"Teen" POMEROY - 14 yo (2008) - Carnation WA

A man who detectives said was responsible for a nightmarish case of
abuse pleaded guilty Monday to his role in starving a teenage girl.

Jon E. Pomeroy changed his plea in King County Superior Court and pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree criminal mistreatment.

Pomeroy and his wife, Rebecca Long, were arrested October 10, several weeks after deputies removed the then 14-year-old girl from their Carnation home.

The
investigation began when Child Protective Services was called to the
house after neighbors reported hearing screaming the night before.

Deputies interviewed the girl privately when her father told detectives she was the one screaming.

The
girl told deputies her mother disciplined her by restricting her water
intake, and was primarily given toast to eat. She said she hadn't seen
a doctor in several years.

Pomeroy is the girl's biological father and Long was her stepmother.

She
and her then 12-year-old brother were taken from the home and the girl
was admitted to Children's Hospital for treatment of severe
malnutrition. She was in the hospital for two weeks.

During the
investigation, investigators said they found the girl's mother
restricted her water intake to about half of a small Dixie cup per day.
The mother only let the girl shower every two or three weeks, and
watched her during each shower and bathroom break to keep the girl from
surreptitiously drinking water.

"She looked more like she was 8
or 9 years old. Clearly very, very malnourished," Sheriff spokesman
John Urquhart said after the arrests. "All of her teeth had to be
either pulled or capped."

The girl and her brother were forced
to sleep on the floor in the same room as their parents, and a heavy
dresser was pushed in front of the door to keep her from sneaking out
and getting water, Urquhart said. The girl said the dresser was placed
there after she was caught one night sneaking out of her own room to
drink water from the toilet.

The girl told deputies that on one
occasion, her mother duct-taped her hands behind her back and dunked
her head in the toilet as a form of discipline.

According to case documents released last year,
the girl was so depressed that she told social workers she would rather
have a "lethal injection" than go back home to her father and
stepmother.

The detective handling the case has been
investigating abuse and neglect for 16 years and said it was the worst
case of child abuse he had ever seen.

Prosecutors said they're happy with today's outcome and said Pomeroy seemed genuinely remorseful.

"He
pled guilty really as he was charged, and the big thing is it will
spare these kids from having to go testify against their parents," said
Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Zachary Wagnild. "And that's
great... that's what we were after with this."

But the girl's stepmother has pleaded not guilty and the children may have to testify if that trial goes forward.

"We
knew we were going to have to try them both separately, for legal
reasons, so that could have been two trials for (the children),"
Wagnild said. "So even if I've only spared them one trial against the
biological father with this plea, we're happy with that."

Pomeroy is scheduled to be sentenced September 18 and prosecutors will ask for the maximum sentence of 41 months in prison.

Four days after her husband pleaded guilty to
similar charges, a Carnation woman accused of starving her 14-year-old
stepdaughter entered a modified guilty plea Friday morning to denying
the girl food and water as punishment.

		Mike Kane / P-I
	Pictured in this Oct. 27 file photo, Jon Earl Pomeroy and Rebecca Arwen Long, holding hands, attend an an arraignment hearing on criminal mistreatment charges for starving Pomeroy's daughter as punishment. Both have now pleaded guilty to the charge.

