CHILLICOTHE, Ohio — Last week, the Guardian broke the story of a local clinic being shut down after a Chillicothe physician had his license suspended as part of a state investigation into whether Rose Medical Clinic, located at 14 Health Drive, in Chillicothe, operated as an illegal pill mill. A pill mill is an unlawful operation that mimics a real pain clinic, but mainly hands out strong narcotics without proper medical checks or records, often putting profit before patient welfare.
After learning of multiple allegations against the Physician Assistant Rufus Frank Lowman Jr., and the Rose Medical Clinic, the Guardian launched our own investigation learning of the alleged sexual abuse of an 11-year-old girl.
In 2015, the child, now an adult, came forward revealing what she described as years of abuse, The Guardian obtained exclusive audio of the alleged confession by Lowman to the child’s mother. In the nearly hour-long audio recording, an individual, purported to be Lowman, can be heard detailing how his sexual encounters with the child would commence.
Lowman can be heard on multiple occasions during the recording blaming the child, claiming she was the one who initiated the sexual encounters. In what appeared to be a case of victim shaming, the man said, “She was sexually active at the age of 7. She was jumping people’s bones back before she was bleeding.”
The audio recording reveals the encounters allegedly between Lowman and the young child in disturbing detail. Lowman said in the recording, “The thing is, for the longest time it was just innocent rubbing her stomach and her back and stuff like that. That’s when she started the moaning and groaning and oh my god.”
During the alleged audio confession, Lowman reportedly admitted to going into the girl’s bedroom with the intention of abusing the child. He can be heard saying, “I lay down with her but – not initiate anything – not initiate anything more than loving.”
In August of 2015, the victim in this case came forward, detailing the abuse to investigators with the Ross County Sheriff’s Office. In the report, the detectives said the victim was initially reluctant to talk because she was concerned about Lowman losing his medical license. She eventually admitted that she had been sexually abused by Lowman when she was younger. The victim told detectives that she feared for her life due to possible retaliation from Lowman. The report states that Lowman refuted the allegations initially, saying the girl was making up the allegations because she was just mad that she could not stay at someone’s house. The case was also presented to Ross County Children Services. The report from the sheriff’s office does not provide any follow-up information. The case is labeled as still under investigation.
A source close to the situation told the Guardian that Lowman allegedly paid the girl to keep quiet about the sexual abuse. The Guardian could not substantiate those claims. This is the latest in a number of allegations against the Physician’s Assistant. The Guardian is working to find out the reasons why Lowman has yet to be charged and how he was able to continue to practice medicine in the face of the alleged taped confession.