In the early morning hours of July 26, 1981, a 74-year-old woman, identified as A.K., was attacked while sleeping in her home in Ogden, Kansas. The attacker covered her face with his hand and bed clothing. As the victim struggled, she was struck repeatedly on the head with a knife. The attacker then raped her and fled. The victim contacted the police and was taken to a hospital, where she was treated for her injuries and a rape kit was collected.
Meanwhile, early in the morning of July 26, 1981, 22-year-old Eddie James Lowery, a soldier stationed at nearby Fort Riley, had several friends visiting for a late night party. Lowery left to go to the local Mini Mart a few blocks away at 1 or 2 a.m. to buy cigarettes. On the way back home, driving down his street, which was dark without street lights, he accidentally hit the back of a parked car. He hit his chin on the steering wheel, and was bleeding badly. He wiped off some of the blood using his shirt as a bandage.
Charles Adams, who owned the car, called the police, around 3:25 or 3:30 a.m. A police officer arrived and spoke to Lowery about the accident and then took Lowery to his home. A friend of Lowery then helped Lowery push his damaged car back to his home.
The following day, July 27, 1981, Riley County Police Officer Harry Malugani contacted Lowery and asked him to come to the police station. Lowery believed the police wanted to talk to him about the car accident. He had no available vehicle due to the accident, so Malugani and fellow Douglass Johnson picked him at 4 p.m. and brought him to the station. They questioned him about the rape, which Lowery denied committing. He agreed to allow the officers to search his home. A shirt and a pair of pants were collected.
Lowery agreed to return the following day, July 28, 1981, to take a polygraph examination. When Malugani picked him up at 8:30 a.m., Lowery had barely slept and had not eaten breakfast.
He was taken to an interview room, where, after he signed a waiver of his Miranda rights, he was questioned about the rape. Lowery said he asked for a lawyer. Malugani told him he did not need one. And no lawyer was summoned.
From 9:30 a.m. to about 12:30 p.m., Lowery took a polygraph examination during which he denied involvement in the crime. This was not recorded electronically. Then, he was interrogated further, with Malugani increasingly getting angry. Lowery became emotional, was confused and upset. He began crying and began responding affirmatively to the questions posed by Malugani and Johnson in the hope that they would put him in jail so he could get a lawyer.
The officers, knowing that the perpetrator had broken the screen door, asked Lowery: “How did you get into the house? Did you cut the screen door or bust it open and pull the screen back?”
Lowery responded that he broke it open with his hands.
Knowing that A.K. had been struck in the head, the officers asked Lowery if he hit her with a knife or with a vase. Lowery said he hit her with a knife. Knowing that A.K.’s face had been covered during the attack, the officers asked Lowery whether he covered her face with a blanket or a pillow. Lowery said a blanket.
At the conclusion of the questioning, Lowery was arrested and charged with rape, aggravated battery, and aggravated burglary.
The officers then prepared a report describing the confession, saying the statement was credible because Lowery revealed, without prompting or suggestion, nonpublic facts that only the perpetrator of the rape could have known. In addition, the report contained other “admissions” that Lowery did not make. Lowery later said that he told the officers that he broke into the house through the front door. However, the perpetrator gained entry through the back door. The officers said that Lowery told them he broke in through the back.
Lowery denied that he had confessed. His attorney filed a motion to suppress the statement, but the trial court denied the motion, ruling that the confession was made voluntarily. The confession was the cornerstone of the prosecution’s case.
In November 1981, Lowery went to trial in Riley County District Court.
Malugani and Johnson testified about the interrogation. They denied that Lowery had asked for an attorney and they said that he had provided all the details of the crime. They denied feeding Lowery details of the crime.
Mary Cortese, a serologist at the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, testified that in addition to the rape kit, police had collected bedding and A.K.’s nightgown. She said that blood and seminal fluid were identified. The blood was determined to be type A, which was A.K.’s blood type. The seminal fluid was determined to be type O, which was consistent with Lowery’s blood type as well as blood found on his pants.
Cortese testified that 48% of the general population had type O blood. However, the laboratory never did testing to determine if Lowery was a secretor, meaning that his blood type would be found in other biological fluids besides blood, like seminal fluid or saliva.
Cortese testified that she assumed that Lowery was a secretor, so based on the 48% blood type O frequency as well as the 80% frequency of secretors in the population, she said that 38.4% of the general population would have given the same results as her tests.
But without knowing whether Lowery was a non-secretor, which meant his blood type would not show up in serological testing, the 38.4% statistic was not accurate.
On November 12, 1981, a mistrial was declared when the jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict.
Lowery went to trial a second time in January 1982. He did not testify in either trial.
On January 7, 1982, the jury convicted him of rape, aggravated burglary, and aggravated battery. He was sentenced to 11 years to life in prison.
Lowery was released on parole in 1991 and required to register as a sex offender.
Through his attorney, Barry Clark, and with the assistance of the Innocence Project, Lowery requested an evidence search, which turned up biological evidence from the investigation, including swabs from the rape kit, portions of the bedding, and portions of the victim's nightgown.
In September 2002, DNA testing confirmed Lowery’s claim of innocence. The semen found on the victim’s bedding originated from the same person as the semen found on the vaginal swabs. Lowery was excluded as the source.
On April 3, 2003, Riley County District Judge Meryl Wilson vacated Lowery’s convictions and the prosecution dismissed the case.
“Nothing that I say or do today will give back to you the years you spent in prison or the years you spent registering as a sex offender,” Judge Wilson said. “I can today, by signing this order, restore to you your reputation and perhaps your dignity.”
Lowery subsequently filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the Riley County Police Department and Malugani and Johnson seeking compensation. He settled the case in 2010 for $7.5 million.
In 2011, the DNA profile from the evidence was linked to Daniel Brewer, who was living in New York. Brewer pleaded guilty to the rape for which Lowery was wrongly convicted as well as another rape committed in March 1981, about four months prior to the attack of A.K. Brewer was sentenced to 12 to 20 years in prison. He died in prison on June 18, 2013.
– Maurice Possley
Posting Date: 08-29-2011
Last Update Date: 02-23-2026
