A 74-year-old Texarkana, Ark., man entered pleas of not guilty Tuesday to seven counts of rape involving a female relative.
William Sisco was listed on Circuit Judge Kirk Johnson's criminal docket in Miller County. Sisco's defense lawyer, Josh Potter of Texarkana, entered not guilty pleas on Sisco's behalf.
The alleged victim, now 25 and living in Oregon, told investigators with the Texarkana, Ark., Police Department that she decided to come forward at the urging of her therapist and report that William Troy Sisco abused her for years, according to a probable cause affidavit used to create the following account. The woman alleges she was repeatedly raped by Sisco beginning when she was 6 and continuing until she was 18.
The woman reported to investigators that she and her brother spent a great deal of time with Sisco because their mother, who died in 2010, was sick with cancer. The woman alleges she was assaulted by Sisco at several locations-his home in the 700 block of Fairview Street in Texarkana, Ark.; her mother's former home on Christy Circle in Texarkana, Ark.; East Memorial Gardens property in Texarkana, Ark.; a wooded area "going towards Hope," Ark.; and Wright Patman Lake in Texarkana, Texas.
"(The alleged victim) stated the suspect (Sisco) would often threaten to harm her mother and brother if she told anyone," the affidavits states. "(The alleged victim) stated the suspect would often have a knife on him and threaten to use it."
The woman told investigators that when she was 13, Sisco picked her up from school and took her to the Christy Circle house and forced her to perform a sexual act with the use of "physical violence and threat of death."
"While this was occurring her brother walked in the bedroom. Sisco then threatened death to (the brother) should he report this to anyone after slamming his head through the wall," the affidavit states.
Texarkana, Ark., detectives allegedly confirmed the woman's account with the brother, who said he did not tell anyone because he feared Sisco would retaliate. The affidavit chronicles multiple specific episodes of sexual misconduct while the woman was 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17, with the last incident listed occurring just after the woman's mother died in 2010.
Sisco is currently free on a $100,000 bond. He is scheduled to return to court next month for a pretrial hearing.