Sex abuse trial ends in mistrial
New court date could be set soon for man accused of rape, more
A Miller County child sex abuse trial ended Friday in a mistrial after the jury could not reach a unanimous decision.
The jury heard three full days of testimony concerning the allegations against Jared Allen Harper, 35, before beginning deliberations Thursday shortly after 5 p.m. The jury requested an evening recess Thursday after about 2 1/2 hours of discussion, and Circuit Judge Brent Haltom released them with instructions to return to the Miller County courthouse Friday morning.
After several hours the jury informed the court they were unable to agree, and Haltom declared a mistrial. Harper was released on his existing $50,000 bond.
Haltom scheduled the case for a pretrial hearing in September. A date for a second trial is expected to be scheduled then.
Harper—who is charged with rape, second-degree sexual assault and indecency with a child—is accused of repeatedly abusing a now 13-year-old girl, whose mother has two younger children
fathered by Harper. The girl testified at trial that Harper entered her life when she was a toddler and that the two had a close relationship until about a year before she told her older brother, now 17, that Harper sexually abused her.
The girl was 11 when she first disclosed the alleged abuse to her brother.
The brother, who testified that he promised his sister he’d keep her secret, told an uncle, who then encouraged the brother to tell their mother. Upon hearing of the allegations from the brother, the mother spoke with her daughter but did not go to authorities. Instead, the mother talked to her father, who eventually arranged for the mother and the girl to meet with his pastor. The pastor, who is required by law to report suspicion of child maltreatment, contacted authorities.
In March 2016, the girl described the alleged abuse in detail in an interview at the Children’s Advocacy Center. However, in the months after the interview, she recanted the allegations several times.
Prosecuting Attorney Stephanie Black and Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Connie Mitchell argued that the recantations were made under tremendous pressure from the girl’s mother, who testified that she only ended her relationship with Harper because Department of Human Services personnel told her she risked losing her children if she did not.
Black and Mitchell argued that the mother, who testified that she doubts her daughter’s allegations, wanted the case against Harper dismissed because she feared losing his financial support and because she thought a dismissal would mean an end to DHS involvement in her life.
At trial the girl and her mother testified that Harper showered with the girl until she was 9 or 10, and that when the mother expressed a desire for the co-showering to end, Harper and the girl limited the activity to times when the mother was away.
Defense lawyers Jason Horton of Texarkana and Jeff Rosenzweig of Little Rock argued that the girl and her older brother fabricated the allegations because they saw Harper as the source of conflict in the home. The defense espoused a theory that the girl was coaxed into reaffirming the allegations by overzealous prosecutors. llarowe@texarkanagazette.com