Despite acknowledging that she'd likely be found guilty had the case
gone to trial, Rebecca A. Long intends to ask that she be spared any
prison time in the long-running abuse of the girl, her attorney said.
Leniency is due her, the 45-year-old claims, because she suffers from a
mental illness commonly known as multiple personality disorder.
Prosecutors filed charges Oct. 13 against the girl's father, Jon E.
Pomeroy, and stepmother, Long, two months after the girl was removed
from the home by the state Department of Social and Health Services.
Sheriff's deputies arrived at the Carnation home the evening of Aug.
13, 2008, after neighbors reported hearing a girl screaming. In court
documents, the deputy sheriff who interviewed the then-14- year-old
described her as "extremely skinny and pale" and found she weighed only
48 pounds.
The teen told police she was allowed only about 6 ounces of water
each day and was monitored by Long when she bathed to keep her from
"sneaking" extra water. Pomeroy, she told police, was aware that she
was being starved but did nothing to stop it.
On Friday, Long pleaded a so-called Alford plea to one count of
first-degree criminal mistreatment. The plea means that Long does not
admit her guilt but believes that a jury would likely find her guilty.
While prosecutors intend to ask that Long receive a the maximum, a 3
1/2-year prison term, when she's sentenced Nov. 6, defense attorney
Robert J. Wayne said he will request that Long be sent to mental health
treatment rather than prison.
Wayne said that, since the mid-1990s, Long has suffered from
dissociative identity disorder, an condition better known as multiple
personality disorder. He contends his client's alleged condition stems
from abuse she suffered as a child, and that she'd been treated for the
mental illness for many years.
"We're going to be asking that she remain in treatment," said Wayne,
who said he'll request either a first-time offender sentencing waiver
or a sentence significantly shorter than the standard minimum term of 2
1/2 years.
Facing a judge Friday, Long said she had reluctantly agreed to a
review by a state psychiatrist as part of the plea agreement. She told
the judge she had gone over the plea agreement with her therapist -- as
well as with her attorney -- and said she had "chosen this option."
"I'm afraid of (the state review), but I'll do it," Long said.
Asked to respond to Wayne's assertions, Senior Deputy Prosecutor
Zachary Wagnild said the facts of the case don't support the claims
Long has apparently made to mental health professionals.
"What she has reported to them does not seem to be consistent with
all the other sources and all the other facts we have on what was
happening in that house," Wagnild said.
Long's claims of mental illness are also at odds with her husband's
statement to the court, in which Pomeroy denied abusing physically or
emotionally abusing his wife.
"While I was aware that my wife was frustrated with my daughter
during this time period, I'm not aware of any mental health issues
suffered by my wife," said Pomeroy, who filed for divorce in July.
Long, he added, did not "exhibit any outward signs of being mentally
ill."
Since being placed with a foster family following her parents'
arrests, the girl, now 15, has seen her condition improve, Wagnild said
previously , though her growth remains stunted due to years of abuse.
"She'd doing well," Wagnild said earlier in the week. "She's probably not getting a lot taller, but she's gaining weight."
In court Monday, Pomeroy pleaded guilty to a a single county of
first-degree criminal mistreatment. Wagnild said at the time he'll ask
that Pomeroy recieve a 3 1/2-year term.
Pomeroy and Long have both been barred from contacting the girl;
Wagnild said he will seek a long-term protection order at Pomeroy's
sentencing to prevent the 43-year-old from contacting the girl or her
younger brother.
In a statement to the court, Pomeroy admitted to sitting by as Long
denied his daughter food and water. He also said he did not believe
Long to have been suffering from any mental illness during the years he
and his wife abused the girl.
In statements to police, Long allegedly said she used the water
restriction to punish her stepdaughter. The couple's young son showed
no signs of mistreatment.
Doctors evaluating the girl found nearly all of her teeth were
either eroded or chipped, according to court documents. She was
"extremely malnourished," the doctors said, and hadn't gained any
weight since she was 9 years old.
Both Long and Pomeroy had previously been released from the King County Jail after each posted $20,000 bond.

A Carnation woman accused of starving and withholding water from her
14-year-old stepdaughter in a nightmarish case of child abuse was
sentenced Friday to 41 months in prison.

The sentence against
Rebecca Long was handed down in King County Superior Court after she
entered a plea Sept. 4 to one count of first-degree criminal
mistreatment in the case.

The stepdaughter, now 15, was in the
courtroom and told Judge William Downing a 41-month sentence was not
enough punishment for the horrific abuse she underwent at the hands of
Long.

"If I had to impose a sentence it should be for 11 years -
one for every year she abused me," the stepdaughter said before the
courtroom, reading from a letter she had written.

Long showed no
emotion or reaction as her stepdaughter read from the letter. She did
not make any statement on her behalf or express remorse at the
sentencing.

