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I wish we could send this stepmother to the Taliban for treatment'


A Carnation-area woman, who isolated and starved her stepdaughter
until the girl weighed just 48 pounds at the age of 14, was sentenced
Friday afternoon to three years and five months in prison.

The sentence was far below what the victim, now 15, had asked the
judge to impose on her stepmother, Rebecca Long. The girl sought a
sentence of 11 years: "One for every year she made me feel ashamed of
myself and abused me."

Long, 45, was arrested last year after authorities went to the home
she shared with her husband to check on the then-14-year-old girl. Jon
Pomeroy, Long's estranged husband, was also arrested and has since
been sentenced to three years and five months in prison.

Earlier this fall, Long entered an Alford plea to a charge of
first-degree criminal mistreatment. In the plea, Long, did not admit
guilt but acknowledged a jury would likely convict them at trial.

While prosecutors sought a high-end sentence of more than three years
in prison, Long's attorney asked that she be released into
mental-health treatment, without serving prison time.

King County sheriff's deputies discovered the malnourished girl Aug.
13, 2008, after they were called to the home at the request of Child
Protective Services. The girl was only 4-feet-7 and weighed just 48
pounds when she was found.

Investigators say that Long allowed the teen only half a Dixie cup of
water a day and supervised the girl's showers and toothbrushing so she
could not sneak a drink. The girl said once she was so thirsty she
drank from the toilet but was caught.

The girl, who is not being named to protect her identity, attempted to
testify when her father was sentenced in September, but broke down in
tears. In a letter she wrote to the judge before Pomeroy's sentencing,
the girl said that she was deprived of a normal childhood because her
father allowed himself to be manipulated by her stepmother.

"My whole point here is the fact I felt Rebecca was manipulating dad
to believe I was Satan and that he wanted to believe it," the girl
wrote. "That he would believe such a thing was the heartbreaking part
to me."

Defense attorney Robert Wayne said that Long has battled mental
illness for years and suffered abuse at the hands of Pomeroy, the
girl's father.

Because of Long's "fragile" mental state, Wayne had earlier asked
Superior Court Judge William Downing to allow her to skip a portion of
the sentencing hearing. In court Friday morning, Long told Downing
that she was afraid things would be said in court that would cause her
to "freak out" and be "disruptive."

Downing agreed to the request and Long remained in a jury room
attached to the courtroom when her mental health was discussed during
the Friday afternoon sentencing hearing.

Her former stepdaughter, who is now living with a foster family with
her stepbrother, was in court during the hearing.

Their foster father, Dwight Thompson, said the girl is attending high
school, participating on the swim team and doing well.

She now weighs 98 pounds and is almost 5 feet tall.