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WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. - A Norwalk, Conn., man was sentenced Wednesday to 10 years in prison for six counts of assaulting students while posing as a professor at Westchester Community College and the University of Bridgeport, Westchester District Attorney Janet DiFiore announced.
Lawrence Bottone was known as an international security specialist named Dr. Hunter to his young victims, who he lured into joining a training program with promises that they would get high-paying jobs if they completed it.
The victims had to sign a multi-page contract and give their oath of silence about the program. Once they did, Bottone physically abused each of them on the WCC campus, whipping and beating some while they were naked and covered with vegetable oil. Bottones methods also included inserting pins into his victims bodies and even a scalpel under the fingernails.
One victim reported Bottone in May 2010, at which point the Westchester County Police Department and district attorneys office began an investigation. It uncovered documents related to the crimes and a duffel bag with a scalpel, needles, rope, strapping tape, vegetable oil and dental instruments, among other items.
Bottone admitted to whipping two victims with ropes, placing pins underneath another victims fingernails, removing another victims fingernail with a cuticle cutter and inserting a scalpel underneath the fingernail of another.
He pleaded guilty in May to six counts of assault. He was sentenced as a second felony offender, since he previously was convicted of assault in 1997 in Connecticut.
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