Long earlier entered a so-called Alford plea to one
count of first-degree criminal mistreatment, which means that Long does
not admit her guilt but believes that a jury would likely find her
guilty. Prosecutors had asked for the maximum possible sentence of 41
months, and the judge granted it.

Defense attorneys tried to
avoid a prison sentence for Long by claiming that she was mentally ill
with dissociative identity disorder. But the judge said the evidence
for that was "thin," and that attorneys did not make a sufficient link
between the disorder and the crime she committed.

Long will serve her sentence at the Washington Corrections Center for Women at Purdy.

The
girl's father, Jon E. Pomeroy, also was sentenced to 41 months in
prison for his part in the abuse on Sept. 18. Before his sentencing,
Pomeroy read a tearful statement expressing remorse for his part in the
abuse against his daughter.

The detective handling the case said
it was the worst case of child abuse he had ever seen in a 16-year
career of investigating abuse and neglect.

Sheriff's spokesman
John Urquhart says the girl weighed only 48 pounds when rescued in
August 2008, and had been given only little food and water for several
years.

Long and Pomeroy were arrested Oct. 10, 2008 - several
weeks after deputies removed the then 14-year-old girl from their
Carnation home.

The investigation began when Child Protective
Services was called to the house on Aug. 13, 2008, after neighbors
reported hearing screaming the night before.

Deputies interviewed the girl privately when her father told detectives she was the one screaming.

The
girl told deputies her mother disciplined her by restricting her water
intake, and was primarily given toast to eat. She said she hadn't seen
a doctor in several years.

Long was the girl's stepmother and Pomeroy is her biological father.

The
girl and her then 12-year-old brother were taken from the home and the
girl was admitted to Children's Hospital for treatment of severe
malnutrition. She was in the hospital for two weeks.

During the
investigation, investigators said they found the girl's mother
restricted her water intake to about half of a small Dixie cup per day.
The mother only let the girl shower every two or three weeks, and
watched her during each shower and bathroom break to keep the girl from
surreptitiously drinking water.

"She looked more like she was 8
or 9 years old. Clearly very, very malnourished," Urquhart said after
the arrests. "All of her teeth had to be either pulled or capped."

The
girl and her brother were forced to sleep on the floor in the same room
as their parents, and a heavy dresser was pushed in front of the door
to keep her from sneaking out and getting water, Urquhart said.

The
girl said the dresser was placed there after she was caught one night
sneaking out of her own room to drink water from the toilet, so the
stepmother wouldn't hear water running from the bathroom faucet.

The
girl told deputies that on one occasion, her mother duct-taped her
hands behind her back and dunked her head in the toilet as a form of
discipline.

According to case documents released last year, the
girl was so depressed that she told social workers she would rather
have a "lethal injection" than go back home to her father and
stepmother.

The girl reported the abuse at her school in 2005, but nobody followed up on her cry for help.

The
girl's foster father said that both children are now doing remarkably
well, and they've totally recovered physically. In the past year, the
girl's weight has doubled and she has grown 6 inches in height, he said.

He
earlier said the daughter is so bright and articulate she can do
anything she wants, and that she's talking about being a lawyer or
scientist.

