. >> 60-year-old ex-convict lawrence ray has pleaded not guilty to charges of sex trafficking and extortion. here is stefan kim. >> reporter: he appeared relaxed in court, but the charges he's facing are serious. ray pleading not guilty to nine criminal counts including sex trafficking, extortion, and forced labor. prosecutors say it started at sarah lawrence college in bronxville, new york, where he allegedly moved into his daughter's dorm in 2010 and

if found guilty, lawrence ray is looking at life behind bars sarah lawrence college calls the chargesgainst ray disturbing, adding it conducted its ow internal investigation after "the new york magazine" article came out and couldn't verify the claims. lester >> all right stephanie, thank you >>> a new report from the cdc shows 1 in 7 american families is struggling to pay medical bills. it comes as a growin number of hospitals are suing patients to collect their debts. stephanie ruhle has more in "your money, your life." >> reporter: what do you care about >> my children and their happiness. >> reporter: tricia has four sons. >> reporter: how many are sick >> three. >> reporter: all three with cystic fibrosis, a life threatening lung disease sending them in and out of hospitals for 20 years. how many nights do you think you've slept in a chair in a hospital room >> every night they're in if they were in for two weeks, i was there with them. >> reporter: even with insurance, hers is among the 1 in 7 families struggling with medical debt. >> it's probably close to, i don't know, maybe

now lawrence ray is an accused sex trafficker pleading not guilty in federal court to multiple charges authorities say it all started here on the campus of sarah lawrence college just outside new york city. according to prosecutors, ray moved into his daughter's coed college dorm in 2010 with her roommates when she was a sophomore. >> the criminal conduct was his ability to psychologically control his young victims. >> reporter: according to the indictment he slowly gained emotional control over the roommates through what he called therapy sessions, convincing the students they suffered from psychological problems, presenting himself as a father figure prosecutors alleged the emotional control slowly turned into physical abuse, prostitution, and eventually extortion of about $1 million. >> the conduct alleged here is outrageous makes you angry. if you're not angry you don't have a soul. >> reporter: allegations first surfaced last year in new york magazine >> there was nothing particularly remarkable about his victims in that they were vulnerable teenagers they could have been anybody'

. >> reporter: lawrence ray moved in his tower's on campus house at sarah lawrence after leaving jailbal and physical abuse to control his young victims. that abuse escalating once they moved to new york city with him a short time later. >> so he directed his victims to obtain money for him by other means, by draining their parents' savings and worse forced labor and prostitution. >> reporter: ray is charged with nine counts including sex trafficking, extortion and money laundering. the indictment says ray demanded taped confessions from his victims for supposed crimes they committed. >> anybody threaten you? >> no. >> anybody coerce you? >> no. >> reporter: this video an apparently disoriented woman said she tried to poison ray. an unsubstantiated claim. prosecutors say he used these videos to extort his victims. now sarah lawrence college said they looked at accusations against ray from 2011 but count substantiate them. ray will be in this courthouse on wednesday and if found guilty will face a maximum sentence of life in prison. errol barnett, cbs news, new york. >>> coming up only

federal prosecutors in new york say 60-year-old lawrence ray moved into on campus housing with his daughterommates back in 2010. officials say ray used physical, psychological and psychological abuse to make his victims confess to invented wrongdoing. prosecutors say for nearly a decade ray coerced and extorted nearly $1 million from five victims. >>> day four of the search for a missing 6-year-old south carolina girl and still no sign of her. more than 250 officers and investigators are looking for fay marie. she was last seen playing in her front yard after school. authorities in the city are looking for two vehicles in the neighborhood around the time fay was last seen. the fbi has joined the search for the missing first grader. >>> the nation's largest teachers unions are calling for an end to active shooter drills because they may be traumatizing to students. the american federation of students and the national education association are partnering with a coalition of gun violence groups to publicly condemn active shooter drills in schools. about 95% schools conducted drills on lock dow

