Sleep with creep College predator susp busted in bed with vic
The creep accused of depraved psychological manipulation of Sarah Lawrence College students was arrested in bed with his daughter’s former roommate, prosecutors revealed Monday.
Lawrence Ray lost a longshot bid for bail after prosecutors shared new details about the alleged depths of his abuse of young people under his bizarre spell.
“There were other victims still very much under his control at the time of arrest,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon said in Manhattan Federal Court.
Ray, 60, told investigators after his arrest that he was like a father figure to the woman in bed with him, who had been his daughter’s roommate at Sarah Lawrence, Sassoon said. Ray even allegedly likened her to a daughter. Investigators had evidence, including videos, showing that Ray had “sexually groomed” the woman and filmed her having sex with other men, the prosecutor said.
The prosecutors also had disturbing videos that captured the verbal and physical abuse Ray allegedly used on the small group of Sarah Lawrence students. Videos showed Ray calling the woman he was busted in bed with a criminal, berating her as she sobbed, Sassoon said.
Another video showed him grabbing her by the hair and forcing her out of the house, the prosecutor said. A second woman he abused was also living in the home when he was arrested, according to prosecutors.
“He belittled and humiliated them. He broke their spirits,” Sassoon said, describing Ray’s strange cult cocktail of sexual, physical and psychological abuse.
Prosecutors say he convinced victims they owed him money for property damage or had even been poisoned. Meanwhile he hoarded victims’ journals and elicited false confessions that would help keep the young people in his orbit, authorities say.
Ray’s earnings through the cult were larger than previously thought, Sassoon said. Investigators found ledgers at Ray’s residence that showed he earned over $700,000 through one victim’s prostitution in 2017 and more than $1 million in 2018, according to Sassoon.
The prosecutor called the figures “astonishing.”
Ray’s attorney Marne Lenox attacked the New York magazine article from April that sparked the federal investigation. She slammed “false and sensational stories” about Ray and vowed he was eager to fight the case.
One of his alleged victims, who was quoted in the magazine article, had signed a book deal and is seeking to make a movie out of his experience, Lenox said. A female victim was “prone to hyperbole and exaggerations as an attention-seeking mechanism,” she said.
Ray, the one-time best man at former NYPD Commissioner Bernie Kerik’s wedding, earned money by cybersquatting on web domains, Lenox said. He showed little emotion during the proceeding that lasted more than an hour.
Ray’s history of run-ins with the law include a securities fraud conviction, orders of protection stemming from child custody battles and a physical confrontation with U.S. marshals arresting him for bail jumping, Sassoon said.
Magistrate Judge Kevin Fox ruled that prosecutors had presented “clear and convincing evidence” Ray should remain locked up while awaiting trial.