Equine therapy business co-owner gets 20 years for sexual exploitation
LAFAYETTE, Ga. — Georgianna Pollock buried her head in a man’s chest Wednesday morning.
“I am so sorry,” she told him in Walker County Superior Court. He hugged her, felt her quivering. Her eyes welled. “I am so sorry.”
They talked for a minute, the first chance they had in almost two years. She began to walk away, turned back and shook her head.
“I had no idea,” she said.
On Friday, a judge convicted Pollock’s father, Jimmy George, on five counts of exploitation or intimidation of a disabled adult. The other man’s 23-year-old son, who is diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and has an IQ of 69, told investigators George performed sexual acts on him multiple times for 1 1/2 years.
Before his arrest in January 2017, George and Pollock co-owned Rock Bluff Stables on Lookout Mountain, where they boarded, raised and trained horses. Pollock also oversaw equine therapy, using interactions with horses to soothe clients’ mental health needs.
The victim’s father said George had been enthusiastic about helping his son. Though his son was not a client of the equine therapy program, he said George shared research about how to help him, as well as potential therapies that could be useful. His son called George “grandpoppy.”
“He was using [Pollock’s] passion as a way of conveying trust and building trust
that was obviously undeserved,” the victim’s father told the Times Free Press.
“It’s a very tragic situation,” Judge Don Thompson said Wednesday, before sentencing George to 20 years in prison on all five counts.
George, 79, will serve the sentences concurrently, or at the same time. While the victim said George had sex with him multiple times over 18 months, a grand jury indicted George for a particular incident in October 2016, when he allegedly performed oral sex on the man.
Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit Assistant District Attorney Chris Arnt said that George admitted to performing oral sex on the man but believed the act was not a crime. George requested a bench trial, meaning a jury would not decide the case, and Thompson convicted him Friday.
The victim’s father and George met on New Year’s Eve in 2008. A friend had just given the father and his wife a cross between an American saddlebred and a Belgian draft, which stayed in George’s stable. Their daughter was an avid rider, but the family had never owned a horse before. They wanted to approach the new responsibility slowly, making sure they understood everything they needed to know.
The victim’s father and George quickly bonded. They were both chiropractors. And when he mentioned his son with autism, he said, George took an interest in the boy’s condition — and how he could help. For two months, the family drove from Johns Creek, Georgia, to the mountain every weekend to work with the horse. George’s relationship with the family grew. The son was 13 years old at the time.
The victim’s father discussed taking over George’s practice, buying property next to him and moving the family to Lookout Mountain. He and his wife ultimately decided against the plan. But they drove their son up to stay with George for a week at a time. When he graduated high school, the son rode a bus from Atlanta to Chattanooga.
“He loved the animals, loved being outside,” his father said.
But after his mother picked him up from the Atlanta bus stop in October 2016, her son said he needed to tell her something.
“It just started coming out, little by little,” she said.
“He was afraid,” his father said.
On the car ride home, the victim explained that he and George had been engaging in sexual acts. He said George told him not to share the information with anybody.
Looking back, the victim’s father suspects George targeted his son for years. As part of his son’s condition, the father said, he works hard to prevent people from becoming mad at him. He may go along with things he doesn’t want.
“He’s prone to anxiety, and to think you’re mad at him,” his father said. “That was one of the key things that made him easy prey.”
During Wednesday’s sentencing hearing, his father testified that George’s abuse caused his son to struggle with his appetite and mood. His parents tried to shield the rest of their children from the details of the case. His father said he feels “guilt and shame” for not protecting his son.
George and Pollock did not testify during Wednesday’s hearing. The victim’s mother, however, told the Times Free Press she believes Pollock did not know about George’s abuse until the family reported the allegations to law enforcement. (In January 2017, Pollock told the Times Free Press in a statement that George never interacted with equine therapy clients.)
“She had zero knowledge,” the victim’s mother said. “He was very good at concealing everything from her.”
She said George was reclusive, spending most of his time in his home next to the barn. She said Pollock had a friendly relationship with her son, sometimes picking him up from the bus stop and eating dinner together.
According to the Georgia secretary of state’s office, George formed Rock Bluff Stables in March 2001. He was the registered agent for the company until 2013, when Pollock took over that role.
George has owned 10 acres on Rock Bluff Road since at least 1972, according to the Walker County property appraiser’s website. He bought another 20 acres across the street in 1999. He transferred that tract of land to Pollock in January 2017, a couple of weeks after his arrest.
George’s attorney, Chris Townley, filed a motion for a new trial on Wednesday. But another lawyer will have to handle any further filings in the case; Townley is leaving private practice Sept. 1 to become the Walker County State Court solicitor.