A federal judge Thursday shot down alleged Sarah Lawrence sex cult leader Lawrence Ray’s bid for release from federal custody amid the coronavirus outbreak.
“Defendant has not rebutted the presumption of risk of flight or danger to the community,” wrote Judge Lewis Liman in his decision. “His health conditions do not distinguish him from hundreds, perhaps more, in the federal prison system.”
Ray, who is being held without bail at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, is awaiting trial on sex trafficking and other charges.
His lawyers requested that he be released on $100,000 bail in a letter filed earlier this week, arguing that the 60 year old has diabetes and is at risk of serious illness if he contracts the virus.
Defense attorney Marne Lenox wrote that Ray had recently passed out in his cell due to elevated glucose levels.
Prosecutors say that Ray created a Nxivm-like sex cult to prey on his daughter’s classmates at Sarah Lawrence College.
He allegedly made $2 million in two years by forcing one of the young women into prostitution.