. >> reporter: lawrence ray left jail in 2010, moving into his daughter's on-campus house for a year arah lawrence college in westchester, new york. according to the indictment, he used verbal and physical abuse to control his young victims. that abuse escalating once they moved to new york city with him a short time later. >> so ray directed his victims to obtain money for him by other forced labor and prostitution. >> reporter: ray is charged with nine counts, including sex trafficking, extortion, and money laundering. the indictment says ray also demanded taped confessions from his victims for supposed crimes they committed. >> anybody threaten you? >> no. >> anybody coerce you? >> no. >> reporter: in this video, uploaded in 2017, an apparently disoriented young woman says she tried to poison ray, an unsubstantiated claim. >> and you poisoned me you said? >> yes. >> reporter: prosecutors say he used these videos to extort his victims. now, sarah lawrence college said it looked into accusations against ray from 2011 but could not substantiate them, pledging to cooperate with this in

his name is lawrence ray. he's 60 years old.rrested yesterday by the fbi and new york police department on charges including sex trafficking, money laundering, extortion and forced labor. prosecutors say the abuse started years ago when ray moved in with his daughter at sarah lawrence college in her dorm room. errol barnett is at the campus north of new york city. so many apparent issues here. how far back does this go? >> reporter: well, good morning. gayle, lawrence ray moved in with his daughter back in 2010 after a jail stint. he effectively told her and she was a sophomore here at the time that he just needed a place to crash for a while. that is when the alleged abuse began. >> the conduct is outrageous. makes you angry. >> reporter: after years of allegations about unspeakable abuse against young people he met as college students 60-year-old lawrence ray was arrested at this new jersey home on tuesday. >> one of his daughters room mates and one of the female victims in the indictment were in the residence at the time. >>

yesterday 60-year-old lawrence ray pleaded not guilty to federal charges including extortion, sex traffickingd forced labor. he's accused of abusing his daughter's room mates. prosecutors accuse ray of forcing at least one woman into prostitution and making her tape sex videos to use as leverage against her. >>> "the columbus dispatch" report two ohio state football players were dismissed from the team after being charged with rape and kidnapping. amir riep and jahsen wint are scheduled to be arraigned today. the criminal complaint alleges a 19-year-old woman was afghanistan consensual sex with amir riep last week when she stopped and didn't want to continue. jahsen wint entered the room and the two men raped her. their attorneys say they are innocent. >> the charges are false. wrongly accused. he shouldn't be in jail. >> police say riep told the woman she needed to say sex was consensual on video. >> our affiliate in norfolk, virginia says the families of the 17 sailor whose died in the 2000 terror attack on the "uss cole" have reached a settlement with sudan. sudan has agreed to pay about $

according to the indictment, lawrence ray moved into his daughter's on campus housing at the prestigious sarah lawrence college north of new york city in 2010. prosecutors say he befriended her roommates, some still teenagers, and began so-called therapy sessions with them learning intimate details of their lives, they say grooming them before moving some of them into a new york city apartment all while allegedly subjecting them to physical, psychological and sexual abuse. ray has pleaded not guilty to nine criminal counts including sex trafficking, extortion and forced labor. >> there's no knowing the amount of damage he may have caused them in the years to come. >> reporter: prosecutors claim ray extorted about $1 million from his victims threatening them, depriving them of food and sleep, taking explicit photos of them and in one case even allegedly prostituting one of them for cash. abc news spoke to one of ray's alleged victims last year. >> he put me in a lot of situations that involved being sexual in ways that i wouldn't have chosen. >> the allegations against ray were first outl

lawrence ray is accused of moving into his daughter's college dorm and abusing her roommates. >> ray, psychological, and sexual abuse to make his victims confess to alleged wrongdoing and then agreed to make substantial payments to ray, payments that these young students did not actually owe and could not possibly afford. >> ray is charged with nine counts including ex-portion and facing a possible life sentence if convicted >>> celibacy takes center stage in the catholic church with the pope expected to release an eagerly awaited text about the possibility of ordaining married men to address a priest shortage in the amazon. nbc's claudia lavanga has the details from rome. good morning, claudia. >> reporter: good morning, frances. speculation over whether pope francis agrees with the proposal of ordaining married men in communities that are very remote to the point that there is a shortage of priests has been ripe for months now. since october when bishops in the amazon region, the faithful there were going months without being aable to attend mass because of a shortage. they found a

