Greensburg mom pleads guilty to enslaving girl

The mother of a Westmoreland County family twice accused of enslaving and assaulting a teenage girl pleaded guilty Tuesday to a felony charge of involuntary servitude.

Cynthia Pollard, 44, was sentenced by Judge John Blahovec to serve 11 1/2 to 23 months in jail.

It is the same sentence Pollard received two years ago for her role in a similar case where she, her husband and three children were prosecuted for holding captive a mentally handicapped woman in their Greensburg home.

Cynthia Pollard and two of her children were charged last year with kidnapping and enslaving a 17-year-old Irwin girl while the family lived in Jeannette.

"Hopefully, this is the end of it," said Assistant District Attorney Charles Washburn. "After discussions with the victim in the case and looking at all the evidence, we felt this was the best resolution."

Police said the teen was repeatedly struck, threatened and forced into sex acts for nearly three weeks in exchange for food and cigarettes.

Police said Cynthia Pollard and her 20-year-old son Jonathan and 19-year-old daughter Tabitha kept the teen in their home. Jonathan Pollard last year pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting the girl and was sentenced to serve three to six years in prison.

Tabitha Pollard in December pleaded guilty to unlawful restraint, terroristic threats and conspiracy. She was sentenced to nine to 23 months in jail.

In court yesterday, Cynthia Pollard pleaded guilty to involuntary servitude, terrorist threats and conspiracy. Prosecutors dropped charges of interfering with child custody, false imprisonment and corruption of a minor.

"She was a lot more involved in the first case," Washburn said.

In that case, Cynthia Pollard, her husband, Mark Pollard, and their three children were charged with kidnapping and enslaving a 19-year-old woman between September 2006 and March 2007 when the family lived in Greensburg.

Mark Pollard Sr., 44, and Cynthia Pollard pleaded guilty in 2008 to assault charges and other offenses and were sentenced to 11 1/2 to 23 months in jail.

Their son, Mark Pollard Jr., then 19, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor offense and served one year in jail before being paroled to a mental health facility.

Jonathan and Tabitha Pollard were prosecuted in juvenile court, and those records are sealed.