Sex charges against nuclear expert dropped
Father was accused of assaulting daughter
More than a year after a one of the country’s foremost experts in nuclear weapons was charged with sexually assaulting his 4-year-old daughter, prosecutors have dropped the charges.
Adam Lowther, arrested in September 2017 when he worked on Kirtland Air Force Base as the director of the Air Force’s School for Advanced Nuclear Deterrence Studies, has emphatically denied the charges of one count of criminal sexual penetration of a minor under 13 and two counts of criminal sexual contact of a child.
Last week, in a three-page letter of declination to Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office detective Jacob Wootten, the lead detective in the case, prosecutors outlined several problems with the case. They include a lack of forensic evidence; problems with the child’s safe house interview; a conclusion that the child’s disclosure could have resulted from an adult assisting a young child in the bathroom; and the Sheriff’s Office’s misinterpretation of a polygraph that a sergeant administered in which Lowther discussed the allegations.
The District’s Attorney’s Office said that a later polygraph Lowther gave, in which he denied the allegations, was “better” and showed that Lowther was truthful, according to the letter.
Lowther, 43, said in an interview with the Journal that he felt little vindication by the dropping of the charges. He said the allegations have destroyed his career — he has been both an enlisted member of the Navy, and worked as a civilian and contractor for the Department of Defense — and traumatized his children.
His two children, ages 4 and 7 at the time of his arrest, spent about 10 weeks in state foster care before being returned to their mother. Lowther
was prohibited from seeing or speaking to his wife for four months and wasn’t allowed to see his children for more than six months while criminal charges were pending.
The Lowther family has since been reunited and is living in Katy, Texas, according to court documents.
A pending lawsuit that Lowther and his wife brought accuses deputies of violating their constitutional rights numerous times throughout the investigation, and omitting and misrepresenting facts in their official reports and news releases sent out after his arrest. The lawsuit was filed against officials from the Sheriff’s office and the Children, Youth and Families Department.
“I want the people who perpetrated these crimes to be held accountable,” Lowther said. “My daughter deserves to know the truth, and she deserves to know, when she’s old enough, that what happened to her family was not her fault. She deserves to know that the people who lied, the people who broke the law were held accountable.”
Vincent Ward, Lowther’s attorney in the civil case, said, “I don’t think BCSO appreciates the consequences of not doing their job professionally.”
“If you’re a parent, you should be terrified to know that stuff like this happens in this town,” he said.
BCSO and CYFD declined to comment on the Lowther case.
Michael Patrick, a spokesman for the District Attorney’s Office, said additional investigation by prosecutors found there wasn’t enough evidence to prove the case.
Marc Lowery, Lowther’s attorney in the criminal case, said that over the past year the district attorney has sent Lowther five letters telling him he was the target of a grand jury, but the defense provided prosecutors with evidence showing no crime had occurred and the jury was never convened.
“It was a travesty,” Lowery said. “Here’s somebody who dedicated his life to protecting all Americans. And rather than giving him some of the constitutional privileges that he defended, there was a rush to judgment.”