Accused Sarah Lawrence Trafficker Lived With Students On UES

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — A Sarah Lawrence College parent accused of extorting and sexually trafficking his daughter's school friends lived with many of the young people in an Upper East Side apartment for years, according to a federal indictment.

Lawrence Ray, 60, befriended his daughter's schoolmates while living in on-campus housing at the Bronxville, New York college in 2010, federal prosecutors said. At the school, Ray began to act as a counselor and father figure to some students, convincing them to live with him during the summer of 2011 at an East 93rd Street apartment.

Ray is accused of extorting the students through the use of violence, psychological and sexual manipulation while they lived with him, according to the indictment. Prosecutors said he extorted about $1 million from at least five of the victims, forced them to perform unpaid labor and cause — through force, fraud and coercion — at least one victim to engage in prostitution.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York launched an investigation into Ray following the publication of a New York Magazine article called "The Stolen Kids of Sarah Lawrence."

Students told New York Magazine that five kids — including Ray's daughter — lived in the Upper East Side apartment during that first summer. Ray would lavish the students with expensive steak diners, nice clothing and limo rides at first, but soon became increasingly controlling of their behavior, according to the article.

Ray coerced students into admitting that they had damaged or stolen his personal property during "interrogation sessions" in front of the other students, federal prosecutors said. Other false claims Ray forced students to admit to included physically harming Ray and attempting to poison him and his daughter, according to the indictment. Ray would document the false claims made by the students, sometimes forcing them to write them out, and use the documentation to extort the students.

One female student was forced into prostitution by Ray in 2014, federal prosecutors said. For four years, the student was trafficked by Ray, who earned about $500,000 from the sex work, according to the federal indictment.

The man who rented the East 93rd Street apartment to Ray, Lee Chen, told the New York Post that he witnessed Ray forcing students to have sex in front of him. Chen told the Post that he too was under Ray's coercive influence. Chen finally convinced Ray to leave the apartment in 2016, according to the Post.

Read more about Ray's arrest in Patch's previous coverage.