The ex-wife of an Arkansas pastor convicted of raping his children is facing criminal charges for allegedly failing to notify law enforcement that her husband had confessed to sexually abusing several children.
Mary Miller, also known as Mary Cowan, 41, is charged in Little River County Circuit Court with three counts of permitting child abuse and five counts of endangering the welfare of a minor.
Her former husband, James Cowan, was the former pastor of the Little River Community Church in Winthrop, Arkansas. He was sentenced to 50 years for raping his children, as reported by The Roys Report (TRR).
Miller, who was married to Cowan for 23 years, appeared in court on Tuesday where she received a court appointed attorney. She is currently being held on $75,000 bail and a judge set her jury trial for March 10, court records show.
Miller and Cowan’s divorce was finalized in September. She since has married Jeremy Miller.
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James Cowan, 46, pleaded guilty to raping his minor children and has been sentenced to 50 years in prison. (Photo: Facebook)
The couple have seven children; six children were minors. Some children were biological, and the Cowans acted as the guardians to the rest, court records show.
Divorce records show the couple separated on Feb. 1, a day before sheriff’s deputies “started an investigation into the alleged rape of multiple juvenile victims by suspect James Cowan,” who admitted to raping three of his children, according to court records.
James Cowan was arrested on Feb. 2, court records show.
Mary Cowan admitted to law enforcement on Feb. 1 that one of the victims reported sexual abuse.
Mary Cowman told investigators “(S)he had the victims come talk to James Cowan so that they could decide what they were going to do,” court records show. Mary Cowan’s plan to call law enforcement but was stalled after she had a seizure in the laundry room of her home, court records show.
“Mary Cowan made no known attempts to contact law enforcement but did contact her oldest daughter on February 1, 2024, about the allegations,” and was still with James Cowan at the time of his arrest on February 2, 2024, court documents show.
“Mary Cowan admitted to knowing about the abuse on February 1, 2024, and was told by the suspect James Cowan that he did abuse the children. Mary Cowan took no action on February 1, 2024, or on February 2, 2024, to prevent the abuse of the minor victims in this case,” the pleading states.
The Arkansas Justice Project reported that the children were neglected educationally as well.
A church member reached out to TRR stating the rural church was a victim of James Cowan’s crimes, as well, “although on a different level.”
“(W)hat he did was incomprehensible, but it had nothing to do with this church,” the member wrote to TRR. The church member said the church was “blindsided and totally devastated” by what James Cowan did to the victims.
Sheila Stogsdill is a freelance print journalist and digital reporter, primarily covering crime issues for KSN/KODE.
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11 Responses
What an incredibly vile and ugly man, and his wife does not follow far behind for allowing this to happen.
Was your response based on reading the headline alone? If you had bothered to read through, saying her plan to call law enforcement was stalled because of a siezure she had. And because she was trying to figure out what to do, and didn’t report it the absolute second she found out, she gets arrested as if she’s known for years. It was one day! You have no idea what she was going through so who are you to judge?! This joke of a judicial system should change “innocent until proven guilty” to “guilty until proven innocent” because thats all anybody does in the good ole USA! And then they sit back pat themselves on the back claiming what good Christians they are. Its pathetic!!
The article says that on February 1, Mary informed police that her pastor-husband was a child rapist and that she spoke to her oldest daughter on the telephone, presumably to say, “The police just interviewed me about all the child rapes. Whatever shall I do?”
Her divorce records say she and her now ex-husband separated on February 1, likely because she recalled the date he was arrested and recorded the previous day in her divorce petition.
The article does not say when she learned that her children were rape victims or when (or why!) she cruelly had her rape-victim children confront their rapist father to “decide what they were going to do.”
Situations like this can be tricky. If he was abusing the children, there is a strong possibility that he was also abusing her. If she reports child abuse to the authorities and they don’t take it seriously, he could counter that with accusations of her attempting to alienate him from the kids. Depending on how the court responds she could lose or have limited access to the kids while the abuser has even more access to them. In the midst of this situation, it’s not always readily apparent how to respond. The various authorities (law enforcement, courts, social services) also have a difficult task figuring all of this out.
You are on the right path with your comment but they don’t care. They don’t care that their facts are incorrect as well. But they think it’s ok to spread false information.
So, what is your relation to the 2nd husband, Jamie?
You do realize that both abusers (James Cowan) and enablers (Mary Cowan Miller) lie about the facts of SA, right? Your best bet is listening to the VICTIMS.
Which they are you talking about? Is it court system or The Roys Report? The real victims here are the children.
The correct response is to always report suspected child abuse. There is no room for speculation like what you are suggesting. It must be reported and authorities must investigate it.
If she had cared for her children she could have protected them by leaving and then calling the police. It’s tragic that some mothers of abuse victims shield their husbands rather than helping their children.
Bullshit. Maybe that’s the problem with the “Christian” religion. Women are treated as less and trained to believe they have to obey their husbands and be second class citizens. We are not less than men. We have just been told to think we are less through indoctrination. And I’m sure this abuse went in for a long time, and a mother knows when there’s something wrong with her children. So I’m February she has to acknowledge it because it was verbally confirmed by one of the children. She couldn’t ignore it anymore. And yet she did. She told the child they would have to talk to their abuser and figure it what to do. She belongs in person right along side of her ex husband.
We should all take a step back and let the Judicial System do its job and wait for the outcome. If she is guilty of any wrongdoing, then the detectives’ forensic work and the prosecution will prevail, and the jury will convict her. If the prosecutor can’t present a strong case to persuade the jury she is guilty, then she will walk freely. Let’s stop jumping to conclusions until all the facts are presented.