Brad Hunter
Toronto Sun
February 11, 2022
The accused leader of a school girl sex cult at a posh American college has lost his bid to get new lawyers.
Accusers of Lawrence Ray, 62, said any delay in his sex-trafficking trial would create more trauma for the alleged victims, the New York Daily News reported.
His trial is slated to begin on March 9.
According to the News, Ray is accused of targeting his daughter's college friends using extortion, sex trafficking, forced labour, money laundering, assault and obstruction of justice to keep them under his influence. The women were students at ritzy Sarah Lawrence College in Yonkers, N.Y.
"Mr. Ray has had a grip on Jane Doe 2′s life, and she wants relief from that grip," said lawyer Brooke Cucinella. "She is more exhausted and anxious than she's ever been in her life. She can't work. She can't socialize. She feels that her life has come to a standstill."
His lawyers said the legal switch was not Ray's fault but a judge decided otherwise.
Cops say this Jeffrey Epstein wannabe was aided and abetted by his own Ghislaine Maxwell in the shape of former student Isabella Pollok, 30.
According to People, Pollok is charged with one count each of extortion conspiracy, sex-trafficking conspiracy, racketeering conspiracy, and money laundering.
Court documents say Pollock and Ray allegedly "attempted to gain the trust of the victims before psychologically manipulating and controlling them for the success and furtherance of the group's ideology and the financial gain of its members."
The charges were a result of a bombshell New York magazine report that detailed how Ray moved into his daughter's dorm room and used her friends to create a sex cult.
He isolated the victims from their families and allegedly extorted more than $1 million from them. One victim was forced into commercial sex acts and earned at least $500,000 that she then turned over to Ray.
Pollok fell under Ray's spell when she was 19 and coming off a bad breakup. Eventually, Ray moved into her dorm room at the college.
Her family claims she too is a victim and the Staten Island native says she was "brainwashed."
"I'm 19, I was having a lot of difficulty making sense of things, I wasn't in a good place," Pollok told the magazine. "He started to help me kind of process and make sense of a lot of things I just couldn't make sense of."
His daughter's college friends eventually moved into Ray's one-bedroom New York City apartment and recruited more young women.
Both Ray and Pollok have pleaded not guilty.
bhunter@postmedia.com
@HunterTOSun
https://torontosun.com/news/world/cops-say-students-dad-ran-schoolgirl-sex-cult-at-posh-college
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