NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
MARCH 22, 2021
The creep accused of leading a sex cult of Sarah Lawrence College students declined the COVID-19 vaccine despite being held in a Manhattan lockup that has been overrun with the virus.
Lawrence Ray’s decision to refuse the vaccine came up Monday during a hearing on his ability to prepare for trial while being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center.
“The Government further understands that the defendant declined to receive the vaccination. This is corroborated by recent jail calls, in which the defendant described to others that he was not inclined to take the offered vaccine. If the defendant has declined the opportunity to reduce his risk exposure, his risk cannot then be wielded against the MCC to demand additional accommodations,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Mollie Bracewell wrote in a Manhattan Federal Court letter.
Judge Lewis Liman denied Ray’s third bid for bail during the hearing, ruling that he remained a risk of flight and danger to the public. The difficulties Ray has viewing large amounts of video evidence and other materials with his attorneys at the jail did not change the judge’s calculus. Ray’s apparent unease with the COVID vaccine did not factor into Liman’s ruling.
“Different individuals may have different personal views about (the vaccine). I don’t think this is the forum for those issues to be debated,” Liman said.
MCC currently lists 18 staff and zero inmates as positive for coronavirus. The extent of the outbreak last year is widely believed to have been much more severe than numbers indicate due to a lack of testing.
Ray has pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking, forced labor and other charges related to his alleged psychological and physical abuse of a small group of his own daughter’s college friends.
There is a hint of irony to Ray’s reluctance to be vaccinated against the virus that has killed 542,000 people nationwide. Prosecutors allege that Ray manipulated his followers in part through a bizarre obsession with his own health. He accused several people of poisoning him, including his own followers, prosecutors say.
In at least one episode he allegedly forced a follower to confess to the poisoning on video, creating material he could use should the follower consider leaving his orbit.
“This defendant has a history of fabricating illness,” prosecutor Danielle Sassoon wrote in filings last year.
https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-sarah-lawrence-sex-cult-case-covid-vaccine-20210322-eg6yow4l3zgz5mlpnos6sha5ai-story.html
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