Shara Lynn Parhams, 41, and Carl Parhams, Jr., 49, both of Lubbock were arrested Wednesday and charged with Sexual Assault – Bigamy. Shara was accused of sexually assaulting an underage biological family member. Shara was also accused of coercing the girl into letting Carl sexually assault her.
The bigamy classification comes from the allegation in the arrest warrant that the victim was not legally qualified to marry either defendant.
Shara and Carl were married to each other. Carl was not biologically related to the girl.
In August of 2015, the victim was staying with Shara for the weekend as part of visitation. According to the arrest warrant, before going to Shara’s house, they went to Walmart and the victim asked if she could drink wine.
They ended up drinking whiskey and vodka. While the underage girl was intoxicated, Shara and Carl laid down on either side of her on a bed. The arrest warrant said Carl began pulling down the girl’s shorts while Shara fondled the girl’s breasts.
The girl remembered Carl touching her inappropriately with his finger but she did not recall much after that.
“[Shara] then drove [the victim] home … so she could go to church,” the arrest warrant said.
She didn’t make it to church because she felt sick.
Also in August of 2015, during another visitation at Shara’s house, there were more sexual incidents. The warrant said Shara insisted to the girl that it was “okay” let Carl perform oral sex on the girl. Shara then performed oral sex on Carl according to the warrant.
The girl woke up in the morning to Carl again performing oral sex on her, the warrant said.
Carl went on to more than just oral sex according to the warrant, and “It caused her pain because she was a virgin.”
The girl doesn’t remember much after that.
In March of 2017, the girl came forward.
“Sexual assault is historically under reported for a lot of reasons,” Voice of Hope Rape Crisis Center Leslie Timmons said. “Victims are very ashamed, they’re very embarrassed, especially young victims don’t think anyone will believe them. A lot of young victims think it’s their fault, that they contributed in some way for what happened to them.”
Timmons said last year, 89% of their cases involved someone the victim knew.
“Last year we assisted on 416 sexual assault cases,” Timmons said. “So it’s a huge problem. Even out of the 416, sexual assault is very under reported so that’s probably just a third of the assaults that go on in our area.”
Voice of Hope offers free counseling to anyone looking for help. Their office supplies sessions to local schools or private appointments through a professional counselor.
The Rape Crisis Center also has a Help Hotline phone number that is available all day every day at 763-7273.
