A 56-year-old Texarkana man accused of sexual misconduct with two young girls entered pleas of not guilty Monday afternoon to indecency with a child and aggravated sexual assault of a child.
Cedric Cooley, aka Gunsmoke, appeared with Clayton Haas of the Bowie County Public Defenders Office for arraignment before 202nd District Judge John Tidwell in a first-floor courtroom of the Bi-State Justice Building. Haas entered pleas of not guilty to indecency with a child by contact and aggravated sexual assault of a child on Cooley's behalf.
Tidwell scheduled Cooley to return to court Sept. 24 for a pretrial hearing. Cooley was arrested in June and indicted by a Bowie County grand jury in July.
The case was brought to the attention of the Bowie County Sheriff's Office in April, according to a probable cause affidavit used to create the following account. A 10-year-old girl was interviewed that month at the Texarkana Children's Advocacy Center after making an outcry of abuse to her mother.
The girl allegedly told a forensic interviewer that she and her mother were staying in the same house on Terry Street in Texarkana, Texas, as Cooley for about four months beginning in December 2017. The girl said Cooley had "crawled up on her" while she was sleeping and that he has touched her chest and buttocks. The girl alleged that Cooley threatened to "punch her in the face" if she told her mother.
A second alleged victim was interviewed May 1 at the Children's Advocacy Center. That girl, whose age is identified in the probable cause affidavit as older than the first victim but younger than 17, described being inappropriately touched by Cooley.
The second alleged victim said she was visiting the younger girl in March and that they were both sleeping in the same bed. She reported that she woke to see Cooley on top of her cousin and touching her.
"He told her that if she told anyone that he was going to punch her in the nose," the affidavit states.
The second girl allegedly told the forensic interviewer that Cooley put his hand over her mouth while she was struggling against his unwanted advances.
Cooley is currently being held in the Bowie County jail with bail set at $200,000. Indecency with a child by contact is punishable by two to 20 years in prison. Aggravated sexual assault of a child is punishable by five to 99 years or life in prison.