Bail was set at half a million Tuesday for a man accused of molesting a 9-year-old girl in Texarkana, Ark., more than a decade ago.
Gerald Herbert Lowery Sr., 57, appeared before Miller County Circuit Judge Kirk Johnson for an initial court appearance on charges of rape and sexual indecency with a child. Lowery’s accuser, now 19, disclosed the alleged abuse in October after keeping silent for 13 years.
According to a probable cause affidavit, the outcry was prompted by the woman’s mother’s concern over the alleged victim’s repeated nightmares. The alleged victim claims Lowery repeatedly abused her in 2004 and 2005 when she and her mother were sharing an apartment with Lowery and his girlfriend at the Links Apartments in Texarkana, Ark. The woman and her mother reported Lowery would often watch the girl, then a 6-year-old, when the adult women were at work.
TAPD Detective Shane Kirkland interviewed Lowery’s girlfriend who said she and Lowery were living short term in a Little Rock motel. Lowery’s girlfriend allegedly told Kirkland she was trying to find alternative housing for herself and her children separate from Lowery without his knowledge. The girlfriend allegedly said she had no “first hand knowledge of the abuse but that she believed (the alleged victim’s) claims.”
Kirkland interviewed Lowery’s brother in late October, according to the affidavit. The brother allegedly told Kirkland that multiple female members of his family have confided in him that Lowery sexually abused them when they were young children.
“I was able to contact one of these victims who stated she had been a victim of Gerald Lowery when she was 5 years of age but she did not wish to speak of the incidents due to it being 40 years ago,” the affidavit states.
Lowery would have been 17 at the time. Lowery’s brother allegedly said he cut off all contact with Lowery after hearing from women in his family that they had been sexually abused as children by Lowery.
Johnson set Lowery’s bail at $500,000 on the recommendation of the Miller County Prosecuting Attorneys Office. He is currently being held in the Miller County jail and is scheduled to return to court next month. If convicted of rape, Lowery faces up to life in prison.
