The photo provided by the FBI in October 2023 shows former CIA officer Brian Jeffrey Raymond, who pleaded guilty that year to drugging, filming and assaulting dozens of women in several countries over a 14-year period.
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Warning: This story contains detailed descriptions of sexual assault.
A former CIA officer has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for drugging, sexually assaulting and filming more than two dozen women in multiple countries over a decade.
Brian Jeffrey Raymond, 48, was also ordered to serve a lifetime of supervised release, pay $260,000 in restitution to the victims and register as a sex offender after his release from prison, the Justice Department said. said in a statement on Wednesday.
“Today’s sentence ensures that the defendant will be rightfully branded a sex offender for life, and that he will spend a significant portion of the rest of his life,” said U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves.
Raymond, of La Mesa, California, plead guilty last year for one count each of sexual abuse, violent sexual contact, coercion and enticement, and transportation of obscene material, punishable by 24 to 30 years.
As part of the plea agreement, Raymond admitted to drug and nonconsensual sexual acts with four women, and nonconsensual sexual contact with six others. He also admitted drugging two other women, and taking either photos or videos of 28 victims while they were fully or partially naked without their knowledge or permission.
“Many of the recordings show Raymond touching and manipulating the victim’s body while she was unconscious and unable to give consent,” prosecutors wrote at the time, adding that they tried to delete the footage after learning of the criminal investigation.
Prosecutors said in court filings that Raymond had been involved in a “criminal scheme to exploit women” for 14 years.
“The defendant’s goal was simple: to sexually and physically attack women when they were most vulnerable and to create a collection of photos and videos commemorating his disgusting behavior,” he wrote.
The attacks took place in “government-rented houses” in Mexico City and other locations – which authorities did not specify – between 2006 and 2020, when he was arrested.
Raymond worked for the US government at the US Embassy in Mexico City from August 2018 to May 2020, according to the FBI, which said he lived in several other countries including Peru and the US, where he lived in Washington, DC, and the San Diego.
He spoke Spanish and Mandarin Chinese, the bureau said, and met many victims on dating apps. Prosecutors said some of the victims had known Raymond for years.
The case against Raymond began in May 2020, when a naked woman was seen screaming for help from the balcony of her home in Mexico City.
“Raymond admitted to having sexual relations with her, but the woman stated that she had no memory of the event after consuming the drinks and food provided by Raymond,” he said. The FBI wrote in public notice 2021.
Agents searched Raymond’s electronic devices, where they found hundreds of photos and videos depicting at least 24 “unconscious and mute or partially mute women”.
Court filings seen by NPR say they found 487 videos and images of unconscious women in “various states of undress” on multiple devices owned by Raymond, as well as searches for terms including “deceased,” “ambient,” “ambien and alcohol and death,” “Zolpidem and pharmacy” and “deep sleep” between 2010 and 2011.
The FBI said that almost all of the women involved “experienced memory loss during their time with Raymond and have no knowledge of any photos, videos or physical contact.”
“For 14 years, Raymond exploited his position of trust as a representative of the US government to lure women into believing them,” said FBI Assistant Director David Sundberg. “The FBI is grateful to the woman who had the courage to share information that advanced this investigation.”
Many women watched in a Washington, DC courtroom as the sentence was handed down on Wednesday.
Women described being shocked and hurt when they realized what had happened
Raymond’s victims filled four rows in the courtroom, and 12 of them stood to demand that he be given the maximum sentence, Washington Post report.
While the history with Raymond varied – some met him on a dating app; others have known for nearly 20 years – they use the same words to describe him: a great man, a perfect gentleman. Or so they thought.
Prosecutors wrote in court filings that Raymond’s actions typically followed a pattern: He would drug women in his apartment over wine and snacks, then “spend hours moving, posing and assaulting her.” The photographs usually focus on the breasts and female genitalia, and Raymond “shows the body and manipulates the eyelids, mouth and limbs.”
“The defendant lured the victim to his apartment, where, unknown to him, the other woman had drugged him hours or days earlier,” prosecutors wrote. “Some were standing in the hallway where another woman had vomited. Some were stumbling over the bed where another woman had passed out the night before.
Prosecutors wrote that the victim was in physical pain and “deeply ashamed” because he could not remember what happened in the following days, Raymond “played dumb” when asked about the night and would turn the conversation to his busy work schedule. or health problems in the family.
He also bragged to a close friend about his sexual conquests and added the victim’s name to a list, prosecutors said, “noting their age, ethnicity, and, sometimes, whether their breasts were real.”
The women who spoke in court Wednesday, who have not been named, described the shock they felt when the FBI showed them photos of them being assaulted while unconscious — in some cases years after the fact — and the impact that trauma had on them. – being and relationships with others.
“My body looks like a corpse on the bed,” one victim said, according to the AP. “Now I have nightmares about me dying.”
Raymond, who has been held without bail in the DC jail since 2020, listened somberly in an orange prison jumpsuit.
At one point, he read from a statement, taking responsibility for the “downward spiral” and apologizing for what he called “disrespectful behavior.”
“I know nothing I say will take away what I’ve done, but I’m sorry and I’m sorry,” Raymond said. “This is not who I am, but I have become, and I am broken.”
Raymond’s attorney asked the judge to give him a lighter sentence of 24 years, citing his “quasi-military” work at the CIA after 9/11, the AP reports.
“When he was tired of working for the government, he ignored his own need for help, and over time he began to isolate himself, withdrawing from human feelings and becoming emotionally numb,” defense attorney Howard Katzoff wrote in a court filing. “He was a valuable government employee, but it caused him and sent him down a dark path.”
But U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly imposed the maximum sentence, saying Raymond’s actions “treason his government and his country.”
“You could say he was a sexual predator,” he said, according to the AP. “You’ll have time to think about it.”
The CIA faces scrutiny for its handling of sexual misconduct complaints
The CIA condemned the “appalling and appalling behavior” of its former officer.
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Raymond’s sentence comes amid a wider reckoning over sexual misconduct at the CIA, from which he resigned after his arrest.
An AP investigation published in 2023 found that at least two dozen women have come forward in the past month to inform authorities and Congress about sexual assaults, unwanted touching and what they consider to be a campaign by the agency not to talk about it.
At the time, so was the CIA inspector general open an independent investigation to the alleged mishandling of sexual acts. At AP reported in August this year that the 648-page internal auditor’s report confirmed “systemic deficiencies” in this regard.
CIA Director William Burns acknowledged publicly in July that “we have more work to do,” and said the agency take steps to strengthen responding to reports of sexual assault and sexual harassment, including streamlining reporting lines and hiring permanent investigators to facilitate interactions with law enforcement.
In a statement shared with NPR on Thursday, a CIA spokesman condemned Raymond’s crimes “in the strongest terms,” ​​saying there was no excuse for his “horrific and appalling behavior.” .
“We take allegations of sexual or sexual harassment very seriously, and have taken important steps to ensure that we maintain a safe, inclusive, and respectful environment for our workforce,” he wrote. “We must demand this right; our labor force demands no less.