When King County sheriff's deputies arrived at
the Carnation home of her father and stepmother, the years of brutal,
methodical starvation had nearly killed the girl.
At 14 in the summer of 2008, she appeared half her age. She wore a
size 2 shoe, weighed less than 50 pounds and had lost most of her teeth
due to dehydration and malnutrition.
Her younger brother had fared better -- their stepmother, Rebecca
Long, had fed him -- but had suffered still; abused himself, the child
been forced to assist in his sister's starvation.
The children have since been removed from the home, placed with a
family and growing into a more normal life. Long and their father, Jon
Pomeroy, have moved on as well, into state prison
cells where they'll remain for the near future.
Now, though, attorneys for the children have filed suit against the
state Department of Social and Health Services claiming the agency
failed to act even after abuse was found to have occurred in the home 3 ½
years before.
As was noted in the criminal cases against Long and Pomeroy,
teachers administering the girl's home-schooling program reported
concerns for the girl's safety to child services in March 2005.
The child services investigation that followed found that abuse was
occurring -- the girl, then 11, told investigators she was kept alone in
a locked room all day, forced to sit on a concrete floor and subsist on
two pieces of bread a day. Still, the girl was not removed from the
home until a neighbor's report of screams at the home drew a sheriff's
deputy on Aug. 13, 2008; her brother remained in the home another week
before child services removed him.
"Most of the abuse suffered by the (children) could and should have
been prevented," attorney Timothy Tesh told the court, filing the
lawsuit on Friday.
"This (Child Protective Services) referral, although resulting in a
founded allegation of child neglect, did not result in the (children's)
removal from the abusive and neglectful home and, incredibly, was not
followed up in any fashion by CPS for over three years until a neighbor
called to report (the girl's) screams."
Rather than recommend action against Long or Pomeroy the child
services worker recommended only that the girl receive counseling "as
her behaviors would only get worse if not immediately addressed," Tesh,
an attorney with the Seattle firm Ressler & Tesh, told the court.
Contacted for comment Tuesday afternoon, a DSHS spokeswoman for the
Children's Administration declined to comment on pending litigation.
Attorneys for the department were not immediately available for comment.
According to the suit, child services administrators closed the case
on April 14, 2005, the day they found that Long had neglected or
mistreated the children; allegations against Pomeroy were deemed
inconclusive in part because he'd not been interviewed.
"During this period of time, (the children) did not attend school and
had no formal schooling instruction in the home," Tesh told the court.
"(They) were subjected to nearly continuous and even more severe abuse
and neglect then had previously been reported."
Writing the court during the criminal case against Long and Pomeroy,
Senior Deputy Prosecutor Zachary Wagnild noted the girl had learned a
lesson when she went for help in 2005.
"This incident taught (her) that reporting the abuse to authorities
did not mean that she would be helped," Wagnild said in court documents.
"To the contrary, her reporting only served to make her parents angrier
and the abuse more severe."
In the years that followed the initial report, the girl was removed
from society entirely.
Interviewed by investigators after her rescue in 2008, the girl said
that, for nearly as long as she could remember, her parents had kept her
on a starvation diet, locking her in her room at night to prevent her
from "sneaking" more than the 6 ounces of water a day she was allowed.
Long bound her hands with duct tape and beat her, forced her --
starving and obviously emaciated -- to watch as the family ate dinner,
made her younger brother to report her every time she tried to sneak
water.
Her father did nothing to stop it, sitting by as his wife nearly
starved his daughter to death.
The girl's teeth, eroded due to a lack of saliva, were so brittle one
broke when she attempted to bite into a piece of celery, medical
records show. Her bones had lacked the fuel for the growth expected
during puberty but had hardened with age, holding her at 4-foot,
7-inches tall until she was removed from Long and Pomeroy's care and
given treatment that allowed her grow nearly five inches in a past year.

