She did not comment as she left court Wednesday. That night, at the Gregory Hotel in Manhattan in October 2018, Ray ordered Drury to strip naked, tied her to a chair, put a bag over her head, choked her with a leash, smothered her with a pillow, and poured water over her, according to her testimony. Liman worried about what effect a non-jail sentence would send. What is happening on TikTok on March 3rd 2023? (Photo via DOJ). This story has been shared 126,899 times. Pollok was half Rays age when they met at Sarah Lawrence. 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. Isabella Pollok's stand has come days before she will be sentenced on February 22 after she pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy. She said: "I'm 19, I was having a lot of difficulty making sense of things, I wasn't in a good place. By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy and to receive email correspondence from us. According to BBC, he was found guilty of all 15 counts of racketeering, violent assault, extortion, sex trafficking, . [emailprotected], Law&Crime's managing editor Adam Klasfeld has spent more than a decade on the legal beat. He began to counsel Isabella Pollok, Talia's best friend and, now, a co-defendant in the case. Larry Ray promised answers, peddling a credo of sexual liberation and the quest for potential. He also dazzled his young acolytes through his elaborate backstory boasting of connections to elite figures in politics, the U.S. military, and the intelligence community. Pollok wept at her reflections of those actions at her sentencing. Pollok, 31, who graduated from the Westchester County school where Ray met most of his victims, faced up to five years in prison. On Wednesday in Manhattan, a judge sentenced Isabella Pollok to more than four years in prison, after Pollok pleaded guilty for her role in helping Larry Ray exploit a group of . At the Manhattan federal courthouse on Wednesday, US District Court Judge Lewis Liman said Polloks sophisticated scheme had involvedextreme and sadistic violence. Pollok was a quiet scholarship student from San Antonio, Texas, who didn't . There is the broken automaton. In March 2021, Pollok was charged with racketeering, extortion and sex trafficking conspiracies, to which she pleaded not guilty at the time. He counseled her and became her life mentor. Ray forced Drury to strip naked, handcuffed her to a chair and positioned her near a blasting air conditioner in the room at the Gregory Hotel in Midtown. 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. I will live with the guilt forever. 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. Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, breaking news, sweepstakes, and more! Ms. There is the broken automaton. The accusations include "helping [Ray] collect millions of dollars in profits from one of her former classmates whom prosecutors said he had forced to become a prostitute." I deeply regret it. 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. George Santoss Nasty Twitter Battle With Fellow New York Republicans. Pollok will remain free on bail until her sentencing date. It was unclear whether they were there in support of Pollok did they forgive Pollok for the torment she inflicted on them? "Witness interviews and evidence recovered during the investigation show parallels between the defendant's experience and that of the victims in this case.". Lawrence convinced me that Claudia, Santos, Yali, Felicia and Dan poisoned me and were constantly trying to hurt me, just as he convinced them that they were doing these things.. Interestingly, Assistant U.S. Attorney Mollie Bracewell told the judge that, had the case gone to trial, prosecutors were prepared to introduce slew of evidence against Isabella ranging from financial ledgers to witness testimony. Your crime was an extremely serious one, U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman declared, noting that it lasted a long time, caused immense harm to the victims, and involved sadistic violence. In January 2021, prosecutors charged Pollok with money laundering and three conspiracy counts racketeering, extortion, and sex trafficking. In 2011, Ray moved into a one-bedroom apartment with Talia and several friends, including Pollok, where he continued to subject them to physical and emotional abuse. "There is the damaged, lonely Sarah Lawrence College freshman, the letter stated. It involved extreme and sadistic violence and it was sophisticated, Liman added. 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AUSA's first line:"On Oct. 16, 2018, Lawrence Ray went to a midtown motel. Hulu's 'Stolen Youth' Details a Cult at Sarah Lawrence College Where Is the Man Behind It? The San Antonio native actually appeared to lead a good, happy life since she was at the elite liberal arts institute on a full scholarship, yet the truth is she was struggling with her mental health. Most importantly, though, per the federal prosecutors, she helped Larry channel $2.5 million from her once-roommate and friend. As of February 2023, she hasn't been sentenced, but she did write a letter to the judge in which she stated that she, too, is a victim of conman Larry Ray. Ray turned a guru for the young students and soon persuaded them to believe they had committed crimes against them. Ray then became her lover and convinced her of the need to explore her sexuality, the defense attorneys wrote. In the hearing, the Sarah Lawrence student admitted she knew her activities were wrong, which included recording the abuse Ray inflicted on Claudia Drury in the fall of 2018. The Government does not dispute that the defendant also suffered at Rays hands, federal prosecutors wrote in the submission. The network has reportedly instituted a soft ban on Trump, a huge problem for his campaign and for Fox News if the policy backfires. Start your Independent Premium subscription today. The government knows of no instance when Ms. Pollok was threatened with exposure of collateral, Keenan said. She faces a maximum of five years in prison at her Feb. 22 sentencing. Previously a reporter for Courthouse News, he has appeared as a guest on NewsNation, NBC, MSNBC, CBS's "Inside Edition," BBC, NPR, PBS, Sky News, and other networks. The president surprised and angered some Democrats by declining to veto a GOP effort to block a D.C. bill. In 2010, Ray moved into his daughter Talia's student accommodation after being released from prison. Another Sarah Lawrence student, Felicia Rosario, was also allegedly romantically involved with Ray. N er hun dmt. 