‘Evil genius’ ex-convict who abused students gets 60 years in prison

NEW YORK — An ex-convict who obtained millions of dollars by subjecting his daughter’s ex-college roommates to forced labor and prostitution was sentenced Friday to 60 years in prison by a judge who labeled him an “evil genius” who used sadism and psychological torture to control every aspect of his victims’ lives.

Lawrence “Larry” Ray, 63, was sentenced in Manhattan federal court by Judge Lewis Liman.

“There is no reason to believe Mr. Ray will age out of criminal behavior,” Liman said, noting that the crimes began when Ray moved in late 2010 into his daughter’s on-campus housing at Sarah Lawrence College, a small New York liberal arts school.

The judge said Ray charmed his victims with his “exaggerated sense of self ” and his intelligence before “robbing them of their relationships, self-worth, memories and then their bodies” after convincing them 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 said. “He beat his victims. He tortured them and at times he starved them.”

Once his vulnerable victims were diminished, Ray extorted them, forced them to engage in labor and sex trafficked one woman, Liman said.

“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 judge said.

Liman announced the sentence after Assistant U.S. Attorney Mollie Bracewell requested a life sentence, citing Ray’s “unspeakable cruelty.”

Given a chance to speak, Ray expressed no remorse but decried his prison conditions and physical ailments.

“Being in jail has been horrible,” he said, noting that his father and both stepparents recently died in the same week.

Ray was convicted at trial last April of charges including racketeering, conspiracy, forced labor and sex trafficking.