Former U.S. government employee Brian Jeffrey Raymond has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for drugging and sexually assaulting numerous women, and creating explicit images without their consent. This punishment was handed down by the U.S. District Court, according to a press release from the Department of Justice.
Raymond, 48 of La Mesa, California, pled guilty last November to a plethora of charges including sexual abuse, abusive sexual contact, coercion and enticement, and transportation of obscene material. He admitted to victimizing four women through nonconsensual sexual acts and taking nonconsensual sexual liberties with six others. Over 28 women were drugged by, Raymond then had obscene material created bearing their likenesses without their knowledge or consent. Additionally, he was attempting to delete evidence of these crimes once aware of the ongoing investigation.
The case brought about a collective effort by U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves, the Justice Department's Criminal Division, the Diplomatic Security Service (DSS), and the FBI to ensure Raymond's conviction. "When this predator was a government employee, he lured unsuspecting women to his government-leased housing and drugged them," said U.S. Attorney Graves, emphasizing the gravity of Raymond's actions during his time in government service both in Mexico City and elsewhere between 2006 and 2020.
Following Raymond's prison term, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly has also mandated a lifetime of supervised release and ordered him, to pay $260,000 in restitution to the victims. Raymond will also be registered as a sex offender as required by the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA). In the international scope of the investigation, the U.S. government expressed gratitude for the significant collaboration provided by the government of Mexico – including the Fiscalía General de la República and the Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores.
The prosecution team included Assistant U.S. Attorney Meredith Mayer-Dempsey from the District of Columbia and Trial Attorneys Angela Buckner and Katharine Wagner of the Justice Department’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section. Their collective efforts, along with help from various other specialists and international partners, ensure that justice, though delayed, was not denied to the victims of these heinous acts.
