NEW YORK — The leader of the Sarah Lawrence College sex cult was found guilty Wednesday and now faces life in prison for a decade of physical, mental and sexual abuse of a group of wayward college kids.
The Manhattan jury brought down the guilty verdict on all 15 counts. Lawrence Ray, wearing all white, stood motionless as the verdict was read.
It took the panel roughly a half-day to convict Ray, 62, of racketeering conspiracy for his 10-year reign atop “The Ray Family,” preying on the vulnerable young friends of his daughter Talia at the bucolic Bronxville college. Testimony and evidence, including videos filmed by Ray himself, showed he systematically broke down down his victims until he controlled every aspect of their lives.
Ray’s followers said on the stand they lost their sense of self in his web of lies, conspiracies, threats and violence. Video footage showed them behaving as if in a trance. They hit themselves when he demanded it, laughed at his abuse of others and, in at least one case, went into prostitution and gave Ray the proceeds.
For Santos Rosario, 30, it wasn’t until he met with federal prosecutors after Ray’s arrest in 2020 that he finally snapped out from under Ray’s hypnotic spell.
“I remember thinking ... that I wouldn’t ever treat anyone the way he was treating me,” Rosario testified. “And that kind of led to the thought that maybe, just maybe, I was wrong about Larry. And that it was OK to think that.”
Ray viciously physically and sexually abused his followers under the guise of helping them. At the same time, he convinced the youngsters that they were poisoning him as part of a bizarre plot orchestrated by Ray’s’ nemesis, former NYPD Commissioner Bernie Kerik.
“I was very dependent on Larry. The relationship meant pretty much the world to me,” said one victim, Claudia Drury.
The “relationship” included Ray convincing Drury to work as a prostitute over a four-year period, serving three to five johns per day. She testified she handed over about $2.5 million in sex work earnings to Ray. When she considered stopping, Ray abused the young woman for hours in a Manhattan hotel room, suffocating her repeatedly with a plastic bag as she sat strapped naked to a chair.
Ray also hit Rosario, held a knife to his throat and genitals and smashed his legs with a hammer.
Ray overwhelmed his followers with tall tales about his failing health, which he linked to the bogus poisoning plot. Twice during the trial, Ray was whisked out of Manhattan Federal Court after apparently suffering seizures at the defense table.
He forced the group to work for him for free at his stepfather’s property in Pinehurst, North Carolina, over the summer in 2013. The young adults toiled from morning to night seven days a week — and Ray accused some of them of intentionally breaking his things.
The only way for his followers to “make repairs” for the alleged damage was by paying Ray, victims testified.
Rosario paid Ray more than $200,000 during their relationship — including money stolen from his parents.
He revered Ray so much he even convinced both of his sisters, Yalitza and Felicia, to join “The Ray Family.”
All the abuse and torture served the sole purpose of gratifying Ray and making him money, prosecutors said.
“‘The Ray Family’ made victimizing others a profitable business,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Molly Bracewell. “The defendant carried out this activity so he could turn his victims into piggy banks.”
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(Daily News staff writer Molly Crane-Newman contributed to this story.)
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