COVERT MISSIVES

Sarah Lawrence Cult Suspect Accused of Witness Tampering

Prosecutors say Lawrence Ray has been attempting to communicate with his alleged victims via coded messages relayed to his father.

Lawrence Ray, who allegedly extorted and trafficked multiple Sarah Lawrence students to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars, is now accused of witness tampering from a Manhattan jail. The 60-year-old has made “ongoing efforts” to sway his alleged victims into not testifying against him, according to New York City prosecutors who objected to his petition for home release while he awaits trial. Lawyers say Ray has been calling his father and asking him to relay messages to Ray’s alleged victims in coded language, going so far as to promise to marry one of the women if she refuses to take the stand. “These messages are plainly designed to tamper with witnesses and deter these women from cooperating in the government’s investigation,” prosecutors wrote. From a dorm at Sarah Lawrence, Ray allegedly abused his daughter’s friends physically, emotionally, and sexually, fashioning them into a de facto cult and subjecting them to sessions of what he called “therapy” to obtain intimate details of their lives to later use as blackmail over a period of years.