S.A. woman gets over 4-year term for role in N.Y. college sex cult case

A San Antonio woman will serve jail time for abetting convicted sex cult leader Lawrence Ray, who for years abused his daughter’s college dormitory roommates at Sarah Lawrence College in New York.

Ray, 63, was sentenced last month to 60 years in prison for more than a dozen offenses, which include extortion, sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy.

His daughter’s roommate, Isabella Pollok, grew up in San

Antonio before attending the college. She became known as Ray’s “trusted lieutenant” for helping him perpetrate the abuse.

Pollok, 31, was sentenced Wednesday in a Manhattan court to 4 ½ years in prison on one count of conspiracy to launder money. She pleaded guilty to the charge last fall, which carries a maximum fiveyear sentence.

The sex cult case is the subject of Hulu’s recently released documentary “Stolen Youth: Inside the Cult at Sarah Lawrence,” which dives into how

Ray managed to manipulate his daughter’s college roommates into joining a cult, subjecting them to years of sexual, physical and psychological abuse.

Prosecutors said Pollok oversaw Ray’s financial dealings and pressured group members to follow his rules and to give him money. One former student, Claudia Drury, had been working as a prostitute to earn money for them.

According to the most recent indictment, Ray and Pollok had subjected the students to “sexual and psychological manipulation,” physically abused them, “including through acts of violence, threats of violence, food deprivation and sleep deprivation,” and extracted “false confessions from the victims that they had caused harm and damage.”

Lawyers for Pollok unsuccessfully argued that she didn’t deserve prison time because she had been “brainwashed” by Ray and was not in the right mindset to act independently.

Pollock must report to prison by April 25, according to the Associated Press.