No delay in Sarah Lawrence cult case: judge

The accused leader of a Sarah Lawrence College sex cult lost a last-minute bid Thursday to get new defense attorneys, as his accusers said that any delay to the trial would cause more trauma.

Lawrence Ray, 62, had sought to delay his sex-trafficking trial scheduled to start March 9 due to a “breakdown in communications” with his three public defenders.

He is accused of targeting his daughter’s college friends and preying on the group of young people using extortion, sex trafficking, forced labor, money laundering, assault and obstruction of justice to keep them under his influence.

Some of his former followers urged the court to allow the bizarre case proceed to trial as scheduled.

“Mr. Ray has had a grip on Jane Doe 2’s life, and she wants relief from that grip,” said Brooke Cucinella, an attorney for one of the victims. “She is more exhausted and anxious than she’s ever been in her life. She can’t work. She can’t socialize. She feels that her life has come to a standstill.”

A male victim wrote in a letter that any delay would “impede his ability to move on and recover from the devastating influence defendant Ray had on him for over a decade of his life.”

Ray (inset) sat at the far end of the defense table and did not interact with his lawyers, listening intently as they insisted the attorney-client breakdown was not his fault.

“It’s his constitutional right to have lawyers he can trust,” defense attorney Allegra Glashausser said in Manhattan Federal Court. “Unfortunately, we’re not that.”

Judge Lewis Liman determined — after extensive closed-door conversations with Ray and his attorneys — that the breakdown was largely Ray’s own fault.

Liman said the “inevitable result” of a new defense team would be a delay of six months to a year. The trial will start March 9 as planned.

“The conflict is not so great that it prevents adequate defense,” Liman ruled. “The defendant has substantially and unjustifiably contributed to the breakdown in communications.”

Liman noted that Ray and his attorneys had “slightly different” trial strategies, but said that was common and hardly a reason to replace them.

After the ruling, Ray’s attorneys planned to meet with him Friday at the Metropolitan Detention Center.

Prosecutors have also brought charges against Ray’s alleged devotee and “trusted lieutenant,” Isabella Pollok, 30. She allegedly served as a madam in Ray’s sex ring, arranging prostitution dates for one of his victims.

Pollok faces trial in July.