‘Sex, Lies and The College Cult’: The shocking true story behind the new Sarah Lawrence case documentary

Larry Ray was convicted on charges including racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, forced labor, and extortion,

When Lawrence Ray moved into his daughter’s dorm at Sarah Lawrence College in September of 2010, he had just been released from prison. He needed a place to stay, and his daughter’s housemates seemed “mostly unfazed”, The Cut would report in April of 2019. But Ray’s time at Sarah Lawrence, a liberal arts college in Yonkers, New York, took a dark turn – one that eventually saw him accused of exploiting students on the campus in the manner of a cult leader, and convicted on charges including racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, forced labor, and extortion.

Sex, Lies and The College Cult, a new Peacock documentary, takes a closer look at Ray’s wrongdoings. Set to air on Wednesday (28 September), it promises “the shocking and unnerving true story of how a father and professional conman … brainwashed students of Sarah Lawrence College into an abusive sex cult that upended their lives, and the lives of their families.” Ray’s trial took place between March and April of this year.

Most people had never heard of Lawrence “Larry” Ray until The Cut published a longform investigation titled “The Stolen Kids of Sarah Lawrence: What happened to the group of bright college students who fell under the sway of a classmate’s father?” The article prompted authorities to investigate Ray’s conduct, eventually leading to criminal charges and to his conviction.

Before his arrival on the Sarah Lawrence campus, Ray had served time in a New Jersey prison on charges related to a child custody case. After he moved with his daughter Talia Ray, The Cut reported, he “planted himself in the common area, cooking steak dinners and ordering expensive delivery for Talia and her seven housemates.” He reportedly shared stories with them, “loved to preach the values of the Marine Corps”, and could be “charming” and a “good listener.” He stood out against the backdrop of Sarah Lawrence, an intellectual institution with an artistic flair, whose alumni include the actor Julianna Margulies, the fashion designer Vera Wang, and the writer Alice Walker.

Ray eventually “persuaded his daughter’s friends to stay … at his Manhattan apartment” during the summer that followed his arrival at the Sarah Lawrence dorm, Assistant US Attorney Lindsey Keenan said during his trial in 2022. Over time, Ray allegedly built up his influence on a group of young adults, prompting them to believe they should adhere to his values and leading them on what The Cut called a “program of personal transformation”.

The publication reported that he asked them to share personal stories and collected “hundreds of pages” worth of confessions from them. He profited “off their labor, their money and even their bodies,” Keenan told the court, adding: “Once he gained control of their lives ... he took over their lives.”

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Ray’s abuse, as described during the court proceedings, was mental, physical, and sexual. A witness at his trial, recalled an “escalating pattern of physical abuse”, with Ray “calling him ‘hemorrhoid’ and ‘scum’ and holding a knife to his throat and genitals or putting him in a chokehold, berating him until he agreed with Ray that he’d done wrong,” the Associated Press wrote after the witness testified in March this year.

A woman on the witness stand said Ray had convinced her she had poisoned him and owed him money as a result. She claimed she was forced to turn to sex work to earn the funds, and that she gave Ray around $2.5m. In recounting his alleged violence, AP reported that she told the court: “He slapped me in the face so hard I fell over, pulled my hair, strangled me, suffocated me, hit me. He threatened to put me in jail numerous times. He threatened to kill me on a memorable occasion. He threatened to cut my face, have me abducted and dropped in the Middle East. He threatened to blackmail people that I knew. He threatened to beat up my father.”

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Throughout the trial, Ray’s defense team maintained that his conduct was not criminal, and he had merely surrounded himself with “storytellers”. A jury convicted him after deliberating for less than a day, on federal charges of “racketeering conspiracy, a violent crime in aid of racketeering, extortion, sex trafficking, forced labor, tax evasion, and money laundering offenses,” as listed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.

“Twelve years ago, Larry Ray moved into his daughter’s dorm room at Sarah Lawrence College,” US Attorney Damian Williams said after the verdict was announced. “And when he got there, he met a group of friends who had their whole lives ahead of them. For the next decade, he used violence, threats, and psychological abuse to try to control and destroy their lives. He exploited them. He terrorized them. He tortured them.” Ray faces up to life in prison and is expected to be sentenced in December.

In March of last year, a woman named Isabella Pollok was charged with being Ray’s accomplice, The New York Times reported at the time. She recently pleaded guilty to a money laundering conspiracy charge. Per the AP, the plea agreement required Pollok to “admit that she knew that some of the money she was conspiring to launder from 2014 to 2019 was generated by unlawful activities including sex trafficking.”

When the charges were first announced, Pollok’s aunt told The New York Times: “I don’t care what they found. It is all under duress. She has been under his spell for 10 years.”

Pollok faces up to five years in prison and is scheduled to be sentenced in February 2023.