Bail Denied In Sarah Lawrence Student Sex Trafficking Case

YONKERS, NY — Lawrence Ray, the New Jersey man who is the father of a former Westchester college student who was accused of sex trafficking, forced labor and extortion, was denied bail Monday by a Manhattan federal court judge. U.S. Magistrate Judge Kevin Fox did not buy arguments that Ray was neither a threat to the community nor a flight risk.

Ray, 60, is being held in Manhattan at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, the Journal News reported.

Prosectors said that he had at least $1.7 million which he had received from one of his victims who had been forced into prostitution.

According to the indictment, Ray lived with some of his victims in a Sarah Lawrence College dormitory and, later, in an Upper East Side apartment and in North Carolina.

Authorities said he used physical and psychological threats and coercion to indoctrinate and exploit college students.

He had extorted about $1 million from at least five of the victims. At least one of the victims was forced to be a prostitute, according to law officials.

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