Lawrence “Larry” Ray, the man convicted of carrying out a multimillion-dollar sex trafficking and forced labor scheme targeting New York college students, among others, was sentenced Friday to 60 years in prison.
Ray, 63, was hauled into the Manhattan federal courtroom around 10:05 a.m., wearing a wrinkled khaki, prison-issued outfit and shackles, but no handcuffs. Several of his victims were present for the long-awaited sentencing.
Sarah Lawrence College is a small, liberal arts school that is located in Bronxville, N.Y., and boasts a population of around 1,675 undergraduate and graduate students. At the time, Larry had just been released from prison for committing securities fraud.
Ray faced his accusers during the victims’ impact statements. He held his head up and looked straight at each of his victims with no visible signs of remorse or shame.
Attorney Brooke Cucinella read a statement on behalf of Ray’s sex-trafficking victim, her former client, Claudia Drury.
“The experience of being sex trafficked haunts me today,” Drury’s statement read. Drury said Ray “destroyed” her life and “broke apart” her family, and sexually groomed her to make money for himself from her prostitution. She recalled how she defied him once, ending up with a plastic bag around her head and being suffocated with it “over and over again.”
“I barely have the energy to exist,” Drury said.