Opening statements begin in trial of Lawrence Ray, accused of luring daughter's classmates at Sarah Lawrence College into prostitution
NEW YORK -- The trial is underway for a New York man accused of secretly living in his daughter's college dorm room and luring students into a life of prostitution and labor.
Inside the federal courthouse, prosecutors started describing what they called a "small criminal organization" led by Lawrence Ray to get sex, power and money, CBS2's Aundrea Cline-Thomas reported Thursday.
They said it started in the fall of 2010 at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, where Ray moved into his daughter's dorm during her sophomore year.
On the stand, the daughter's boyfriend, who also lived in the building, said he thought Ray was "cool and inspirational" at first, but became physically and verbally abusive after a year and a half.
An audio recording of one alleged incident was shared with the jury. Prosecutors said it was part of Ray's strategy to lure in victims before preying on their deepest insecurities, then threatening and extorting them out of thousands of dollars.
The 10-year plot came to an end in February 2020 when Ray was arrested at a home in Piscataway, New Jersey.
An FBI agent testified that mounds of electronics were seized, along with ledgers and other documentation prosecutors said will show how Ray forced a women into prostitution, abused victims through recorded interrogations and deposited the money into other people's bank accounts.
Ray's defense, calling him Larry, said students were drawn to his "wild stories" of hobnobbing with former Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev and being the best man at former NYPD Commissioner Bernard Kerick's wedding -- stories between students and Ray that, over time, made it hard to separate fact from fiction, attorneys said.
The defense told the jury, "You don't have to like him but these things are not federal crimes."
Testimony will resume Friday with one of the former college students, now 30, who met Ray as a teenager. The defense has already questioned his credibility, saying he struggles with mental illness.
