Reporters Behind the Sarah Lawrence Sex 'Cult' Exposé Recount Origins of the 'Fascinating, Troubling Story' (Feat. Ezra Marcus and James Walsh)

Some four years ago, a reporter learned from fellow Sarah Lawrence College alumni about a "troubling" website about an ex-student there. The website, whose address had been in the student's name, looked like an attempt to blackmail her with written and videotaped false confessions. Two reporters researched that lead extensively before publishing an exposé titled “Larry Ray and the Stolen Kids of Sarah Lawrence.” The central figure in the article, Lawrence Ray, is now standing federal trial in Manhattan on a 17-count racketeering indictment, and the woman on the website, Claudia, has been testifying against him for three days. She claims that Ray forced her into prostitution to the tune of $2.5 million over the course of four years, in key testimony for Ray's sex trafficking count. On the latest episode of Law&Crime's podcast “Objections: with Adam Klasfeld,” the authors of the New York Magazine article that first uncovered the unsettling case—Ezra Marcus and James Walsh—describe the origins of their discovery and their impressions of the ongoing federal trial. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.