one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan. He began to convince some that he had been hurt or poisoned. The students testified that Ray made them do everything he asked, including giving him money, as a way to make amends. One student said that he gave Ray more than $100,000.
«Larry Ray is a monster,» US Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement on Twitter following the sentence. «For years, he inflicted brutal, lifelong damage on innocent victims. Students with their lives ahead of them.»
Williams said Ray physically and psychologically abused the students and groomed them «into submission for his own benefit.» Then he took millions of dollars from them, she said.
“The sentence imposed today will ensure that Ray never harms the victims again,” the tweet read.
In addition to being sentenced, Ray was ordered to forfeit more than $2.4 million. His co-defendant in the case, Isabella Pollok, is scheduled to be sentenced on February 22. The Sarah Lawrence College graduate pleaded guilty to conspiring with Ray. One indictment said Pollok assisted Ray while subjecting the victims to «sexual and psychological manipulation and physical abuse.»
The Associated Press Y alec hernandez contributed.