Ex-convict who abused college women and men gets 60 years in prison

 NEW YORK — An ex-convict who obtained millions of dollars by subjecting his daughter's ex-college roommates to forced labor and prostitution was sentenced Friday to 60 years in prison by a judge who labeled him an "evil genius" who used sadism and psychological torture to control every aspect of his victims' lives.

Lawrence "Larry" Ray, 63, was sentenced in Manhattan federal court by Judge Lewis J. Liman.

"There is no reason to believe Mr. Ray will age out of criminal behavior," Liman said, noting that the crimes began when Ray moved in late 2010 into his daughter's on-campus housing at Sarah Lawrence College, a small New York liberal arts school.

The judge said Ray charmed his victims with his "exaggerated sense of self" and his intelligence before "robbing them of their relationships, self worth, memories and then their bodies" after convincing them they had poisoned him and owed him for it.

Ray victim Daniel Levin speaking during sentencing hearing. Spoke of the torture he endured while under control of Ray at Sarah Lawrence College. 

"Through psychological terror and manipulation, he convinced them what they knew to be true was in fact false," Liman said. "He beat his victims. He tortured them and at times he starved them. He degraded them sexually to the point where they lost any self worth."

During the trial, one women testified that she became a sex worker to try to pay reparations to Ray after becoming convinced that she had poisoned him. She said that, over four years, she gave Ray $2.5 million in installments that averaged between $10,000 and $50,000 per week.

In a statement read aloud at sentencing Friday by a lawyer, the woman said she had been subjected to "unremitting sadistic torture" by a man who offered a "twisted, empty and broken version of life."

"Experiences I had while being sex trafficked haunt me today," according to her statement. She said Ray had forced "us to hold his evil for him. ... Each time we tried to put it down, he brutalized us."

One victim who spoke said he was living a happy, exciting life as a college sophomore when he met Ray "and all of that went up in smoke." He said he'd attempted suicide more than once.

Another victim said in court that he fears Ray will find a way to harm him from prison.

Lawrence Ray listening to the sentence handed down by Judge Liman of 60 years in prison.

Artwork by Elizabeth Williams  

Columbia ob-gyn Robert Hadden preyed on patients at ‘most vulnerable’: feds

Disgraced Columbia University ob-gyn Robert Hadden preyed on patients who trusted him as a respected doctor when they were at their “most vulnerable,” federal prosecutors charged in their opening statement at his sex crimes trial in Manhattan on Monday. 

Hadden is accused of sexually assaulting dozens of women, some of whom were pregnant at the time, when they were in his care from the 1990s up to 2012. 

“They trusted him to provide this care,” Assistant US Attorney Paul Monteleone told jurors in Manhattan federal court, adding some of the victims visited Hadden for the “health of the babies they were carrying.” 

“All along he was motivated … by his own sexual desires,” Monteleone said. 

Robert Hadden accused of abusing numerous patients seated at defense table surrounded
by his defense team. 

The prosecutor described in excruciating detail the alleged abuse Hadden inflicted, including sexually stimulating his victims, licking them and making crude remarks that had no medical basis. 

"The defendant used his position of power to sexually abuse his patients for years,” Monteleone told jurors. 

The first witness to take the stand, a victim identified in court as Kate Evans, graphically told jurors how Hadden sexually assaulted her during two of her last visits to him at Columbia University’s Herbert Irving Pavilion in Washington Heights in 2010 and 2011.

“I was petrified,” she said. “I knew he sexually assaulted me. It was very clear he was a sexual predator.”

Evans, who had been referred to Hadden by her sister and who said she spoke with the doctor about her home life and kids, said she was “stunned and shocked” by the abuse. 

“I can’t believe someone I trusted and my family trusted would do that to me,” she told the jury.

Hadden is accused of enticing four victims to travel from out of state so he could sexually abuse them in New York. He previously pleaded guilty in state court to abusing a number of patients, as part of a controversial no-jail deal with Manhattan prosecutors. 

Argentine visitors describe Hudson River bike path attack that killed their friends on celebratory NYC trip- NYDN by Molly Crane

 Ten high school friends from Argentina traveled to New York for several

 days of fun — but only five went home after accused terrorist Sayfullo

 Saipov ran them down with a rented truck, witnesses at Saipov’s trial recounted Wednesday.

“We were celebrating 30 years since we graduated, 35 years since we knew each other, and there were some birthdays we were celebrating,” Juan Pablo Trevisan testified. 

Juan Pablo Trevisan testifying about seeing his friends before they were hit by the truck that Sayfullo Saipov was driving at 60 mph down the bike path. Artwork by Elizabeth Williams 

One of the birthdays was his own, Trevisan said.Trevisan and his friends were cycling in pairs on the Hudson River Park bike path between Watts and Vestry Sts. on Oct. 31, 2017, when prosecutors say Saipov sped his rented trick along the bike lane.

