Isabella Pollok of Sarah Lawrence sex cult under Larry Ray sentenced

Isabella Pollok, a former Sarah Lawrence College student who fell under the influence of sex cult leader Larry Ray was sentenced to more than four years in prison Wednesday for conspiring with the fiend as he carried out the abuse of a group of young people.

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. 

“Your crime was an extremely serious one,” Judge Lewis Liman told Pollock before handing down the 54-month sentence in Manhattan federal court. “It lasted a long time. It caused immense harm to its victims, destroying lives in the process.”

“It involved extreme and sadistic violence and it was sophisticated,” Liman added.  

In a tearful statement before she was sentenced, Pollok — who will also be required to serve three years of supervised release after she completes her prison term — said she supported Ray because he “controlled me in ways I cannot understand.”

“I will live with the guilt forever … I am ashamed. I deeply regret it. I am truly sorry,” she said as her voice broke and she sobbed. 

Prosecutors had asked 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 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 whom 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. 

At the sentencing Wednesday, Assistant US Attorney Lindsey Keenan said Pollok acted with initiative and out of her own volition while aiding Ray. 

The prosecutor pointed to the dozens of cash pickups Pollok made from Drury while she was living in hotel rooms and sleeping with men for money. 

“Each of these pickups reflects initiative,” Keenan told Liman, adding that Ray and Pollok blew the cash on day-to-day expenses, as well as on pricey restaurants, hotel rooms and shopping sprees at Bergdorf Goodman. 

“Ms. Pollok exercised agency,” Keenan argued.  

Attorneys for Pollok urged 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. 

Defense attorney David Bertan reiterated that argument Wednesday, telling the judge that Pollok does not deny her culpability, but that she committed her crimes because of Ray.

“These acts were committed because she was brainwashed by Ray,” he said. 

Pollok was released on her current bail conditions Wednesday and will surrender to federal prison on April 25.

“There are no winners in this case,” her attorneys said after the hearing.