In a psychotic case straight out of a “Law & Order: SVU” episode, a Midtown attorney found himself indicted Thursday on a staggering 116-count indictment charging him with allegedly raping and torturing six women inside his apartment-turned-chamber of horrors.
Ryan Hemphill, 43, appeared in Manhattan court to face arraignment on the stomach churning indictment which accuses him of a six-month pattern of abuse in which he allegedly beat, raped, and mentally and physically tortured his victims between October 2024 to March 2025.
Prosecutors said the depravity seemed to know no bounds; Hemphill allegedly punched and slapped his victims, used cattle prods to electrocute them, forced them to wear shock collars, and even waterboarded them. He allegedly also forced himself on them under threat of further punishment if they resisted — and even went as far as drugging them unconscious.
“He allegedly raped his victims orally, anally, and vaginally, often under threat of torture if they did not comply. He forced or tricked them into ingesting various controlled substances that rendered them unconscious,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said.
Law enforcement sources said Hemphill also allegedly recorded the horrors with a network of cameras set up around his home — and coerced his victims into stating that their attacks were consentual under threat of using his knowledge of the law to have them arrested.
Many of these threats were sent via text message, Bragg said.
Additionally, Hempfill allegedly offered the women large sums of money in exchange for sex, but he never paid them; on the occasions when he did pay his victims, he provided them counterfeit money.
In one instance, he drew up a contract where he agreed to pay $2,000 to one woman in exchange for dropping a complaint she filed with the Manhattan Special Victims Squad.
‘Beyond disturbing’
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch called the case “a sustained, calculated campaign of violence and cruelty that targeted vulnerable women.”
“The details in this case are beyond disturbing ,” Tisch said. “This kind of predatory abuse has no place in our city and will be met with the full force of the law. … I want to commend the detectives from our Special Victims Division and Midtown South Precinct whose meticulous work led to this indictment. And I want to thank District Attorney Bragg and his team for their unwavering commitment to pursuing justice in even the most horrific of cases.”
Prosecutors said Hemphill allegedly met many of his victims through dating and fetish websites such as Seeking.com, SugarDaddyMeet, Craigslist, and more. During the hours-long torture sessions, he would shackle them his bed and humiliate them by urinating on them.
Hemphill was apprehended on March 1 after cops executed a search warrant at his apartment, where investigators found high-capacity magazines and hundreds of bullets; a cattle prod; large amounts of drugs, including heroin, cocaine, amphetamines, and fentanyl; and numerous surveillance cameras and electronics for storage with videos of dozens of women, and more.
Bragg urged anyone who may have been a victim of Hemphill’s alleged acts to come forward and tell law enforcement.
“This investigation is ongoing, and we have reason to believe there may be additional survivors. Our talented prosecutors and investigators, as well as our specially trained counselors, are here to support you, no matter how powerful the person who assaulted you may seem. Please call our Special Victims Division at 212-335-3400,” DA Bragg said.
