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Update: The torturer should receive an exceptional sentence
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Levi Pulkkinen is reporting at SeattlePI.Com that Rebecca Arwen Long, that worthless excuse for a human was sentenced to prison
Accused of methodically starving her stepdaughter alongside her husband, Rebecca Arwen Long was sentenced to prison Friday over her attorney's objections.
Long's attorney, alleging that his client suffered a condition commonly know as multiple personality disorder, had asked that she be allowed to continue outpatient mental health treatment. Instead, King County Superior Court Judge William Downing followed the prosecution's recommendation in sentencing Long for starving the girl for years, imposing the maximum 3 1/2-year prison term.
Having entered a modified guilty plea in September, Long stood accused of denying her stepdaughter food and water for years. The abuse was so severe, according to court documents, that the girl lost all but six of her teeth and actually lost weight in the five years before her Aug. 13, 2008 rescue.
Long's codefendant and the girl's father, John Pomeroy, previously pleaded guilty to an identical charge, first-degree criminal mistreatment. He was sentenced to a 3½-year prison term, the maximum sentence available within the standard sentencing range.
Recalling the day of the girl's rescue for the court, Senior Deputy Prosecutor Zachary Wagnild described the scene facing a King County sheriff's deputy.
Called to the home after a neighbor reported a young girl crying loudly for hours the night before, the deputy first spoke with Long who denied any disturbance and said her stepdaughter was simply acting up. The deputy asked to speak to the girl.
Intending to let the girl know her tantrum was annoying neighbors, he was shocked when the 47-pound 14-year-old came to the door.
"The emaciated figure that stood before him looked nothing like a teenage girl," Wagnild wrote the court, requesting a 3 ½-year prison term. "What she looked like was a prisoner of war."
In the weeks that followed, authorities and medical providers would begin to comprehend the extent of the torture the girl had endured at the hands of her stepmother and father.
The girl told investigators 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, Wagnild told the court. Her body told the tale.
Her 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 the 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.
OK, she got 31/2 years because the prosecutor recommended the top sentence and the judge followed the recommendation. This sentence is not severe enough because the crime was so extraordinarily heinous. Did anyone think to go beyond the sentencing guidelines? If this is the best the prosecutor and judge can do in this case, then the next question is does the law need to be changed to allow more severe sentences in cases of horrific child abuse? The CPS system and the justice system totally failed this little girl. I suppose because she was just tortured and not killed that counts as a win.
Well, Ms. Long, welcome to the slammer. Meet your new roomie. Karma is going to be a bitch.
Dr. Wilda says this about that ©
