Thread by @innercitypress

OK: now sex cultist of Sarah Lawrence college Larry Ray is about to be sentenced. Inner City Press covered the trial, the John List (of Claudia Drury) and wrote a booklet about it and will live tweet, thread below amazon.com/gp/product/B09…

Judge Liman: Larry Ray was arrested for securities fraud, and violated terms of probation and supervised release. In 2010 he pled to interference with custody. The guidelines are 360 months to life. No departure is available. Are there victims who wish to be heard?

Assistant US Attorney: Santos Rosario, Mr. Daniel Levin, and Claudia Drury's attorney. We'll start with her.
Drury's friend and attorney, formerly of Simpson Thacher: Claudia did not attend because she wants to move on. But she wrote this:

Drury's letter: He lured me in with the promise of making my family a healthier one. Then he convinced me I'd poisoned him and his family. He'd call me and say they were dying. He made me work as a prostitute to pay back for imaginary damage

Drury's letter: I feel profoundly violated. I trusted Larry Ray with everything. He destroyed my life, convinced me I was evil, he sexually groomed me, enslaved me in prostitution, beat me, extorted me - he bound me and suffocated me with a plastic bag

Drury's letter: He called m a B-list actress. So when I left emotions, I thought I was being disingenuous. I have nightmare. I have been unable to hold any job. Everything exhausts me.
[Larry Ray is in prison beige, with two US Marshals behind him, & 5 lawyers]

Drury's lawyer: My mother has stress related health issues. This is a man who prefers to target families. He gave me an eating disorder. I'd eat from a pile of junk food to the toilet and then see a client. Then repeat it. I'd throw up in client's homes.

Drury's lawyer: I didn't get my period. I was freezing all the time. Stomach acid ate my teeth. My front tooth chipped. The day I left New York and severed contact with Larry as the day I started recovering. It was hell, a deliberate campaign to break me

Drury's lawyer: Every time I was forced to prostitute I became more numb. Larry wanted to watch me break into pieces and give the parts away. Nothing was enough. He threatened to expose my clients. Everything I touched ended up broken. I lied to everyone.

Drury's letter: I pushed myself past every limit. My soul was completely depleted. I was catatonic. I would say, Get off of me. I am often disgusted with myself. I feel backwards and unnatural. I am still so sorry, just like I was when I believed I had poisoned

Drury's letter: No one deserves such a broken version of life. I don't know what made Larry this way. It doesn't matter. I have no forgiveness. I forced me to feel what it must be like to be him. He was experimenting on our souls, like lab mice.

Drury's letter: Larry will bide his spite and unleashed it on our loved ones. I have one thing to say to him directly. You are still a human being. You cannot escape that or your soul. However you have tarnished it. I am rebuilding. I believe in God.

Judge Liman: Thank you. Next I'll hear from Santos Rosario.
[He's in a sweater, at podium]
Santos: In 2010 I was 19 years old and a sophomore in college. I was happy. Then I met Larry Ray. The next decade was misery. My family was ripped apart.

Santos: He used me to drain all my family's money. I was contemplating suicide. I left one of the top colleges in the country. He blackmailed me, he took away everything that made me, me. By 2012 I had lost my sense of self, I lost trust in myself.

Santos: I was homeless for months. He took ten years of my life from me. I have perpetual anxiety these days. I can't relate to others. Therapy is difficult, similar to my time under Larry. I can't convey this man's crimes. I ask that he be given a life sentence.

Daniel Levin is in black pants and a black shirt.
Levin: My name is Daniel. I met Talia's dad. What he went on to do to me [pauses] How do you explain to a partner, one day to my children, that when I was 19 my friend's dad moved into the dorm and abused me?

Levin: In the trial, jurors got to see some of the worst things every committed to video. Imagine living them. You can't go outside, you can't go to the bathroom. You'll be tortured from your thought. For the rest of my life, Larry Ray will be over me with a knife

Daniel Levin: Lawrence Ray made me mouth a dildo and asked if I still thought I was gay. He put a garotte around my testicles and pulled my tongue with pliers. He said he knew better than I did. I doubt what I believe. My joy is tinged with pain

Levin: They'll call it a sex cult. But that's a dumbing down. People will call us weak or naive. Look at the reality. We were intelligent, just like you. What happened was because of one man. Lawrence is not so special. He is petty and seeks power

Levin: He could not stand what was broken inside of him, so he convinced us he could solve our problems. He feigns illness to get sympathy. He tortured us. I would like to hear him say he's sorry and mean it, but I know he never will. He might try to trick you

Levin: He will spend every day in prison plotting against us. He will attempt to hurt me from confinement. If he is released from prison, my death warrant will have been signed. That said, this morning I went for a walk and talked to a friend. Because I can.

