Mom in court over 12-year-old daughter's alleged rape, abortion

Andy Cerota

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- A Houston woman is in custody, accused of going to extreme measures to protect her son from sexual assault charges.

Investigators say Cynthia Greenwood took her 12-year-old adoptive daughter to get an abortion because the father was her biological son.

Cynthia Greenwood stood quiet as a judge read the 50-year-old woman her rights Monday morning. She is accused of interfering in a rape investigation involving her 12-year-old adopted special needs daughter by getting her an abortion after she got pregnant. Greenwood's biological son, Isaac Greenwood -- who was 18 at the time -- was said to be the father. He's been charged with three counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child.

Greenwood is out on bond. She refused to comment Monday morning.

Prosecutors say on October 22, 2010, Greenwood took her daughter to a woman's health clinic in Cleveland, Ohio, to have an abortion. She was 22 weeks pregnant at the time. Mom and daughter made the trip to Ohio after Children's Protective Services had already initiated its investigation into the rape allegation.

A former neighbor described Greenwood as quiet.

"We'd speak and that was it. She'd visit me, I'd visit her. We'd see our kids go to school and that was it," said the neighbor.

According to court documents, two months after the abortion, the 12-year-old special needs child said in a videotaped interview that "she got pregnant because her brother had sex with her," and that her mother "took her to Ohio to have an operation so it wouldn't hurt when the baby came out."

Estella Olguin with Children's Protective Services said, "Usually children are able to keep their stories, their allegations straight, and really able to provide detailed information about what happened to them."

The victim is now 13 and is in foster care along with her 12-year-old sister.

Cynthia Greenwood is charged with tampering and fabricating evidence. Isaac Greenwood was charged with three counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child on April 14 and is out on bail. He is due in court September 7.