Prosecutors in Miller County have filed formal charges against a 57-year-old Texarkana man whose alleged victim came forward after 13 years.
Gerald Herbert Lowery Sr. is currently being held in the Miller County jail with bail set at $500,000. Lowery’s accuser, now 19, disclosed the alleged abuse in October after keeping silent for more than a decade.
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.
Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Connie Mitchell formally filed charges of rape and second-degree sexual assault last week. Sexual assault is punishable by five to 20 years in prison and a fine up to $15,000. Rape is punishable by 10 to 40 years or life in prison.
Lowery is expected to appear for arraignment on the charges later this month. His case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Carlton Jones.
