Isabella Pollok, a victim of Sarah Lawrence College sex cult leader Larry Ray who later conspired with the fiend as he carried out abuse of a group of young people, will face sentencing in Manhattan federal court Wednesday.
Pollok, 31, pleaded guilty to a single count in September for participating in a money laundering conspiracy with Ray, who raked in millions of dollars by forcing one of his victims into prostitution for a number of years.
Prosecutors have asked Judge Lewis Liman to sentence Pollok to a maximum of 60 months in prison, but acknowledged in a sentencing submission that she was also a victim of Ray.
“The Government does not dispute that the defendant also suffered at Ray’s hands,” federal prosecutors wrote in the submission.
But, they added, Pollok grew close to Ray as he exerted tyrannical control over a group of college students and other young people – and exploited her position to insulate her from the worst of his abuse.
Ray, who was sentenced to 60 years in prison in January, was introduced to his victims after moving into his daughter’s on-campus dorm at Sarah Lawrence College in 2010.
He mentally and physically tortured the group of young people for nearly a decade and extorted huge sums of money from them, prosecutors showed at his Manhattan federal court trial.
During that time, Pollok became a top lieutenant to the fiend and collected cash from his victims, including Claudia Drury, a former Sarah Lawrence student who Ray forced into prostitution.
In one particularly disturbing encounter, Pollok taunted Drury and watched as Ray tortured her for hours in a Manhattan hotel room because he feared she had grown too close to one of her Johns.
Attorneys for Pollok urged Judge Liman to impose a non-prison sentence, arguing she was groomed and tortured by Ray during her time under his control.
“Ray groomed Isabella, at first by listening and paying attention to her. Ray then became her lover and convinced her of the need to explore her sexuality,” the defense attorneys wrote.
“He ‘counseled’ her and became her life mentor. His techniques, well established tools of coercive control, easily bonded Isabella to him. Isabella did whatever Ray directed,” they added.
US Probation has recommended a sentence of six months in prison.