lawrence ray is accused of sexually and psychologically abusing his daughter's roommates at sarah lawrenceollege. prosecutors say the evidence includes explicit photos and videos and prostitution ads online. tonight, the national safety council is calling for seat belts on all school buses after the release of this terrifying video. this was from an accident in ohio in december where students were tossed after the bus was hit by a car. eight students were hurt. most states do not require seat belts on school buses. this video is probably going to change some things. wow. up next, a man who has given so much of himself to save lives and why he has no plans to stop. if you have postmenopausal osteoporosis and a high risk for fracture, now might not be the best time to ask yourself, 'are my bones strong?' life is full of make or break moments. that's why it's so important to help reduce your risk of fracture with prolia®. only prolia® is proven to help strengthen and protect bones from fracture with 1 shot every 6 months. do not take prolia® if you have low blood calcium, are pregnant, are al

lawrence ray moved on to the sara lawrence campus into his daughter's dorm room and proceeded to reallym into his daughter's roommates lives. gathering them around, he was sort of the cool dad on campus, making dinner for them. from there he offered them therapy sessions. >> what does that mean? >> sure, sure. these are young, 18, 19, 20-year-old impressionable kids on a college campus looking for kind of a guiding figure. and larry, you know, paid attention to them, gave them the kind of attention that all of us i think, a lot of us crave at 18. and he listened to them. and he then, you know, would kind of put these problems on them, these psychological problems. and the only ant toed was more larry ray. he was the only one who could solve these problems for him. >> did nobody think it was completely bizarre that a dad was living in a dorm room? >> sure. we did speak with one parent of somebody who was living in that doernl room who says she raised the alarm a number of times. but it fell on deaf ears. later on, once the students moved off the campus with larry ray, one parent -- set o

lawrence ray is accused of running a cult out of his daughter's dorm room.ictims. this morning, a 60-year-old father is behind bars indicted by federal authorities for alleged sex trafficking and abuse of college students, including some of his daughter's roommates. according to the indictment, lawrence ray moved into his daughter's on-campus housing at the prestigious sarah lawrence college in 2010. prosecutors say he befriended her roommates, some still teen-agers and began therapy sessions with them learning intimate details of their lives. they say grooming them before moving with some of them to a new york city apartment all while allegedly subjecting them to physical, psychological and sexual abuse. he's facing nine criminal counts including sex trafficking, extortion, and forced labor. >> there's no knowing the amount of damage he may have caused them in the years to come. >> reporter: prosecutors allege ray extorted about $1 million in total from his victims, threatening them, depriving them of food and sleep, taking explicit photos of them, and in o

federal prosecutors say 60-year-old lawrence ray moved onto on campus housing with his daughter and hered physical, psychological and sexual abuse to make his victims confess to invented wrongdoing. prosecutors say for nearly a decade ray coerced and extorted nearly $1 million from five victims. among other things ray pressured them to open credit cards and drain their parents savings. >>> the nation's largest teachers unions are calling for an end to active shooter drills because they may be traumatizing students. the american federation of teachers and national education association partnering with the coalition of gun violence groups to publicly condemn active shooter drills in schools. about 95% of schools conducted drills on lock down procedure during the 2015-2016 school year. >> oh, my god. oh, my god. >> an uber driver in richmond, virginia, charged with abducting two passengers. police say the 38-year-old was chasing a vehicle that rear ended his car. his passengers, john murray and his wife tamika, were still in the back seat, and they live streamed the chase. tamika called it

. >> 60-year-old ex-convict lawrence ray has pleaded not guilty to charges of sex trafficking and extortionpeared relaxed in court, but the charges he's facing are serious. ray pleading not guilty to nine criminal counts including sex trafficking, extortion, and forced labor. prosecutors say it started at sarah lawrence college in bronxville, new york, where he allegedly moved into his daughter's dorm in 2010 and physically and psychologically abused and manipulated a group of college students, some of them teens, forcing them into his cult. officials believe one of his victims was forced into prostitution. >> he put me in a lot of situations that involved being sexual in ways that i wouldn't have chosen. they very deliberately try to separate you from your family and friends and loved ones because that's your support network. >> reporter: ray's accused of extorting a total of $1 million from five different victims over a decade. during that span he allegedly moved the victims to an upper east side apartment. the allegations first outlined in "new york" magazine last spring. in it desperate

