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Former Smallville actress and lead recruiter for NXIVM cult leader Keith Reniere’s sex abuse, Allison Mack, has been sentenced for her crimes. She cooperated with prosecutors, showed remorse and was given just three years in federal prison. Reneire was sentenced last fall to 120 years in prison. Having seen the Showtime NXIVM documentary, Seduced, Mack’s sentence seems like a travesty of justice. Mack was instrumental in running some of the most abusive and horrific behind-the-scenes abuse in NXIVM. She put a glossy, celebrity face on the cult, was an accessory to rape and committed psychological and physical abuse, including running branding rituals. She should be spending the rest of her life in prison. Instead she turned over some evidence, cried in court and got a much lesser sentence than she could have. At least she’ll spend some time in custody. Here’s part of the AP’s writeup on this.
TV actor Allison Mack, who played a key role in the scandal-ridden, cult-like group NXIVM, was sentenced to three years in prison Wednesday on charges she manipulated women into becoming sex slaves for the group’s spiritual leader.
Mack — best known for her role as a young Superman’s close friend on the series “Smallville” — had previously pleaded guilty to the charges and began cooperating against NXIVM leader Keith Raniere. Prosecutors credited her with helping them mount evidence showing how Raniere created a secret society of brainwashed women who were branded with his initials.
At her sentencing in Brooklyn federal court, Mack renounced the self-improvement guru.
“I made choices I will forever regret,” she said, also telling the judge she was filled with “remorse and guilt.”
“I am sorry to those of you that I brought into NXIVM,” she wrote in a letter filed with the court last week. “I am sorry I ever exposed you to the nefarious and emotionally abusive schemes of a twisted man.”
She reiterated her apologies to the victims in court on Wednesday: “From the deepest part of my heart and soul, I am sorry.”
Mack wept at times while reading her statement to the court. U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis told her he believed her apology was sincere, but said she deserved a serious sentence for using her celebrity to groom victims as “a willing and proactive ally” and “essential accomplice to Raniere’s monstrous crimes.”
Under advisory sentencing guidelines, Mack had faced between 14 and 17 1/2 years behind bars, but her defense team argued in court papers that probation or a sentence to home confinement was more appropriate. Prosecutors had agreed that any prison term should be below the guidelines range because of her cooperation.
“The NXIVM saga and the story of Ms. Mack’s descent have been a tragedy for all involved. But that need not, and should not, be the end of the story for Allison Mack,” her lawyers wrote in court papers.
A victim, Jessica Joan, rejected Mack’s apologies, telling the judge the actor deserved no mercy.
“She can blame Keith all she wants but she is a monster cut from the same cloth,” Joan said in court on Wednesday. “Allison Mack is a predator and an evil human being.”
Mack is an actress and she did what she had to do to get off with a light sentence. Victim India Oxenberg, who was interviewed extensively in Seduced, found flash drives among the things Mack left behind when she went into custody. Those contained recordings of Reniere’s evil plans to brand and abuse women. When Oxenberg turned those over to the FBI it was a turning point in the case and helped lead to Reniere’s conviction. Mack cooperated, she didn’t set this off, and now she’s barely paying for her crimes.
India Oxenberg released a statement to The Hollywood Reporter about Mack’s sentence. She said “I’m still in a state of disbelief, but I trust and honor the judge’s decision. I hope that her victims, including myself, feel vindicated and safer, given that she has denounced Keith Raniere. We all need time to process and digest everything. This is a big moment for all of us.” I hope that Oxenberg and the other victims of Reniere and Mack are able to find peace after everything they’ve gone through. I also hope that Mack’s crimes are not whitewashed. I don’t want to hear her f’cking “story” and she doesn’t deserve redemption.
The power of white women’s tears.
Right. Because those worked so well for Britney Spears and Kesha in their legal battles.
They are the VICTIMS in their cases, not the perpetrators of violence against women. That’s why the tears *worked* in this case.
well, Brittany and Kesha are going up against white men while this case was about abusing women. So, our whiteness protects us up until a point, and that point is the patriarchy. So, yes, white tears did save her.
