Former CIA officer Brian Jeffrey Raymond pleaded guilty to a number of sexual assault charges after prosecutors say he abused women for more than a decade across a number of countries. (Photograph courtesy of FBI.)
Ex-CIA officer Brian Raymond has pleaded guilty to several charges after being accused of sexually assaulting, drugging and photographing at least 28 women over the course of 14 years as his victims were unconscious in his clutches as he traveled the globe working for the U.S. government.
Raymond, 47, of La Mesa, California, was most recently working at the American embassy in Mexico City before he was arrested in October 2020.
According to court records obtained by Law&Crime, an investigation into Raymond began that year when Mexico City police responded to a reports of a “naked, hysterical woman desperately screaming for help” from the balcony of Raymond’s embassy-issued apartment. Prosecutors said the woman told authorities she went to his apartment after they met on Tinder. He seemed trustworthy, spoke fluent Spanish and was inviting, offering her chocolate, fruit and wine, she said. But after imbibing, she abruptly blacked out.
When she awoke, prosecutors said she was naked and Raymond was on top of her and sexually assaulting her. Later, she would notice injuries to her vagina and lacerations to her anus, according to a statement of offense, from the “introduction of a hard, blunt object.”
After a neighbor alerted authorities to the woman on the balcony, the investigation into Raymond’s conduct turned up several other alleged victims who were assaulted in a near identical fashion, prosecutors said.
Photographs and texts reviewed by police on Raymond’s devices showed him “hand-opening” one woman’s eye as she lay naked and passed out in his bed. He took “close-ups” of women’s genitals, breasts and buttocks, prosecutors said, and in several instances, he would “play” with their mouths or photograph himself “cuddling” a victim while manipulating her unconscious body.
One of his victims had vomited after Raymond administered drugs to knock her out, prosecutors said, and she could be seen struggling to breathe as the assault continued.
In text messages Raymond sent to one of his friends — a person who ended up being a witness in the investigation, court records show — the now-former CIA officer was routinely callous and calculating. He would categorize his victims by their names, race, age, features or characteristics. Prosecutors described him as an experienced sexual predator who would later attempt to delete his communications after he became aware an investigation into his conduct was ongoing.
Raymond was arrested in 2020 in a gym parking lot in San Diego and has been detained in jail in Washington, D.C., ever since. This arrest was not in connection to the woman in Mexico reported on his balcony in October 2020 though. Rather, it was connected to evidence police obtained about his photographing an unconscious woman he brought back to his home in Virginia three years before.
A superseding indictment was filed against Raymond this February, In that indictment, a litany of other alleged victims were identified by prosecutors.
According to the Associated Press, the former CIA officer withdrew a guilty plea last year after a judge ruled in his favor, finding that communications recovered from his device were improperly acquired by police who “compelled” Raymond to provide his passwords.
Authorities said they found upwards of 400 photos and videos of his victims on his iCloud account plus a battery of texts and emails and disturbing browser searches. In one of the searches, prosecutors said Raymond looked up phrases like “Ambien alcohol and pass out” or “vodka & valium.”
Prosecutors say he even emailed a pharmacist at one point and asked if they had the powerful sedative “chloral hydrate.” It was for “insomnia,” he wrote.
As part of the plea agreement entered Tuesday, Raymond admitted guilt to four of 25 criminal charges brought against him. He pleaded guilty to a single count of sexual abuse, abusive sexual contact, coercion and transportation of obscene materials. Prosecutors say he raped at least six women in Mexico alone but in exchange for his guilty plea, prosecutors dropped 21 other charges.
When he faces sentencing in Washington, D.C., in September 2024, prosecutors have asked the judge to give him to 24 to 30 years in prison with lifetime supervision requirements.
The crimes Raymond admitted to took place in Mexico and at least one other nation left unidentified in court papers. Other court records, however, indicate Raymond also worked in Peru and was fluent in Mandarin.
The plea agreement came just before Raymond was expected to go on trial in November and face at least 14 victims, prosecutors said.
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