William Breckinridge Breach of Promise Trial: 1894 - Defense Portrays Pollard As A Harlot

According to the congressman, Pollard schemed to trap him from the very beginning. She was not underage when they met, but an experienced woman between 20 and 22 years old. She approached him on the train. They went on an unchaperoned carriage ride, but it was at her suggestion and he paid her 10 dollars for it. Pollard came to Lexington shortly after they met, but she followed Breckinridge on her own initiative, just as she followed him to Washington three years later. The congressman paid Pollard's tuition and board at the Sayre Institute from 1885 to 1887, but he did not see her at all during that time. He got Pollard a government job, introduced her to acquaintances as his fiancee and as his daughter. After his second wife's death, he visited her up to seven times a day, but he had to; at various times, she threatened to ruin him, to kill him, or to kill herself if he broke off their affair. Most astonishingly, the congressman denied all knowledge of Pollard's first two children.

In their closing remarks, Breckinridge's attorneys described Pollard as a "self-acknowledged prostitute," but it did no good. The jury took only one hour and 23 minutes to consider their verdict. They ruled in Pollard's favor and awarded her $15,000 (three times the annual salary in 1894 of a congressman). Breckinridge filed a motion for a new trial and later appealed, but both were denied.