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. Totally his fault., Isabella Pollok leaving a NYC courthouse with her attorney. All Rights Reserved. And while Isabella has taken some responsibility for her role concerning the sex cult, Cynthia believes that all the fault lies with Ray. In federal court, people awaiting sentencing commonly write emotional pleas to the presiding judge seeking leniency, but Polloks overture stands apart: She addressed two separate letters to the judge and prosecutors. There is the awed protg. Then, in August of last year, she agreed to a plea deal. Larry Ray was sentenced to 60 years in prison for a decades-long abuse scheme against Sarah Lawrence College students. She was barely a teenager when she met him. On that evening, Pollok had been recording Ray as he stripped Drury naked, tied her to a chair, doused her with water and tried suffocating her with a plastic bag. Crime News is your destination for true crime stories from around the world, breaking crime news, and information about Oxygen's original true crime shows and documentaries. Your crime was an extremely serious one, Judge Lewis Liman told Pollock before handing down the 54-month sentence in Manhattan federal court. For the next decade, he exploited, terrorized, and tortured Talias friends through psychological abuse and threats, according to US attorney Damian Williams. 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In September, Isabella Pollok admitted to conspiring with Ray to commit money laundering. in January to 60 years behind bars on a number of charges including extortion, sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy. She is scheduled to be sentenced on February 22, 2023. 2024 Polls Show DeSantis Cant Easily Knock Out Trump. Shed initially pleaded not guilty. DeSantis Promises Florida Will Control Disney Content. The government sees Pollok as Rays lieutenant, but Polloks lawyers see her as his once-brainwashed victim. She sounded a similar note to U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman, who will sentence her on Feb. 22. I am not the same person who met Lawrence Ray over 10 years ago. Additionally, many have long wondered how Isabellas family has been impacted by the news. He is the host of Law&Crime podcast "Objections: with Adam Klasfeld.". Santos Rosario and his siblings had a turbulent family life. But he said that, but for Pollok, this scheme would not have succeeded the way that it did.. 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. Police initially treated Isabella Pollok as one of Ray's victims. 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.. She had been estranged from her family and soon became one of the elder Rays most eager acolytes. At the time her seven housemates, including Pollok, didn't see the arrangement as an issuebut things took a dark turn. : Spooky Friday 13 true crime stories thatll keep you up at night. Florida Republican Wants to Cancel Democrats Over Slavery. To date in the saga of convicted sex trafficker Larry Ray, federal prosecutors charged only one person as his co-conspirator and referred to her as his lieutenant: Isabella Pollok, his daughters best friend. Thanks for contacting us. "I am still a work in progress but know to the extent that I can make amends for the harm I have caused I am willing. While the situation seemed odd at first to . Moreover, according to the last reports (2020), Talia was a paralegal at the Southern Coalition for Social Justice in Durham a post she could still hold today. She told the judge that she helped Ray disguise money that she knew came from illegal activities, namely the $2.5 million in sex trafficking proceeds of his victim Claudia Drury. Pollok wrote: "I trusted Lawrence more than I trusted myself and in doing so, I betrayed my own sense of right and wrong.". Like most parents, Cynthia Pollok is standing by her daughters side through her current legal struggles. Have a tip we should know? She was reportedly best friends with Talia, the daughter of prime accused Lawrence 'Larry' Ray. In her letter to the judge, Pollok blamed Ray for driving her to that point. He used violence, psychological abuse and sexual coercion to control several students over a decade-long period. Intro- Robert. Ray had pulled Polloks hair, hit her, and locked her outside in the cold of winter. Ray recorded false confessions from his other victims, which he kept as blackmail material. Titled "The Stolen Kids of Sarah Lawrence," the piece exposed how then-50-year-old Lawrence Ray, the father of a Sarah Lawrence student, moved into his daughter's dorm and slowly isolated four of her friends: Daniel Levin, Santos Rosario, Isabella Pollok, and Claudia Drury. The Californians have been booted from Frogmore Cottage because the king (or the character invented by the U.K. press) has had enough of their abuse. The prediction came to pass. Now former Sarah Lawrence student Isabella Pollok, who according to her family was a victim of Ray's, is charged with one count each of extortion conspiracy, sex trafficking conspiracy . His decision a sentence of just over four years was only slightly less than the five years prosecutors had requested. Larry Rays trusted cult member Isabella Pollok pleaded guilty on Wednesday. Pollok is being investigated for helping Ray manipulate and abuse Pollok's fellow students at Sarah Lawrence College, on September 7 2022 she pled guilty to one count of conspiring to launder money. Pollok has been charged as a codefendant of Lawrence Ray, the parent of a former student who was charged last year for allegedly psychologically, physically and