Toni Natalie speaks about her experience when introduced to Keith Raniere, the founder of the alleged cult NXIVM. Video by Carlos Ortiz. Carlos Ortiz
ALBANY — Smallville actress Allison Mack, facing federal charges for her involvement in alleged Albany-area sex cult, is a risk to flee and should be kept under house arrest, according to federal prosecutors.
The U.S. Attorney's Office for New York's Eastern District is asking U.S. Magistrate Judge Cheryl Pollak to keep Mack behind bars unless she can post a "substantial, heavily secured bond" when she appears in Brooklyn federal court for a bail hearing Tuesday.
Even then, the prosecutors say Mack is a "risk of danger and risk of flight" and should be subject to house arrest with electronic monitoring.
"In the absence of a substantial bond with extensive conditions, the Court would not have sufficient means to ensure that the defendant would not commit additional crimes during any period of release or that she would not otherwise violate bail conditions," Assistant U.S. Attorneys Moira Kim Penza and Tanya Haijar wrote Friday in a letter to Pollak.
Mack, 35, was arrested Friday and indicted on charges of sex trafficking, sex trafficking conspiracy and forced labor conspiracy.
She is accused of recruiting women into DOS, a secret society led by Keith Raniere, a co-founder of a cult-like group known as NXIVM (pronounced nex-ee-um). Raniere was also charged and is awaiting indictment.
Mack, best known for her role as Chloe Sullivan in CW's Smallville, pleaded not guilty Friday and is being held in Brooklyn federal prison.
According to prosecutors, Mack was Raniere's co-conspirator, collecting collateral in the form of nude photographs and damaging personal information from DOS members and threatening to release it if they quit or revealed the group's existence publicly.
The women — known within the group as "slaves" who reported to "masters" — were allegedly kept to strict diets that left them emaciated and offered up for sex with Raniere, 57.
The members were branded with a cauterizing pen with a logo including Raniere's initials.
During the branding ceremony, prosecutors say Mack placed her hands on the slaves' chest as they cried, telling them to "feel the pain" and "think of (their) master."