An Oklahoma City man is in jail on complaints of nearly a dozen sex crimes after a 17-year-old girl told her DHS caseworker that the man sexually abused her over a span of several years.

According to the girl, John W. Lowery, 43, began molesting her when she was only 11 years old. She says that the man would place her in his lap and "grind on her." Over the next few years, until she was 15, the sexual abuse became increasingly worse. When she was 13, she says, the man bought her sex toys, claiming that young girls her age "needed" them. When she was 14, she says, he told her that she would not be allowed to visit a friend unless she paid "a price." That price, she told her caseworker, was performing oral sex. 

The teen says that soon after, the man began raping her on a consistent basis--once or twice every week until she was 15 years old. 

She also reports that she saw evidence of child pornography on his computer, claiming to have seen a sexually explicit image of an approximately 7-year-old girl.

Reports do not indicate the relationship between the man and his accuser, but she told her caseworker that she has not had any contact with him since January of this year.

After the teen made her accusations to her DHS caseworker, the worker reported the claims to police, who arrested Lowery on 11 criminal complaints, including one count of sexual abuse of a child, one count of forcible sodomy, and 9 counts of rape.

As of this writing, formal charges have not been filed against the man. 

Oklahoma law defines rape in 21 O.S.§ 1111. Current law identifies rape as an act of sexual intercourse occurring under one or more of 9 specific sets of circumstances. Effective November 1, 2015, the law will change to add a tenth definition of rape. Spousal rape is non-consensual sexual intercourse with one's spouse accomplished through the use or threat of force or violence. The remaining 9 forms of rape are non-spousal:

  1. Where the victim is under sixteen (16) years of age; 
  2. Where the victim is incapable through mental illness or any other unsoundness of mind, whether temporary or permanent, of giving legal consent; 
  3. Where force or violence is used or threatened, accompanied by apparent power of execution to the victim or to another person; 
  4. Where the victim is intoxicated by a narcotic or anesthetic agent, administered by or with the privity of the accused as a means of forcing the victim to submit; 
  5. Where the victim is at the time unconscious of the nature of the act and this fact is known to the accused; 
  6. Where the victim submits to sexual intercourse under the belief that the person committing the act is a spouse, and this belief is induced by artifice, pretense, or concealment practiced by the accused or by the accused in collusion with the spouse with intent to induce that belief. In all cases of collusion between the accused and the spouse to accomplish such act, both the spouse and the accused, upon conviction, shall be deemed guilty of rape; 
  7. Where the victim is under the legal custody or supervision of a state agency, a federal agency, a county, a municipality or a political subdivision and engages in sexual intercourse with a state, federal, county, municipal or political subdivision employee or an employee of a contractor of the state, the federal government, a county, a municipality or a political subdivision that exercises authority over the victim; 
  8. Where the victim is at least sixteen (16) years of age and is less than twenty (20) years of age and is a student, or under the legal custody or supervision of any public or private elementary or secondary school, junior high or high school, or public vocational school, and engages in sexual intercourse with a person who is eighteen (18) years of age or older and is an employee of the same school system; or 
  9. Where the victim is nineteen (19) years of age or younger and is in the legal custody of a state agency, federal agency or tribal court and engages in sexual intercourse with a foster parent or foster parent applicant.

The above defined acts of rape include both first degree rape and second degree (statutory) rape. The item which was added to the state's definition of rape and which will become effective in November is that which refers to a sexual relationship between a foster parent or applicant and a person aged 19 or younger in DHS custody.