She should have gotten more.
Yes, four times more than a measly 3 years and out in less than 2. This is horrific and she wasn’t remorseful, never has been and never will be. I hope that the victims sue her in civil court too. She needs to pay for her horrific crimes for the rest of her life. Unbelievable!
I mean, this was the sentence recommended by the prosecutors. They said that the audio recording she provided that proved Raniere’s involvement in DOS was crucial to his conviction.
I have been following this thing for years, as well as the trial, and judge Garaufis was not one to be hoodwinked. He totally nailed Clare Bronfman (also a white woman ) and gave her a much longer sentence then was recommended by prosecutors.
I never saw the documentary, so I don’t know how objective it was. While Allison turned into a monster, she too was a victim. She looked like a scarecrow when she was first arrested, because she was following Raniere’s orders to eat only 500 calories per day, to exercise like a lunatic, and was sleep deprived due to drills in the middle of the night that were activated by a phone call which she had to respond to within a minute. These tactics were used to make his victims more malleable and unable to think clearly. So I doubt she was in her right mind. There is a famous lab experiment where students were able to give electric shocks to someone and this power corrupted them to the point where they were giving shocks without a second thought.
Allison was given a lot of power over her slaves by Raniere and instructed how to treat them, but unlike him, she was coming from a place of starvation and sleep deprivation.
So who can say whether she was sadistic at heart or was conditioned to the point where her mind became twisted so that she would do whatever he told her.
Wtaf.
This is why women don’t report rape. If you are lucky enough to be believed, you will be so devalued by the courts that justice is basically an illusion.
3 years are basically a slap on the wrist. Unbelievable.
It is wild. I’m not surprised but I am angry and disappointed. Her crimes are heinous.
This is garbage. She was so intertwined in this her freaking initials were part of the brand.
She is an wicked and selfish woman who shed white women tears and got off basically free. May I remind you that a BLACK woman voted using a provisional ballot that was not COUNTED and was sent to prison. She’s finally gotten an appeal but it should never have gotten this far.
Mack is an abuser and she should be in prison for all of her days for what she has done. Justice was not served yesterday.
Less time than Brittney’s doing.
Way too light a sentence.
I thought 14 years would be a good enough sentence for Allison Mack, and after that she should be a should be a registered sex offender. This is a sweetheart deal, just like Bill Cosby rescinded convictions. At this point, I don’t trust the American Judiciary System, it failed all of us.
This is so wrong. She worked her way up to running whole divisions of this cult and deserves at least half of the time Keith was (THANKFULLY) sentenced to for essentially selling her soul to an abusive monster and convincing others to do the same. She helped him ruin people’s lives, took their money and scarred their bodies. She reinforced his power over them and committed other crimes like fake-marrying her friend for a green card–proving to me that they all felt they were above the law. She may be pathetic in some ways (a victim too, of brainwashing/etc.) and feel some remorse/embarrassment, but I don’t doubt for a minute that she’ll get wrapped up in some other shady behavior after being released back into the world with just a slap on the wrist. She can’t be trusted.
ITA – I watched the documentary with Catherine Oxenberg’s daughter and she said Mack was in it heart and soul. She was a true believer and am she sure will do it again.
She shouldn’t have unmonitored internet or phone access.
Not only did she get a slap on the wrist but she doesn’t report to prison until the end of SEPTEMBER. #cultgirlsummer
However, that’s a long time for her to contemplate her imprisonment. I wouldn’t be surprised if she commits suicide to avoid going. So many cult leaders keep suicide as an option to facing punishment.
That sentence is bullsh*t.
She only agreed to ‘cooperate’ at the very end of the investigation when it became super obvious that they were getting convicted and she did what she could to save herself.
And she has been on house arrest for 3 years, living with her parents before this sentencing. While on house arrest she worked as a caterer and got an associates degree. WTF? What does house arrest even mean?
The good news is she’s going to federal prison, so no shortened sentence for good behavior or previous time served.
Unreal.