ISABELLA Pollok may have been an alleged lieutenant to Sarah Lawrence College sex cult leader Larry Ray – but she also claims to have been a victim.
Pollok is set to be sentenced on February 22 for her role in the sex trafficking scheme.
3
3
In September, Pollok pleaded guilty to a money laundering conspiracy charge after changing her plea from not guilty.
Pollok faces a maximum of five years behind bars and a fine of $250,000.
She admitted to her role in helping Ray to sexually traffic victim Claudia Drury – who was also Pollok’s former roommate – and laundering millions of dollars she earned in the process, according to Yahoo.
Meanwhile, Lawrence “Larry” Ray, 63, the leader of the Sarah Lawrence sex cult, learned his fate in a New York courtroom last month.
Ray was sentenced to 60 years in prison.
The so-called cult leader allegedly recruited Pollok shortly after he moved onto the college campus in 2010.
Court documents obtained by Yahoo reveal that Pollok was enlisted “to join the criminal scheme and to work on behalf of the [e]nterprise.”
‘FOUR PHASES OF POLLOK’S LIFE’
Now, ahead of her sentencing, Pollok’s lawyers have claimed that Ray groomed and manipulated her.
In a 10-page letter, Pollok’s lawyers, David B Bertan and Jill R Shellow revealed more about the relationship between their client and Ray.
“This prosecution reveals four phases of Isabella Pollok’s life: There is the damaged, lonely Sarah Lawrence College freshman,” the lawyers wrote, per Law & Crime.
“There is the awed protégé. There is the broken automaton.
“And now there is the Isabella who is before Your Honor prepared to be sentenced,” they added.
“If it were not for Lawrence Ray’s presence at Sarah Lawrence, Isabella would not be here.
“She does not deserve to go to jail.”
‘OPPORTUNITY TO ESCAPE’
In separate letters, Pollok addressed the prosecutors and judge herself.
“When I started at Sarah Lawrence College in 2009, I saw it as opportunity to escape all the hardships in my life,” Pollok wrote.
While much of the contents of her letters were redacted, Pollok wrote about childhood traumas that have impacted her.
“I felt I was sinking into the quicksand of what would have mirrored my parents and my brother, addicts with no direction,” she wrote to prosecutors.
“For the longest time I believed that at 19 years old, I was an adult and therefore in complete control of my mindset,” Pollok wrote to Judge Lewis Liman.
“Attending Sarah Lawrence was my way of trying to run away from traumas that I experienced in my childhood.”
‘HE HAD MADE HER HIS LOVER’
In her letters, Pollok also addressed her friendship with Ray’s daughter, Talia.
“Talia was good to me, I trusted her and her trust in him was enough,” Pollok’s letter stated.
“At that point in time, he did save my life.
“There is no question that I wanted to make my family suffer for the way they made me suffer and the only way I believed I could do it was to commit suicide back in Texas during Christmas break.”
Pollok and Ray were allegedly involved romantically, her lawyers also argued.
“Ray’s manipulation of Isabella was different in kind from the other student-victims because, among other things, he had made her his lover,” Pollok’s lawyers wrote.
“But she was no less a victim.”
VICTIMS TESTIFIED
Ray subjected his victims – some of whom testified – to physical, mental and sexual abuse, prosecutors said during his 2022 trial.
Victim Claudia Drury accused Ray of using psychological tactics to manipulate them.
Additionally, she accused him of threatening to waterboard her and said, “Larry told me he would drop me in the Middle East and did I know what they do to women in the Middle East.”
Drury claimed one time Ray had told her to take a taxi, but instead of paying the far, he directed her to have sex with the driver.
In another instance, Ray allegedly instructed her to find a stranger in Manhattan and have sex with him in Central Park.
Another victim testified that Ray encouraged her to become a prostitute and pay him sex work proceeds as compensation for having poisoned him.
She said she paid Ray $2.5million over a four-year period, giving him between $10,000 and $50,000 a week.
