By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Maxwell Book
BBC - Guardian UK - ESPN - Podcast
SDNY COURTHOUSE, March 10 – Larry Ray, known as the sex cultist of Sarah Lawrence College but before that, a hob-nobber with Mikhail Gorbachev and Bernard Kerik, had his criminal trial begin on March 10. Inner City Press has covered every step of the case before U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Lewis J. Liman, and live tweeted the opening statements, here (podcast here)
OK - Larry Ray trial opening, sex cultist at Sarah Lawrence College (with Russia echo)
Judge Liman: We've heard from the MDC jail in Brooklyn that Mr. Ray should be able to be brought into court on time each morning. Right now, my deputy is bringing the jurors up. Let me turn to the information held by Hulu about Mr. Rosario, about prior statements
Federal Defender: We'd ask that if Mr. Rosario stays to watch the trial after he testifies, that he do it from the "spillover" room so that the jury doesn't see him.
Jury entering!
Judge Liman: Good morning. You and you alone are the judges of the facts.
Openings.
Assistant US Attorney: Larry Ray and Isabella Poll0k went to hotel to look for a women they had turned into a prostitute. Ray thought she was getting away from him.
When they found her in the hotel, he told her to strip and he handcuffed her to a chair. Larry Ray tied a plastic bag around her head and he watched her suffocating.
He towered over her, putting the bag over her head again and again and again. He smothered her with a pillow. He choked her with a leash.
AUSA: By the end of the night, Larry Ray's message was clear: Behave. She went back to prostitution. The evidence will show this - and money laundering and tax evasions, to enrich him and his trusted inner circle and to brutally victimize others.
AUSA: Larry Ray ran an organization. They lured victim in and gained control of them. Then he threatened and extorted his victims to get what he wanted: Sex, money and power. Phase 1 started in the Fall of 2010. He used his daughter and her friend Isabella Pollok
AUSA: Larry Ray moved into dorm at Sarah Lawrence College. He convinced her circle to move to an apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. He insisted that minor mistakes in the apartment were intentional efforts to sabotage him. He doled out punishment.
AUSA: He insisted that he was being poisoned. It was just a way to control. He made people confess, and threatened to post the confessions online. When this was not enough, he used violence. A hard squeeze. A belt. A hammer. Pliers. He threatened to dismember
AUSA: Larry Ray extorted and sex trafficked his victims for the benefit of himself and his so-called family. One young man dropped out of school and gave Larry Ray nearly every penny he earned. He gave him $100,000. The tab grew and grew.
AUSA: One young woman was only 19. He accused her of poisoning him, and forced her into prostitution to pay him back. He moved people down to North Carolina and made them work for free. He restricted their access to food. The victims had no choice.
AUSA: You will see and hear evidence, including videos Larry Ray recorded. [Inner City Press will be seeking to publish exhibits] AUSA: If you use your common sense, you will find Larry Ray guilty. [Sits. ]
Federal Defender: Twelve years ago, Larry Ray wanted to reconnect with his daughter. He told her his story, and she told her friends. How he knew Mikhail Gobachev, the former head of the Soviet Union
FD: This was not an enterprise, it was a group of storytellers. When one Rosario sister said she poisoned another, Larry believed her. Larry believed. He believed. This must sound strange, but through the looking glass, they all believed this conspiracy.
FD: Larry Ray *was* the best man at Bernie Kerik's wedding. Larry Ray exposed his corruption and Kerik lost his position at the Department of Homeland Security. Larry testified against DiTommaso
FD: Larry Ray wrote to the New York Times and NBC and said, Investigate my poisoning. Claudia Drury and the Rosario siblings, they believed too. Claudia told stories to everyone for years. She had an active imagination. In 2015 she started selling stories to men
FD: Another made a contract with Hulu to make a movie about Larry Ray. He's going to make millions off Larry Ray. Another wrote fan fiction, hoping to be included in a great story. Santos wrote and wrote, to process childhood trauma.
FD: At the end of this case, you'll find that Larry Ray was not guilty. Judge Liman: First witness. An agent.
Covering will continue, including on Patreon.
The case is US v. Ray, 20-cr-110 (Liman).
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