yesterday we learned that lawrence ray, the man accused of what the u.s.ble abuse for manipulating a number of young students from sarah lawrence college, was federally indicted for his alleged actions. ray was charged with nine counts, including conspiracy, extortion, sex trafficking, forced labor, money laundering and other related charges. the indictment detailed that for eight years ray quote subjected the victims to sexual and psychological manipulation and physical abuse. according to the indictment, reagan targeting students after he moved on to campus with his daughter who attended sarah lawrence in 2010 and said that he ran quote therapy sessions with his daughter's roommates, which escalated to threats and coercion. over the course of eight years it is alleged ray convinced them to confess to crimes they did not commit, extorted thousands of dollars from them, threatened them with knives, forced them into manual labor on his family's property in north carolina, and even forced one of the young women into prostitution. if convicted, ray faces up t

ray tied chair, placed a plastic bag over her head and almost suffocated her. >> reporter: the fbi says it launched the investigation after "new york magazine" detailed the story in 2019. and david, sarah lawrence says it conducted an internal investigation after that article came out, but could not substantiate those claims. in a statement, they called the charges disturbing. ray faces life in prison if convicted. david? >> diane macedo tonight. diane, thank you. >>> and news just coming in this evening that actor jussie smollett has now been indicted on new charges. a grand jury accusing the former "empire" star of lying to police. the charges come after smollett's claim that he was the target of a racisttt a2019. >>> there is still much more ahead on "world news tonight" this tuesday. tracking that major storm tonight. flood concerns this evening from texas all the way up to pennsylvania. and ginger zee is standing by to time this out for h in hawaii o they vanished. a text message from her daughter raising questions. >>> and the scare onboard a school bus. the bus struck by a car and the children then sent into the air. frightening images. there's a lot more news ahead steer. stay tuned. wo

reporter: according to the indictment, it started in 2010, when ray got out of prison and moved into his daughter's dorm room at sarah lawrence college in westchester, new york. prosecutors say he started convincing his daughter's roommates they were "broken" and "in need of fixing." >> it was here that he laid the groundwork for psychological conditioning that would eventually lead these young adults to become unwitting victims. >> reporter: prosecutors say he made up lies about his victims, coerced their false confessions, then used those confessions to extort roughly a million dollars from them. even forcing at least one victim into prostitution, and at times, resorting to physical violence. the fbi says it launched the investigation after "new york magazine" details the story in 2019. and david, sarah lawrence says it conducted an internal investigation after that article came out, but could not substantiate those claims. in a statement, they called the charges disturbing. ray faces life in prison if convicted. david? >> diane macedo tonight. diane, thank you. >>> and news just coming in this evening that actor jussie smo

>>> by the summer of 2012, tommy and ray highers had been fight to clear their names for 25 years. and now judge lawrenceew evidence. this was the moment. >> this is the court's decision on the defendants' motion for relief from judgment. >> reporter: but with all the history, the legalese, the new evidence, the witnesses. >> the prosecution was meticulous in pointing out inconsistencies and differences between testimony. >> reporter: it took the judge two full hours to explain the basis for his decision. the reasons, he said, he had no choice but to rule a particular way. >> oh, my nerves were like shaken. >> reporter: as tommy and ray, their courtroom full of family and friends and attorneys agonized, some felt almost ill. >> just sitting through the ruling almost killed me. i'm thinking, oh, my god, we're losing. oh, my god, we're winning, oh, my god, we're losing. >> until the judge finally said the words. >> this evidence meets all the requirements for this court to grant the requested relief by the defense. [ applause ] >> all right. >> a weight just fell off my shoulders. it was just, oh, finally,

. >> reporter: it started in 2010 when ray got out of prison and moved into his daughter's dorm room at sarah lawrencestchester, new york. prosecutors say he started convincing his daughter's roommates they were broken, in need of fixing. >> he laid the groundwork for psychological conditioning that would eventually lead these young adults to become unwitting victims. >> reporter: prosecutors say he made up lies, coerced false confessions, then used those confessions to export roughly $1 million from them, forcing at least one victim into prostitution, and at times resorting to physical violence. >> ray tied this victim to a chair, placed a plastic bag over her head, and almost suffocated her. >> reporter: the fbi says it launched the investigation after "new york" magazine detailed the story in 2019. sarah lawrence says it conducted an internal investigation after the article came out but could not substantiate those claims. in a statement they call the charges disturbing. ray faces life in prison if convicted. diane macedo, abc news, new york. >> incredible details from diane. so many people wonder