Sarah Lawrence sex cult member sentenced to 4.5 years in prison
Isabella Pollok was both a victim and ‘lieutenant’ of cult mastermind Larry Ray’s reign of terror over students at the elite New York liberal arts college
A former Sarah Lawrence sex cult member who prosecutors say fell under the spell of mastermind Larry Ray has been sentenced to 4 and a half years in prison.
Isabell Pollok, 31, pleaded guilty in September to a single count of participating in a money laundering scheme by forcing one of his victims into prostitution.
At the Manhattan federal courthouse on Wednesday, US District Court Judge Lewis Liman said Pollok’s “sophisticated” scheme had involved “extreme and sadistic violence”.
“Your crime was an extremely serious one,” Mr Liman told her, according to Law and Crime.
“It lasted a long time. It caused immense harm to its victims, destroying lives in the process.”
Pollok apologised through tears at the sentencing, saying that her former mentor had “controlled me in ways I cannot understand,” Law and Crime reported.
“I will live with the guilt forever,” she said.
Pollok had been best friends with Talia Ray in 2010 when her father Larry Ray moved into a communal student dorm room at Sarah Lawrence College, an elite college for liberal arts in New York.
Ray, who was sentenced to 60 years in prison for sex trafficking and racketeering in January, manipulated the students into believing he was a guru and convinced them that they had to repay him for committing crimes against him.
He used violence, psychological abuse and sexual coercion to control several students over a decade-long period.
Ray convinced them to share “intimate” information about themselves and “alienated” a number of them from their parents, arguing that they were “broken” and that he could fix them, charging documents revealed.
Pollok grew close to Ray as he exterted control over the students, and had been both a victim and “lieutenant” of his offending, prosecutors said.
She had knowingly disguised illegal sex trafficking proceeds of $2.5m after Ray had forced former student Claudia Durey into prostitution, the court heard.
Pollok was identified by prosecutors as being present in a Manhattan hotel room when Ray tortured Durey, stripping her and suffocating her with a plastic bag, Law and Crime reported.
A recording of the “night of terror” was played to the jury at Ray’s trial.
Prosecutors had sought a term of five years in prison, while her attorney David B. Bertan argued she had been “brainwashed” and should avoid a custodial sentence.
Pollok will have to serve a term of three years supervised release after she gets out of prison.