Mountain Home Man, 67, Charged With Rape, Second-Degree Sexual Assault Of Child

A 67-year-old Mountain Home man has been formally charged with rape and second-degree sexual assault after a girl told investigators he molested her during a summer visit to Baxter County, court records show.

Prosecutors for the 14th Judicial District filed the charges against Jody Devoe Cotter in Baxter County Circuit Court on Oct. 6. Cotter was arrested Sept. 21 by the Baxter County Sheriff’s Office and posted a $25,000 bond, according to the court file. He is scheduled to appear in court Oct. 12, Ozark Radio News reported.

Rape is a Class Y felony punishable by 10 to 40 years or life in prison. Second-degree sexual assault is a Class B felony carrying five to 20 years.

According to an affidavit by sheriff’s Investigator Bryce Hinson, the case opened June 4 after a family member reported that Cotter had inappropriately touched the girl, who was in the area for summer vacation. The girl was interviewed the next day at Grandma’s House Child Advocacy Center in Mountain Home.

In that interview, the affidavit says, she told investigators Cotter had touched her breast and buttocks over her clothing and asked her, “When did you get those?” She said that as she was growing up, Cotter frequently wanted her to sit on his lap and had licked her ear.

After she returned home to Texas, the girl told her mother and stepfather that she had been afraid to disclose everything in the first interview, the affidavit says. She then reported that Cotter had penetrated her with his finger.

Hinson reopened the case and arranged a second forensic interview through a child advocacy center and a sheriff’s detective in Texas. In that interview, the girl said the assault happened four to five years earlier, when she was 8 or 9, after she got into bed with Cotter to sleep at his home, according to the affidavit. She said Cotter rolled over and penetrated her, and that she was scared and did not know what to do.

Since the initial report, others have told investigators that Cotter inappropriately touched their buttocks when they were juveniles, the affidavit says. It also says Cotter had told relatives that he had sexual thoughts about children but had not acted on them.

Hinson arrested Cotter at his home on County Road 56 on Sept. 21 and interviewed him at the sheriff’s criminal investigation division after reading him his rights, the affidavit says. Cotter said he believed he was in custody because of accusations the girl had made and acknowledged grabbing her buttocks and touching her breast, though he said he did not remember doing so until family members confronted him.

Cotter denied the rape allegation, saying he would never do that, and asked for an attorney, at which point the interview ended, the affidavit says.

At the time of his arrest, Cotter was booked on charges of rape and fourth-degree sexual assault, a misdemeanor. A judge found probable cause Sept. 30, and the criminal information filed by Prosecuting Attorney David Ethredge’s office upgraded the second count to second-degree sexual assault. The information cites the section of the rape statute that applies to victims who are minors.

The $25,000 bond was the amount Hinson requested in the affidavit. The warrant return and bond paperwork were filed with the circuit clerk Thursday.

A search of Arkansas court records shows no prior criminal cases for Cotter.