During her imprisonment, she told investigators, she was so thirsty
she once used a straw to suck morning condensation off of a window. She
said her parents also denied her the usual joys of childhood; she was
not allowed to visit friends, use the computer or even pet the golden
retriever puppy that became the family dog.
The night she was rescued, the girl had been caught sneaking a glass
of water. As punishment, Long forced her to drink a large amount of
water, then made her vomit it up.
Pomeroy pleaded guilty a year after his daughter was taken from his
care. Prior to being sentenced to a 3 ½-year prison term -- the maximum
standard term for the crime of first-degree criminal mistreatment under
state sentencing guidelines -- Pomeroy
apologized.
Addressing the court during the Nov. 18 sentencing hearing, Wagnild,
the King County deputy prosecutor on the case, expressed his disdain for
Pomeroy's lack of action.
"I have to say, that I don't know what it is about someone like Mr.
Pomeroy that allows him to stand by as his wife tortures his daughter,"
Wagnild said. "I don't know whether it's malice. I don't know whether
it's indifference. I don't know whether it's cowardice. …
"(His) words of sorrow and remorse … will have as much an effect on
our outrage as they do on his daughter's injuries."
Long offered a modified guilty plea, admitting only that a jury would
likely convict her of the crime of which she was accused.
Through her attorney, she contended that a mental illness prompted
her to treat her stepdaughter so badly. Long claimed she suffers from
depression and dissociative identity disorder, known widely as multiple
personality disorder.
Wagnild called the claim "a fiction," and pointed the court to Long's
personal blog, Shades of Green, which he argued showed she was not the
distraught, mentally unstable woman portrayed by her attorney.
In dozens of posts, Long described her knitting projects, her to-do
lists and light-hearted arguments with Pomeroy, who is pictured posing
for the camera in a sweater she knit. She describes herself as someone
who enjoys herself, likes to "take it easy" and "self-indulge."
Long was also sentenced to the maximum standard sentence of 3 ½
years. Like Pomeroy, she remains in prison.
Both children were placed with a foster family. At last report, both
were adjusting to life.
Attending her father's sentencing, the girl appeared healthy and
bright, a remarkable change from the bone-thin child pictured in photos
taken after her rescue. Their foster father described them as "loving
and sweet kids" who'd shown tremendous resilience since their removal
from the home.
The state has yet to respond to the lawsuit, which has been filed in
King County Superior Court. Attorneys for the children are seeking
unspecified financial damages for the injuries both received.

OLYMPIA, Wash. - A teenage girl who was systematically
starved and deprived of water by her parents in their Carnation home for
years will share in a $4.6 million settlement from the state Department
of Social and Health Services.

The shocking case came to light in 2008 when a neighbor called
911 after hearing the girl, then 14 years old, screaming at the top of
her lungs during the night.

A sheriff's deputy who responded said he thought she was a 7-
or 8-year-old child. The teenager weighed less than 40 pounds and stood
just over 4 1/2 feet tall.

Doctors later compared the girl to a "concentration camp survivor" due to severe malnutrition and chronic starvation.


An investigation found that the girl's stepmother, Rebecca
Long, and her father, Jon Pomeroy, had been withholding food and water
from the girl for years.

The parents eventually pleaded guilty to child abuse and were sentenced to prison terms.

What that trial didn't address is that the state's Child
Protective Services first learned about this family and the abuse three
years earlier.

In 2005, the girl's teachers contacted CPS with concerns about the girl's condition.

CPS investigated, and though Long admitted to locking the girl
in her room for hours at a time, the state didn't find she was being
starved. But attorney Tim Tesh contended social workers should have seen
the signs.

The girl said she wished she could have talked in private to
the social worker, who visited just once and interviewed the teen at her
home.

"Yet I could not make contact, because that was when Rebecca
began keeping me barricaded into a room all day," the victim said during
an earlier court hearing.

Long and Pomeroy also pulled the girl out of school, so she would have no contact with teachers or counselors.

Instead, the state admits it closed the case after just five
weeks, and never spoke to the girl's father. The state also never
followed up with calls to the school and never tried to talk to the
young girl again until three years later when a neighbor reported a
child screaming, non-stop. It was the young girl.

"She herself - not the system that was there in 2005 - but she
herself reached out in 2008, and saved her life. She saved her own
life," said Tesh.

State DSHS officials now admit that the case was mishandled.
The $4.6 million settlement will be shared by the girl and her younger
brother.

Because the plaintiffs are minors, the settlement will not be final until approved by the court.

"We deeply regret that these children had to suffer at the
hands of the two adults they trusted to love them and keep them safe,"
said DSHS Children’s Administration Assistant Secretary Denise Revels
Robinson.

In the wake of this case, the Children's Administration has
made a number of changes to help further strengthen the focus on child
safety.

Some of those changes:

• Not simply taking a child’s word that they are not being abused or neglected

• Conducting more thorough follow-up before closing a case,
including interviewing all family members and making diligent efforts to
interview all collateral contacts.

• Changed protocol for responding to critical incidents by
immediately conducting a staffing to learn what happened and determine
next steps to ensure child safety

• Strengthening the emphasis on child safety
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