Levin: Tonight I can go back home, and lock the door behind me. Because I have the key. He took that away. He does not deserve that right, until he dies.
Judge Liman: Thank you.
AUSA: The Rosario sisters are here. The government is seeking a sentence of life

Assistant US Attorney: The defendant put the Rosarios in diapers and pacifiers. There was Claudia's BDSM, shared with the defendant - he suggested she have sex with a tool salesman who was married.

AUSA: He must be incapacitated to protect the public. Life imprison alone can accomplish that.
Judge Liman: I'll hear from the defense.
Federal Defender: I generally begin by recognizing defendant's family members in the audience. Today there's no one

FD: His loved ones died while he was in jail, in inhumane detention. The MCC closed because of atrocious conditions. Mr. Ray has been punished, and he will continue to be punished. He will remain in jail at least for the next decade. We say, 15 years is enough

Federal Defender: This is not a murder case. Mr. Ray has not expressed remorse on the advice of counsel, to protect his appeal --
Judge Liman: I'm not holding that against him.
FD: Mr. Ray was frightened of COVID. The Bureau of Prisons subjected him to lockdowns

Federal Defender: Larry Ray's mother bragged of poisoning people's food. The court cannot ignore this family dynamic. This case is nothing like #NXIVM - that went on over 15 years, including a 15 year old minor. #GhislaineMaxwell got 240 months. #RKelly got 360

Federal Defender: The individuals here were all adults. None were children. On forfeiture, the Pine Hurst property should not be. Anyone in the future would know who is is, from a documentary or book (!) amazon.com/gp/product/B09…

Federal Defender: Mr. Ray is 63 years old and sick. More than 15 years is a effectively a life sentence. Thank you.
Judge Liman: US on forfeiture of Pine Hurst property?
AUSA: It was used as an instrumentality of the crime, forced labor. The statute allows it.

Judge Liman: I'm going to take a brief recess --
Federal Defender: Mr. Ray wants to speak.
Judge Liman: Now is the time.
Larry Ray: These 3 years have been hard. I am in pain all the time. I experience numbness in my extremities. I have ringing in my ears.

Larry Ray: The lesions I get are frightening. The areas are expanding. I need specialists - but I'm in jail. The MDC sends me to Brooklyn Hospital but they don't have what I need. They sent me to Mount Sinai. MCC had mice. I couldn't review all my discovery

Larry Ray: I lost my father, my step-father and my step-mother all in one week. They are gone.
Judge Liman: Thank you Mr. Ray. I am taking a recess.
Thread will continue.

Judge Liman is back.
Judge Liman: The guideline is 360 months to life. Mr. Ray's conduct was particular heinous. He used his charm to gain the trust of a group of college students and robbed them of money, self-worth, ultimately their bodies.

Judge Liman: There was a particular cruelty. He targeted one uncertain of his sexuality. He abused him with sex toys, to make it clear to the others that they were next. A medical student, he told her she'd never get a job, and to have sex with strangers

Judge Liman: It was sadism, pure and simple. It involved grooming. He would have destroyed more lives if given the opportunity. He believed he was above the law. This is not about him going to trial, he is not being penalized.

Judge Liman: He did not believe his victims would have the courage to testify. But they did. This case shows the resiliency of the human spirit. There is no reason to believe Mr. Ray will age out of criminality. 15 years would not capture the enormity of his crimes

Judge Liman: I intend to impose a sentence that ensure Mr. Ray is never released. But I do not intend to impose a formal life sentence. That would be to descend to the defendant's depths. Mr. Ray did not take lives - he attempted to extinguish them.

Judge Liman: I sentence Larry Ray - please rise - to 720 months or 60 years in prison, then supervised release of life.