Juan Pablo Trevisan describing the attack on the bike path. 

As Trevisan reached an arm out and asked one of his friends to stop and wait up, he heard a loud thumping noise. “At that moment, the pickup truck [hit] my arm and my wrist, and there was a sign that was dragging that came off and hit my arm.”

Another member of the Argentine group, Martin Marro, recalled a fellow surviving friend tending to him as he bled profusely on the sidewalk.

Martin Marro testifying about the injuries he sustained after being hit by the truck while riding a Citibike on the Hudson River Bike Path. 
Artwork by Elizabeth Williams

“He said to stay calm, that he was there to take care of me and to protect me and to make sure that I wouldn’t drown in my own blood,” Marro said, adding that among other serious injuries he sustained were fractures to his skull, brain and eye socket.

Trevisan and Marro told their stories on the third day of evidence and arguments at Saipov’s federal death penalty trial.

After the men spoke, federal prosecutors showed the jury photos of the victims’ covered bodies.

Sayfullo Saipov watching witnesses testify 1/11/23

Slaughtered were Hernan Diego Mendoza, Alejandro Damian Pagnucco, Ariel Erlij, Hernan Ferruchi and Diego Enrique Angelini.

Also killed were Darren Drake, a 32-year-old from New Jersey, and 23-year-old Nicholas Cleves of New York.

Jurors on Tuesday heard from the devastated loved ones of a 31-year-old mother of two, Ann-Laure Decadt, of Belgium, killed as she rode with her two sisters and mom.

Harvey Weinstein Los Angeles sentencing on rape and sexual assault charges delayed until 23 February

Harvey Weinstein won a six-week sentencing delay Monday for his Los Angeles rape conviction after his lawyers said he plans to file a motion for a new trial.

The disgraced movie mogul, 70, was due to be sentenced Monday for the 2013 rape and sexual assault of an Italian actress at a Los Angeles hotel, but Judge Lisa Lench postponed the day of reckoning to Feb. 23 to give his defense time to prepare their argument for another trial.

Harvey Weinstein in court  1/9/2023 
artwork by Bill Robles

Judge Lench said Monday she would hear Weinstein’s pitch for a trial at the Feb. 23 sentencing hearing and would move ahead with bestowing her punishment if his motion is denied.

Weinstein, who’s already serving a 23-year prison sentence out of New York after being convicted of rape and sexual assault in Manhattan in 2020, is facing up to 24 years in prison for his Los Angeles conviction.

Weinstein was convicted Dec. 19 of rape, forcible oral copulation, and sexual penetration by a foreign object for his February 2013 attack on an Italian actress at the Mr. C hotel on the outskirts of Beverly Hills. Jurors heard during the nearly two-month trial that Weinstein pushed his way into the victim’s hotel room and raped her while she was in town for an annual festival celebrating Italian films.

Real Housewife Jen Shah Sentenced to 6 1/2 Years

 Jen Shah of "Real Housewives" gets 6 1/2 year prison term

Fri, January 6, 2023 at 1:16 PM EST·2 min read

Jen Shah, one of the stars of Bravo's "The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City," was sentenced to prison Friday after pleading guilty to a fraud charge earlier this year.

In a Manhattan courtroom, U.S. District Judge Sidney H. Stein announced that the reality star, 49, will serve a sentence of 6½ years in prison, the Associated Press reported. Before her sentencing, Shah was facing 11 to 14 years in prison.

Jen Shah in court with her attorneys during sentencing 
artwork by Elizabeth Williams

“Reality TV has nothing to do with reality,” Shah said during Friday's hearing. "I am deeply sorry for what I’ve done. My actions have hurt innocent people.”

Jen Shah making tearful statement during sentencing 
court sketch by Elizabeth Williams

According to multiple reports, Shah will have to surrender on Feb. 17.

In a statement provided to The Times Friday, Shah's defense lawyer, Priya Chaudhry, said the reality star "deeply regrets the mistakes that she has made and is profoundly sorry to the people she has hurt.

"Jen has faith in our justice system, understands that anyone who breaks the law will be punished, and accepts this sentence as just," Chaudhry added. "Jen will pay her debt to society and when she is a free woman again, she vows to pay her debt to the victims harmed by her mistakes.

In July, Shah pleaded guilty to the count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. She told a judge that in 2012 she took part in a massive telemarketing fraud for nearly a decade that prosecutors say cheated thousands of people nationwide.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kiersten Ann Fletcher said during the July hearing that Shah engaged in a fraudulent scheme from 2012 to 2021 that sold bogus services advertised to help people make substantial amounts of money through online businesses.

Shah, who admitted she was aware of the fraud, said, “I knew this was wrong and that many people were harmed, and I’m so sorry."

On Friday, Shah also pledged to pay $6.5 million in restitution and forfeiture when she gets out of prison.