Man may face life without parole in abuse case
A man facing a possible sentence of life without parole in the continuous sexual abuse of a 13-year-old Bowie County girl is accused of abusing at least five others over the past 20 years.
Todd Steven Peck, 50, is scheduled for trial in mid-August. Assistant District Attorney Kelley Crisp has put the defense on notice that she intends to call five women as witnesses who were allegedly sexually abused by Peck as children in various Texas counties. Crisp filed a formal notice Friday detailing the allegations she expects the alleged victims will testify to during Peck’s jury trial.
Peck came to the attention of law enforcement in April 2017, according to a probable-cause affidavit used to create the following account.
The older sister of the alleged victim named in Peck’s indictment contacted the Bowie County Sheriff’s Office in April 2017. The older sister reported she had been sexually abused by Peck from age 9 to 13 or 14 when she lived with Peck and his wife in Harris
and Montgomery counties in Texas. The girls’ mother signed guardianship of the older sister over to Peck when the sister was about 9.
The older sister expressed concern that her younger sister was being sexually abused by Peck as well. At the time, Peck and the girl both lived in Texarkana. The alleged victim was interviewed April 18, 2017, at the Children’s Advocacy Center in Texarkana. The girl denied being sexually abused during that interview, though she did state that she and Peck slept in the same bed.
In November 2017, the girl, 13, made an outcry of sexual abuse against Peck to a counselor at her middle school. The girl told a forensic interviewer at the CAC in November that Peck began sexually molesting her when she was 9.
During an interview with a BCSO investigator Nov. 13, Peck allegedly denied wrongdoing.
“I told him that (the alleged victim) is the sixth female that has told me that they were abused sexually by him at very young ages,” the affidavit states. “He said that he believes that (the alleged victim’s older sister) contacted the other girls via social media and that they had all agreed to claim sexual abuse against him because they had left him on bad terms.”
A third alleged victim described in the notice Crisp filed Friday was allegedly abused by Peck beginning at age 7 when staying at Peck’s home multiple nights a week in Montgomery County. Peck allegedly abused her and the Bowie County victim’s older sister by making them perform sexual acts on each other and with him.
The fourth alleged victim allegedly was abused by Peck in Upshur, Montgomery and Harris counties. The fourth victim’s mother allowed her to live with Peck beginning when she was 5, according to Crisp’s notice. While abusing the fourth alleged victim, Peck allegedly said, “This is how we love each other.”
The fifth alleged victim was reportedly abused by Peck in Upshur County and Harris County. The fifth alleged victim was a friend of one of the other alleged victims and would stay multiple nights a week at Peck’s home. The sixth alleged victim reported Peck began abusing her at age 10 in Montgomery and Harris counties.
Hearings to determine whether the testimony of the other alleged victims will be admitted during the guilt or innocence phase of Peck’s trial are scheduled to take place in late June before 102nd District Judge Bobby Lockhart. Peck is charged with the continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14. If convicted, he faces 25 to 99 years or life in prison and there is no parole from any term received.
Peck is being held in the Bowie County jail. He is represented by Deborah Moore of the Bowie County Public Defenders Office.