Ex-CIA officer sentenced for drugging, sexually assaulting and filming dozens : NPR

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 more than 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 leaving prison, the Justice Department said in a statement on Wednesday.

“Today’s sentence ensures that the defendant will be properly marked as a sex offender for life, and he will spend a substantial portion of the rest of his life behind bars,” said U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves.

Raymond, of La Mesa, Calif., pleaded guilty last year to one count each of sexual abuse, abusive sexual contact, coercion and enticement, and transportation of obscene material, punishable by 24 to 30 years.

As part of that plea agreement, Raymond admitted to drugging and engaging in nonconsensual sexual acts with four women, and nonconsensual sexual contact with six others. He also acknowledged drugging two other women, and taking either photos or videos of 28 victims while they were fully or partially nude without their knowledge or permission.

“Many of the recordings show Raymond touching and manipulating the victim’s bodies while they were unconscious and incapable of consent,” prosecutors wrote at the time, adding that he attempted to delete the footage once he learned of the criminal investigation.

Prosecutors said in court filings that Raymond had engaged in a 14-year-long “criminal scheme to exploit women.”

“The defendant’s goal was simple: to sexually and physically assault women when they were at their most vulnerable and to create a lasting collection of photographs and videos memorializing his abhorrent deeds,” they wrote.

The assaults took place at his “government-leased housing” in Mexico City and other locations — which authorities did not specify — between 2006 and 2020, when he was arrested.

Raymond was employed by the U.S. government at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City from August 2018 until May 2020, according to the FBI, which says he lived in numerous other countries including Peru and the U.S., where he resided in the Washington, D.C., and San Diego areas.

He speaks Spanish and Mandarin Chinese, the bureau said, and met many of his 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 his Mexico City residence.

“Raymond admitted to having sexual intercourse with her, but the woman reported that she had no memory of events after consuming drinks and food provided by Raymond,” the FBI wrote in a 2021 public notice.

Agents searched Raymond’s electronic devices, where they discovered hundreds of photos and videos depicting at least 24 “unconscious and nude or partially nude women.”

Court filings reviewed by NPR said they found 487 videos and images of unconscious women in “various states of undress” on multiple devices belonging to Raymond, as well as searches for terms including “passed out,” “ambien,” “ambien and alcohol and pass out,” “Zolpidem and pharmacies” and “deep sleep” between 2010 and 2011.

The FBI said almost all of the women involved “experienced memory loss during their time with Raymond and had no knowledge of the photographs, videos or any physical contact.”

“For 14 years, Raymond exploited his trusted position as a U.S. government representative to lure women into his confidence,” said FBI Assistant Director in Charge David Sundberg. “The FBI thanks the brave women who shared information that furthered this investigation.”

Many of those women were watching in the Washington, D.C. courtroom as his sentence was handed down on Wednesday.

Women describe the shock and pain of learning what had happened to them

Raymond’s victims filled four rows in the courtroom, and 12 of them took the stand to ask that he be given the maximum sentence, the Washington Post reports.

While their histories with Raymond varied — some met him on dating apps; others had known him for nearly 20 years — they used similar words to describe him: a great guy, a perfect gentleman. Or so they thought.

Prosecutors wrote in court filings that Raymond’s actions typically followed a pattern: He would drug women at his apartment alongside wine and snacks, then “spent hours moving, posing and assaulting them.” The photographs typically focused on the women’s breasts and genitals, and Raymond “posed their bodies and manipulated their eyelids, mouths and limbs.”

“The defendant lured victims to his apartment where, unbeknownst to them, another woman had just been drugged hours or days before,” prosecutors wrote. “Some stood in his hallway where another woman had recently vomited. Some stumbled onto his bed where another woman had laid unconscious just the night before.”

The prosecutors wrote that while victims felt physically sick and a “deep sense of shame” for being unable to remember what happened in the days that followed, Raymond “played dumb” when asked about the night and would turn the conversation to his busy work schedule or health issues in his family.

He also bragged to a close friend about his sexual conquests and added the victims’ names to a list, prosecutors said, “noting their age, ethnicity, and, at times, whether their breasts were real.”

The women who spoke in court Wednesday, who were not named, described the shock they felt when the FBI showed them photos of themselves being assaulted while unconscious — in some cases years after the fact — and of the lasting impact of that trauma on their well-being and relationships with others.

“My body looks like a corpse on his bed,” one victim said, according to the AP. “Now I have these nightmares of seeing myself dead.”

Raymond, who has been held without bail in a D.C. prison since 2020, listened dejectedly in his orange prison jumpsuit.

At one point, he read from a statement, taking responsibility for his “downward spiral” and apologizing for what he called his “unconscionable actions.”

“I know whatever I say will not erase what I have done, but I wholeheartedly apologize and I am deeply sorry,” Raymond said. “This is not who I am, but it is what I became, and I am devastated.”

Raymond’s attorneys had asked the judge to give him the more lenient sentence of 24 years, citing his “quasi-military” work at the CIA in the aftermath of 9/11, the AP reports.

“While he was working tirelessly at his government job, he ignored his own need for help, and over time he began to isolate himself, detach himself from human feelings and become emotionally numb,” defense attorney Howard Katzoff wrote in a court filing. “He was an invaluable government worker, but it took its toll on him and sent him down a dark path.”

But U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly instituted the maximum sentence, saying Raymond’s acts had “betrayed his government and his country.”

“It’s safe to say he’s a sexual predator,” she said, per the AP. “You are going to have a period of time to think about this.”

The CIA faces scrutiny for its handling of sexual misconduct complaints

The CIA has condemned the “reprehensible, appalling behavior” of its former officer.

Carolyn Kaster/AP

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Carolyn Kaster/AP

Raymond’s sentencing comes amid a broader reckoning with 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 had come forward in the preceding months to tell authorities and Congress about sexual assaults, unwanted touching and what they perceived as a campaign by the agency to keep them from speaking out about it.

Around that time, the CIA inspector general also opened an independent investigation into its alleged mishandling of sexual misconduct. The AP reported in August of this year that a 648-page internal watchdog report confirmed “systemic shortcomings” in that regard.

CIA Director William Burns publicly acknowledged in July that “we have more to do,” and said the agency is taking steps to strengthen its response to reports of sexual assault and sexual harassment, including streamlining the reporting pathways and hiring a permanent investigator to facilitate interactions with law enforcement.

In a statement shared with NPR on Thursday, a CIA spokesperson condemned Raymond’s crimes “in the strongest terms,” saying there is no excuse for his “reprehensible, appalling behavior.” They added that the case underscores the agency’s commitment to engaging with law enforcement.

“We take any allegations of sexual assault or sexual harassment extremely seriously, and have taken significant steps to ensure we maintain a safe, inclusive, and respectful environment for our workforce,” they wrote. “We must get this right; our workforce demands no less.”