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WALTERS — A couple accused of grooming and molesting a teenage girl who’d been in their care are in jail.
James Robert Pennington, 43, of Walters, made his initial appearance Monday in Cotton County where he received felony counts of sexual battery and lewd molestation, records indicate. His alleged accomplishment, Rebekah Ashton Cooper, 30, of Walters, was charged with a felony count of enabling child sexual abuse. The molestation count is punishable by between three and 20 years in prison and enabling is punishable by up to life in prison.
Arrest warrants were issued Friday and the couple was taken into custody Saturday.
Walters police’s investigation into the pair began Dec. 31, 2021, after the girl’s foster mother reported the allegations after speaking with Lawton police, according to the probable cause affidavit. The alleged abuse stem from when the girl was staying in their Walters home in 2020.
The girl said she told several people about the alleged assault, including a DHS case worker, but, until speaking with Lawton police in November 2021 and Walters police the next month, no one passed the allegations on, the affidavit states.
Pennington is held in the Cotton County Jail on $40,000 bond and Cooper is held on $20,000 bond, records indicate. They each have special condition stipulations to their release to have no contact with the girl. They each return to court at 9:30 am March 30 for their preliminary hearing conferences.
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