Woman Now Says Parents Didn’t Abuse Ailing Sister

The 25-year-old sister of a severely disabled girl took the witness stand Tuesday and recanted prior statements, insisting that her parents never abused either daughter.

Sheila Pollard, who said she did not want to be in court, denied telling school officials, social workers and others that her parents, who are on trial for allegedly starving Lindsay Gentry to death, were abusive.

Pollard testified that she and her sister were disciplined with a cotton belt and paddle only as a last resort. Pollard said if she earlier said anything different, it was a product of teenage rebellion.

“When we were disciplined, we knew why we were being disciplined,” said Pollard, who reluctantly flew in from Georgia where she now lives with her husband. “We were both loved the same.”

Jurors must now decide whether the woman is lying to protect her parents or whether she initially made up the complaints. After her denials, prosecutors called a number of witnesses to recount the stories of abuse Pollard told them years ago.

Lindsay suffered from congenital myotonic dystrophy, which, like muscular dystrophy, wastes away the muscles. She died two years ago at age 15.

Over a five-year period beginning in 1988, prosecutors allege Pollard complained to half a dozen people that her parents, Michael and Kathleen Gentry, were beating the sisters.

In 1988, when the family lived in Anaheim, she allegedly told social workers and her father’s first wife that she and her sister were being abused.

Prosecutors say Pollard also told a church youth group leader that her parents struck her and her sister. In 1992, she allegedly called her sister’s school principal to again complain about the abuse.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Kathy Cady, brought up each of the earlier statements.

Pollard denied them all.

“I don’t remember ever making those kinds of statements,” Pollard said again and again. “I never said that.”

Under questioning by defense lawyers, Pollard described herself as a rebellious teenager who would stretch the truth or fabricate to get her way. She said she was embarrassed by her disabled sister and generally did not want to be seen with the family and wanted to run wild as her friends did.

“I was hitting puberty and I had a bad case of raging hormones,” she said. Pollard said her father grounded her just before spring break in 1989, which would have prevented her from going to a senior party. She said she called an abuse hotline and made a complaint so she could get out of the house, she testified Tuesday.

“He found out that I’d been ditching school and failing almost every class,” she said.

She said she led social workers to believe her father abused her but that it wasn’t true.

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“No, he didn’t hit me,” Pollard testified.

Pollard testified that her sister fell constantly, that she was a fussy eater and that her parents would try to encourage her to eat.

But prosecutors alleged that Michael and Kathleen Gentry beat Lindsay for years and withheld food, knowing that it would hurt her. Although doctors initially reported her death as a natural result of her disease, authorities contend the girl was starved to death by callous parents. Severe malnutrition due to starvation was listed as one of the factors that caused her death.

The parents have denied beating their daughter and have been supported by many in their Lake Los Angeles community.

But in court papers, prosecutors listed 15 instances between the time she was 6 and when she died at 15 that child welfare workers in Orange and Los Angeles counties received abuse complaints regarding Lindsay. Authorities never removed the girl from the home, usually closing the complaints as unfounded or unsubstantiated.

Michael Gentry’s former wife testified Tuesday that Pollard tracked her down and called her in tears when she was a teenager to complain about her home life.

“It was a total shock when Sheila called,” Sharon Robbins said. “She was just afraid to be in the house. She said she was being mistreated and she wanted to go somewhere else but she had no place to go. She was hysterical.”

Lindsay Gentry’s one-time school principal also testified that Pollard had called her to complain of abuse.

Diane Parkins testified that Pollard called her in March 1992 and said her mother was striking Lindsay.

Parkins said Pollard asked her to file a child abuse report, but she told the girl she couldn’t do that on secondhand information and told Pollard she should make a confidential report.

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“I don’t want to do that. I don’t want my parents to know I did that. I don’t want it to be traced back to me,” Parkins quoted Pollard as saying. “She was very fearful.”

Parkins said the call came a few days or weeks after Lindsay had come to school with a bruise on her leg and a note from her mother that she had fallen from the back porch of the family’s home. Suspicious, Parkins sent a teacher’s aide to investigate and the woman discovered that the house had no back porch.

“We still believe the evidence substantiates abuse as well as neglect,” Cady said.