On Wednesday, a jury of 12 found Lawrence Ray guilty of 15 counts related to his decade-long reign of abuse over students at Sarah Lawrence College in New York. The 62-year-old Ray, who is the father of a daughter who attended the small Westchester County liberal arts college, faces a maximum sentence of life in prison with a mandatory minimum of 15 years. Sentencing is set for Sept. 16.
Ray, an ex-convict, faced charges including sex trafficking, forced labor, tax evasion and racketeering. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan argued that Ray’s psychological abuse and physical torment of his victims started out by charming them, then by using his power over the victims to extort sex, money and other favors from them. Ray posed as a ‘father figure’ to his daughter’s fellow students, and moved into his child’s on-campus dorm in 2010 following a prison stint for securities fraud. He shared the dorm with her male and female roommates, and the group later relocated to a one-bedroom Manhattan apartment.
Ray has maintained his innocence, claiming he was falsely accused of the crimes; however he did not testify at his trial.. Ray has been incarcerated in the Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center since his arrest in 2020.
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