Bowen Turner’s sentence of probation in one convicted case after being accused of raping three girls has led to widespread public fury. The controversy has also sparked an interest in his personal life.
Orangeburg County Judge Markley Dennis sentenced 19-year-old Turner to just five years of probation despite charges on two counts of first-degree criminal sexual misconduct for separate assaults in recent years. Furthermore, the perp will not have to register as a sex offender after serving probation. Bowen was also cited for violating the terms of his bond several times after his seizure. Chloe Bess, who was assaulted in June 2019, said she was “extremely disappointed” by the sentence. Dallas Stoller, another alleged victim of Turner’s, killed herself in November.
“If he has completed five years without any violations and has done all the counseling necessary, then he will not have to register as a sex offender,” Dennis announced on Friday, April 8, to disappointed groans from the courtroom attendees. Bess said she was at a party with Bowen when he pulled her behind a truck around 3 am and sexually assaulted her. “Bowen then pulled her pants and underwear off and forced himself sexually on the victim,” Second Circuit Deputy Solicitor David Miller said in court.
Meanwhile, a motion filed on April 6 by the South Carolina Victim Assistance Network argues that Bowen escaped custody by leaving house arrest nearly 50 times. He allegedly visited multiple golf courses, shopped at sporting goods shops, went to a car dealership in Georgia, visited a steakhouse in Columbia, and even visited the grave of victim Stoller. The apparent leniency in Bowen’s sentencing has been attributed by many to his father’s job at the District Attorney’s office.
Another wealthy person of privilege and power being sentenced with more leniency than the rest of us.
Roger we all should say something isn’t’ right. Guess justice takes a backseat to the elite today. i don’t have any parents and sure my sister is my chaperone. Even a PO drives by calls me and tells me to step out on the porch. Guess they can’t come into a house since this Convid thing.
Its confusing in many ways and factors. Raping someone is like a no no and he just gets 5 yrs probation with little or no counseling or being checked upon my court services. Must be nice to get that type of privilege for raping someone.. I even look at my own case where the detective played this “If you plead guilty I will talk to the DA and Judge for you and everything will be ok. The confusion of it all is a headline news in and of itself. I can even understand how the girl felt like she had been cheated of justice and she was in many ways.
Reminds me of a commit I posted in NARSOL a few years ago. Rape comes in many different ways. Being raped in court, judgement, or sexually induced it is still rape in many ways and means. Is Government raping many today?
AND why didn’t the judge force Bowen Turner to register as a sex offender? Could it possibly be that the Registry is TOO PUNITIVE – TOO LIFE DESTROYING for this young man? Could this be an admission from the judge of what we all know the Registry to be?
Either way it disgusts me when the wealthy and the privileged think they’re too good to avoid punishment.
He won’t make it the 5 years. This is another Ethan Couch. And his father is going to be eaten alive by the press and people.
How can this be???????? A young man of privilege who rapes gets probation and no time on the registry because of family connections, while the less privileged who commit lesser offenses get years in prison and years on the registry?
When does the madness stop????? And why can’t anything be done about it? This is maddening, discouraging and sad all at once.
I am going to throw a few things out there for all to consider here before the forum masses turns into the masses we so despise in the name of heresy with pitchforks and flaming torches of yore. Read it all before castigating me.
Caveat: I don’t condone the alleged behavior of this young man and what he was found guilty of. In the end, the law was served in the legal community in an adversarial system regardless of what people think. That does not equate to justice to many, but justice is subjective in the end. We have discussed that previously here.
1) There seems to be conclusions drawn on what appears to be favoritism here in the sentencing of this young man where those conclusions have been solidified as fact based upon nothing (i.e. no fact) of his father’s connections to the office other than he works for the same county court system. The father recused himself from the case to avoid any appearance of impropriety and the case was assigned to another individual from a different district. Apparent does not equate to fact in courts of law, which is known as “speculation”. One can speculate the father had undue influence, but until it is proven, if it can be, it is nothing but speculation to infuriate the masses who read this case. If one wants to know what negotiations were held with documentation, seek a copy of the case’s court record to know more than what a salacious headline would like people to believe. Getting the actual notes between the prosecution and the defense on settled sentencing won’t happen.
2) The young man was a minor (16 as noted in the adjoining articles) when the allegations were supposedly committed and actually committed based upon his conviction. Doing the math from 2022, when he is 19, 2019 and 2018 are 3-4 years ago when he was 16 and 15. Therefore, he was a minor as noted in the adjoining articles and under the laws for minors, despite how adult the allegations were and are in his conviction. If these were so heinous, then why wasn’t he tried as an adult? That is a question for the prosecution in SC and SC legislators. Even just recently here in this forum, there was furor over an adult male who was tried as a minor because the allegations were based on his age when he committed the allegations, as a minor, not when he was actually tried, as an adult.
3) Registration needed? Yes! Why did he not get it? Ask the Judge, but I believe the Judge understands the implications of it all too well like Judge Matsch, Justice RBG, Justice Sotomayor, et al do as well but have not said it loud enough. Will he complete probation? Will he learn from this? Will his record of it be sealed because he was a minor? Would he and his parents learn from registration, if he was required, and seek to change it in SC? All good questions.
Conclusion: No one will ever know truly if his father had undue influence on this case. To state there is without fact makes those who howl for it on the same plane as those who howl for throwing away the key without all of the facts of those people forced to register and their cases. To say this is elitist vs non-elitist is unknown in this case. To see the facts for what they are, it is a minor who committed adult allegations and received minor sentencing according to the laws of SC for minors. Conclude as you want.
Peace.
P.S.
I did not throw in a certain Missouri Senator reference here but could have because the echoes sound, to me, are in line with his rhetoric. The Judge considered all the facts and issued the sentence.
Sometimes the source is as important as the story.
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This not no appear to be a source that is worthy of trust when consitutional rights and freedoms are at stake.