Lawrence Ray Accused Victim Claudia Drury Investigation In New York Federal Court

A former student Sarah Lawrence, who was accused of being forced into prostitution by her roommate’s father testified about emotional and physical abuse at the hands of the accused sex cult leader, including his threat to kidnap her.

“He threatened to kill me on one memorable occasion,” Claudia Drury, 31, said during Lawrence Ray’s sex offender trial in Manhattan federal court Friday. “He threatened to cut my face off. He threatened to kidnap me and release me in the Middle East. He threatened to blackmail people I knew. He threatened to hit my father.”

Still, those shocking allegations of abuse, compared with the horror Drury said she suffered after Ray forced her to sell sex to pay the 62-year-old for allegedly “doing spoil” him, “waste time”, spoil his property. , and is even said to have poisoned him. None of that is true, but Drury said Friday that she made Ray $2.5 million during her four years as a prostitute involving non-existent misconduct toward he.

Drury is the second witness to testify in Ray’s case — and just one of several college alumni living in the Sarah Lawrence dorm room the then 50-year-old moved into shortly after leaving. 2010 from prison in New Jersey. Ray then went on to launch what has become a sex cult for nearly a decade under the guise of “therapy sessions” as a “father figure,” prosecutors said.

Ray has pleaded not guilty to several counts, including sex trafficking, extortion, and conspiracy to commit fraud, to allegedly physically, sexually, and psychologically abusing college students — and laundering 1 million dollars from Drury after forcing her into prostitution. Ultimately, prosecutors said, the abuse stretched throughout his Manhattan, North Carolina apartment and other locations.

Ray’s alleged sex trafficking and extortion scheme was first detailed in a New York The magazine was revealed in April 2019.

Like her former roommate, Santos Rosario, who testified in the stands for three days, Drury detailed how Ray got to the group’s two-story dorm room and stayed “for days on end,” sometimes hosted dinners where he would discuss his personal philosophy. and tell stories about his past.

They say he soon acquired a strong appeal to the students.

Drury, who met Ray when she was a 19-year-old sophomore, said the father told the group “that he knows champions and how he takes down [ex-New York Police Commissioner Bernie] Kerik and stop the plot to annex the country. Lots of different things. ”

Ultimately, Drury said, Ray subjected former students to psychological and sexual humiliation, verbal abuse, physical violence and threats of legal action to ensure silence and loyalty. Fort.

“He slapped me so hard in the face that I fell over, pulled my hair, strangled me, suffocated me and beat me,” Drury said Friday.

Assistant US Attorney Lindsay Keenan said in the opening that Ray even used a plastic bag to strangle Drury inside a Manhattan hotel room in an act of heinous violence. During his hours of “torture” in his hotel room, Ray was also said to “squish her to death with a pillow” and “strangle her with a chain.”

“He told her to behave. He told her to keep making money,” Keenan said.

In a disturbing video shown to jurors earlier this week — before the court adjourned two days after defense attorneys said Ray had epilepsy — Ray was seen berating Drury in the apartment. his. During the interrogation, Drury weptly admitted to hurting Ray’s “website business” when he threatened to post a video of his confession online.

“Everybody on Facebook land, you know Claudia is an honest person or a liar? Well, Claudia, what [do] what do you think?” Ray said in the video to the jurors as Drury cried in her sweater. How do you feel sorry for yourself. Look, you did something wrong. You know what’s shocking, amazing, and disgusting? You do something wrong to someone else, you become someone’s victim, and then you sit there and cry about it. “

Ray’s attorneys argued throughout the trial that all of the evidence in the case against Ray was the result of only a group of “storytellers” who believed their own stories of conduct. their alleged wrongdoing — and they, in turn, led Ray to believe. .

But Drury’s story paints a terrifying crime picture of a man described by prosecutors as a master manipulator and kingpin abuser.

“I became a prostitute. It was Larry’s suggestion at first,” Drury told jurors.