OKLAHOMA CITY – An 84-year-old man is heading back to prison after being convicted of a sex crime for a second time.
Bobby Otto Powers was first arrested for lewd acts with a child back in 2003. A girl, who was then around the age of 9 or 10, accused Powers of sexually abusing her in a garage on multiple occasions.
According to police reports, Powers told those connected to the young girl he was a “retired teacher” and wanted to show the young girl how “the rebuilding of the garage” was going. He was sentenced to 60 years in prison in 2005 but, about five years later, he was released on a medical commutation.
Powers, now, though, is convicted once again.
Powers had been out of prison for about seven years when an incident at the Hustler Hollywood near Meridian and I-40 landed him back in hot water.
“This was regarding a young lady who indicated she had been sexually assaulted by a male customer,” said MSgt. Gary Knight with the Oklahoma City Police Department.
The assault, which Powers was recently convicted of, dates back to November 2017.
“She said this male customer had come in numerous times,” Knight said. “He always seemed to come in when she was working.”
But, on that day, the victim said his behavior began with a conversation, asking her to try on lingerie and, when she said no, things escalated.
“At some point, he reached out and touched her inappropriately and then left the store,” Knight said.
The woman called police, and Powers was identified and arrested.
Fast forward to less than a month ago, Powers was convicted on four counts of sexual battery. The court – sending him back to serve time – the same situation he was in less than 10 years ago.
Each count carries a five-year sentence.
News 4 reached out to the Department of Corrections for information about Powers’ original release from prison. Matt Elliott, the public information officer for the agency, sent this statement:
“Based on Mr. Powers’ condition at the time, our medical staff and our then-Director agreed he had less than 12 months to live. Unfortunately, predicting one’s death is not an exact science. We’ve all seen it happen when doctors’ estimates of a person’s time left end up being off.
Still, medical parole provides an important service to the state. It is both more cost-effective and humane for the state to recommend terminally ill, near-death inmates for medical parole – provided that doing so does not pose a risk to the public. We have a number of assessment measures in place to determine that.”