sexually abusing his daughter's . Hundreds of people violently detained during a protest in the Bronx could receive $21,500 each. Isabella Pollok must report to prison by April 25 to begin serving a 4 1/2-year sentence that U.S. District Judge Lewis J. Liman said resulted from her failure to rebel against Lawrence Ray's . Student Isabella Pollok, who is identified as Talias friend by The Guardian, admitted to a count of conspiring with Ray during his illegal activities. According to The Cut, Pollok "seemed to take comfort" in Ray's company when he moved in as she had recently had a breakup. "The Government does not dispute that the defendant also suffered at Ray's hands," prosecutors said in a separate letter to a federal judge. Attorneys Danielle Sassoon, Mollie Bracewell, and Lindsey Keenan are in charge of the prosecution. It was in that institution, some 15 miles north of midtown Manhattan, that Pollok had met Larry Ray as a college sophomore in the autumn of 2010. A co-conspirator of "cult" sex trafficker Larry Ray has been sentenced to 54 months in federal prison. Parents and patients are now refuting her key claims. Isabella Pollok, and Claudia Drury. 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. She questioned how Sarah Lawrence College allowed Ray to sleep inside the dorm to begin with, allowing the cult to take root on campus. And a linguist named Emily M. Bender is very worried what will happen when we forget this. Last month, a federal judge sentenced Ray to 60 years in prison for psychologically, sexually, and physically abusing this young cohort of devotees he met after moving into his daughters dorm at Sarah Lawrence College. I know I committed serious crimes and I fully accept responsibility for my actions. Pollok is currently being investigated as Ray's co-defendant, and prosecutors previously described her as Ray's "trusted lieutenant," per the New York Times. A co-conspirator of cult sex trafficker Larry Ray has been sentenced to 54 months in federal prison. During her trial, Isabelle admitted to prosecutors that Talia and Ray had become her lifeline at Sarah Lawrence after Polloks tough childhood in Texas. His co-counsel Jill R. Shellow struck a similar note. I'm now asking for a second chance.". It was back in the fall of 2010 when 19-year-old Isabella first came across 50-year-old Larry as her best friend and roommate Talia Rays father, only for their bond to soon evolve into much more. Culture Interview True Crime TV Hulu. Isabella Pollok, 31, pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to a single money laundering conspiracy count, specifically related to proceeds of Rays sick plot to traffic and extort a group of college students and other young people. What I want is to see her heal, process, move on and live a good, happy life, Drury wrote in a letter to the judge before sentencing. A U.S. District Court judge handed down the sentence to Isabella Pollok, 31, in a Manhattan federal courtroom on Thursday afternoon. At his trial, numerous victims testified that Pollok acted as Rays top lieutenant, including Drury, who told jurors that the pair tortured her in a hotel room for hours after Ray became enraged at her. A comprehensive new government study concludes that the illness probably wasnt caused by foreign adversaries. Stolen Youth: Inside the Cult at Sarah Lawrence examines the crimes of Larry Ray and the emotional, physical and sexual abuse he carried out on his daughter Talia's friends at the elite liberal arts college in New York from 2010. A U.S. District Court judge handed down the sentence to Isabella Pollok, 31, in a Manhattan federal courtroom on Thursday afternoon. Isabella did whatever Ray directed, they added. As the world is beginning to learn about the ins and outs of convicted felon Lawrence Larry Rays sex cult via Hulus Stolen Youth: Inside the Cult at Sarah Lawrence, questions continue to arise. On September 7, 2022 she pleaded guilty to one count of money laundering conspiracy. With Ray that night, and taping the incident with an audio recording, was Pollok. It lasted a long time. And tell him that no matter what happens or doesnt happen, in no way am I straying from the truth.. Im now asking for a second chance.. Referring to the governments proposed five-year sentence, he added: To me, that sentence is vengeance, not justice.. The 4-Day Week Is for White-collar Workers. I did what they said I did.. Isabella Pollok was Larry Ray 's daughter's best friend. I will live with the guilt forever., Unlike Ray, who had no family or friends in the courtroom gallery when his sentence was read, Polloks boyfriend sat a few rows behind her, as did her brother and aunt, who both flew in from Texas. Everyone Practices Cancel Culture | Opinion, Deplatforming Free Speech is Dangerous | Opinion. According to investigators, Ray had enlisted Pollok to join the criminal scheme and to work on behalf of the [e]nterprise, investigators wrote in court documents. 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. 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. King Charles Evicts Harry and Meghan From House They Dont Live In. For Americas wage laborers, a 32-hour workweek is less of a beautiful dream than an oppressive reality. Isabella Pollok and Larry Ray pictured in stills from "Stolen Youth: Inside the Cult at Sarah Lawrence." Pollok is being investigated for helping Ray manipulate and abuse Pollok's. 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. I am truly sorry, she said as her voice broke and she sobbed. In Defense of the Talkative Trump Grand Juror. Pollok's lawyers wrote a letter to the case's judge where they said that she was also a victim of Ray's "cult." He is the host of Law&Crime podcast "Objections: with Adam Klasfeld.". It appears that Isabella's family, in particular, her mother, is convinced that Isabella was also a victim of Rays. Ray, who was sentenced to 60 years in prison in January, was introduced to his victims after moving into his daughters on-campus dorm at Sarah Lawrence College in 2010. 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 .