Woman pleads in child starvation case

SEATTLE — A 45-year-old woman accused of withholding water and starving her 14-year-old stepdaughter has entered a modified guilty plea to a charge of first-degree criminal mistreatment.

The girl was 4 feet 7 inches tall and weighed just 48 pounds when authorities found her in August 2008 in her Carnation-area home east of Seattle. Court documents say her dehydration was so severe all her teeth were rotting.

Rebecca Long’s guilty plea came Friday, just days after the girl’s father, 43-year-old Jon Pomeroy, pleaded guilty to the same charge.

Long told a King County Superior Court judge she was entering an Alford plea, not admitting guilt but acknowledging a jury would likely convict her.

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