Low denies abuse allegations

LIHUE — A man accused of multiple counts of sexual assault in the first degree testified in Fifth Circuit Court Thursday that he did not have a sexual relationship with his alleged victim.

Closing arguments were heard and the jury deliberated throughout the afternoon, but a verdict wasn’t reached.

Tarey Low, former Kauai Police Department officer and state Department of Land and Natural Resources Division of Conservation and Resource Enforcement branch chief for Kauai, adamantly denied the accusations.

“Did you have sex with (the victim)?” Low’s attorney Thomas Otake asked.

“Absolutely not,” Low replied.

“Have you ever had sexual contact with her, did you do any of these sexual things to her that she described while testifying the other day?” Otake questioned.

Low maintained his denial of each of the accusations against him, testifying that he found out about them when the alleged victim confronted him about the alleged abuse through a phone call. He testified he was shocked to hear what the alleged victim was saying.

Low, 56, and the alleged victim’s mother met at his Kealia ranch because the alleged victim, then 12 years old, was spending time there with her cousin, grooming horses and helping with other projects. Low and the victim’s mother hit it off, began a relationship and eventually moved in together.

Low and the alleged victim’s mother each had three children from previous relationships. When they moved in together they made an agreement.

“That we would raise each other’s kids as if they were our own,” Low testified.

His ranch, sitting on state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands land where some of the incidences are alleged to have occurred, is large. Aside from horses, Low testified that he raised cattle, pigs and goats on the land, and there was always something to do.

Low testified he never spent the night alone on the ranch with the alleged victim.

The alleged victim’s mother also testified, on behalf of the defense.

Despite the accusations against her husband, the victim’s mother has stayed married to him. Her other two children maintain a close relationship with Low, she told the court.

On behalf of the prosecution, the alleged victim’s aunt testified of the evening the abuse was reported to her. The victim’s aunt told the court that it was the alleged victim’s younger sister who encouraged the alleged victim to tell her aunt.

“She was crying, she was shaking, distraught,” the witness said.

The aunt took the alleged victim to KPD so she could report the alleged abuse.

During closing arguments, Deputy County Prosecuting Attorney Jennifer Winn told the jury that Low sexually abused the alleged victim for years, and that abuse became part of her normal life.

“Your job is to look at six of those incidences,” Winn said.

Last year, a jury was unable to reach unanimous agreement for all charges against Low. He was found not guilty on four of about 25 charges of sexually assaulting a female minor from June 29, 2007, through Feb. 14, 2014.

Winn told the jury the defendant did these acts knowingly.

“He knew what he was doing. The defendant did so by strong compulsion,” Winn said. “What happened here is the defendant threatened (the victim), on multiple occasions, that placed her in fear of bodily injury to herself and, as time went on, he also threatened her family.”

Those threats were made by a male adult police officer who had access to multiple weapons in his name, Winn argued.

The victim’s story, Otake said during closing arguments, doesn’t make sense. He questioned the alleged victim’s credibility.

“You’d hope that maybe there’d be some scientific forensic evidence to support what that one witness is saying but there’s not. There’s none of that. You’d hope there’d be corroboration from other witnesses, none of that. Nothing but the testimony of one person whose story makes no sense,” Otake argued.

That isn’t proof without reasonable doubt, he told the jury.

“The reason it’s not there is because it didn’t happen. It did not happen. It’s a story (the victim) told,” Otake said.

Judge Kathleen Watanabe presided over the day’s proceedings.

Low started as a DLNR DOCARE officer on April 2, 1990. He became the Kauai district DLNR DOCARE manager in November 2001 and retired on June 1, 2009.

Low served with KPD in the 1980s.

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Bethany Freudenthal, courts, crime and county reporter, can be reached at 652-7891 or bfreudenthal@thegardenisland.com.