Father, stepmother charged with mistreatment

SEATTLE – A father and stepmother accused of withholding a 14-year-old girl’s food and water so drastically that she weighed only 48 pounds have been charged with criminal mistreatment.

King County prosecutors on Monday charged the girl’s father, 43-year-old Jon Earl Pomeroy, and her 44-year-old stepmother, Rebecca Arwen Long, with both first- and second-degree criminal mistreatment.

The girl, who is 4 feet 7 inches tall, was removed from the home near the east King County community of Carnation after a King County sheriff’s deputy went to the residence on Aug. 13 on a welfare check. A neighbor had called Child Protective Services and reported screaming coming from the house the night before.

The girl told the deputy her stepmother believed she had a behavioral problem and restricted her water to about half a small cup each day – about 6 ounces – to discipline her, court papers said. The girl said she was given primarily toast to eat.

According to prosecutors, Long confirmed to the deputy that she considered the girl a behavior problem and that she restricted the child’s water as discipline. The woman said she had been home-schooling the girl and her 12-year-old brother for four years.

The boy’s height and weight were normal. However, both children were removed from the home and placed in foster care.

Prosecutor’s spokesman Dan Donohoe said the parents could face as much as four years in prison if convicted. They were arrested Friday but released on personal recognizance Saturday.