Horrific single night time proves Sarah Lawrence ‘intercourse cult’ chief’s guilt

Manhattan jurors solely have to have a look at one horrific night time to search out accused Sarah Lawrence sex-cult fiend Larry Ray responsible of a slew of crimes, prosecutors mentioned in closing arguments Monday. 

On that October night time in 2018, Ray tortured Claudia Drury at a Midtown lodge — a major instance of the “marketing campaign of terror” he waged in opposition to his victims, federal prosecutor Mollie Bracewell mentioned. 

“This single night time of crime tells you virtually all you should know,” Bracewell instructed jurors in Manhattan federal courtroom. 

Ray, alongside along with his co-conspirator Isabella Pollok, allegedly tortured Drury, who he had compelled into prostitution, for hours that night time. They made her strip bare, handcuffed her to a chair and almost suffocated her with a plastic bag, prosecutors mentioned.

Ray did in order the chief of his legal enterprise “The Ray Household” and carried out the abuse to complement himself, which makes him responsible of racketeering conspiracy and monetary crimes, Bracewell mentioned. 

Ray tortured Drury as a result of she had grown near certainly one of her prostitution purchasers – and berated her to give attention to “work,” additionally proving his guilt on the sex-trafficking rely, Bracewell added.

Within the midst of the hours-long torture session, Ray and Pollok stopped and ate hamburgers and onion rings they’d ordered from a close-by Manhattan diner, prosecutors mentioned.  

At trial, Drury recounted what they ate on the stand – and the place they ordered from – as a result of the small print of the horrific night time have stayed together with her years later, Bracewell mentioned. 

“This night time of abuse is seared on her reminiscence,” the prosecutor instructed jurors. 

Bracewell then walked the 12-person panel by means of the ways Ray allegedly used to say management over his college-aged victims – and to extort cash from them. 

They included: establishing belief, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, financial abuse, gaslighting and collateral. 

“The defendant carried out and sustained ways of abuse and manipulation … slowly, certainly, till his management was full and his exploitation may very well be unleashed,” Bracewell mentioned, including it was all highly effective proof of the racketeering enterprise. 

In her closing argument, Ray’s lawyer, Marne Lenox, repeated claims the protection group made in its opening assertion, arguing the case was a few group of “storytellers” who embellished tales concerning the accused sicko. 

Over time, the previous Sarah Lawrence college students confessed to making an attempt to poison Ray, accusations that he believed, Lenox mentioned. 

“Larry didn’t make all of this up. The tales got here from the people themselves. Larry didn’t plant these narratives of their minds,” Lenox instructed jurors. 

Ray didn’t search to carry the confessions over the alleged victims, as prosecutors claimed, she mentioned. Moderately, he was genuinely involved a few conspiracy in opposition to him, Lenox mentioned. 

Over the previous 4 weeks, jurors have heard testimony from a number of alleged victims, who all got here into contact with Ray when he moved into his daughter’s on-campus housing within the fall of 2010. 

The previous college students instructed jurors that Ray bodily and mentally abused them after accusing them of losing his time or damaging his property. 

He demanded money repayments from the younger individuals, together with Drury, who mentioned she began escorting on the course of Ray to reimburse him. 

Lenox will proceed her closing argument Tuesday morning, and the jury is anticipated to start deliberating later within the day. 

If convicted, Ray faces a most sentence of life in jail.