A well-connected South Carolina teen who received a jaw-droppingly lenient sentence of probation after pleading guilty to rape has been arrested again, reportedly telling a deputy while being booked that he would “bite [his] fucking finger off” if he forced him to wear a mask in compliance with COVID protocols.
Bowen Turner, 19, was taken into custody Sunday by the Orangeburg County Sheriff’s Office, according to court records. He was charged with one count of public disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor.
The incident, which was first reported by FitsNews, a South Carolina-focused outlet founded by the former press secretary to Gov. Mark Sanford, involved Turner’s alleged overconsumption of alcohol at an area bar. This, according to attorney Sarah Ford, who represents the families of two of Turner’s alleged victims, not only contravenes laws against underage drinking but almost certainly constitutes a serious violation of Turner’s admittedly light punishment.
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“I expect that if they have not yet served a probation warrant, that they will be doing that very shortly,” Ford told The Daily Beast. “It’s mind-boggling, it really is. Should anybody be surprised by this? Absolutely not. He hasn’t followed any of the rules… that’s what happens when you have power and privilege. But I can guarantee, another person in his position who was poor, or who didn’t have a private attorney, or was Black or brown, or any number of things, I don’t think that they would be seeing the benefits that he’s been given, time after time after time.”
As Ford predicted, Turner on Monday afternoon was hit with a probation violation and ordered jailed without bond. The charge could mean six months behind bars for Turner, whose father works as an investigator for a local prosecutor and whose lawyer is a state senator.
Turner has been accused of raping three teenagers in three counties over two years, but has only been tried for one. In one case, Turner allegedly raped a 17-year-old girl at a party in October 2018, six months after he was accused of rape by another teen. Turner was arrested in January 2019 and released on $10,000 bond. While he was under house arrest and awaiting trial, Turner left home more than 50 times to, among other things, play golf, go shopping at a car dealership out of state, and eat at a Columbia steakhouse.
In June 2019, while that case was pending, Turner—whose lawyers had convinced the judge to remove the teen’s ankle monitor—was arrested and charged with dragging a 16-year-old minister’s daughter behind a truck and raping her. In November 2021, Turner’s 17-year-old accuser died from a self-inflicted injury and prosecutors dropped the case. The April 2018 case remains under investigation.
Last month, Turner pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of first-degree assault and battery in the June 2019 incident rather than the original charge of criminal sexual conduct in the first degree. Judge Markley Dennis handed down a suspended jail sentence under the Youthful Offender Act, giving Turner just five years probation. If he keeps his record clean during that time, Turner will not have to register as a sex offender, a sweetheart deal that enraged the victim’s father.
A records administrator with the Orangeburg County Sheriff’s Office told The Daily Beast that the incident report in Turner’s latest arrest was not available for public release without submitting an official request under state open records laws. However, local outlet WCSC reported that Turner was staggering down the middle of a public road when a deputy intercepted him.
“A strong odor of an alcoholic beverage was detected from the offender’s breath,” the deputy’s writeup of the encounter reportedly stated.
Turner allegedly gave the deputy “untruthful responses” during a roadside interview, saying he had been at a bar, then changing his story to say he had been in “the woods,” according to WCSC. After being placed under arrest, Turner’s version of events shifted yet again, confessing to the deputy that he had indeed purchased and consumed three alcoholic beverages.
Upon arrival at the local jail, one of the deputies told Turner he was required to be masked under the facility’s COVID-19 policy.
“If you try to put that mask on me I will bite your fucking finger off,” Turner spat back, according to WCSC, changing his mind only when informed the interaction was being documented on video.
Ford, the victims’ attorney, said her clients are re-traumatized every time Turner lands himself back in court.
“They have to relive this over and over and over again, and I don’t know that our system recognizes what that does to a crime victim, the trauma of that and how damaging that can be,” Ford told The Daily Beast. “This is not something that they can just decide, ‘You know what, I’m just gonna forget about this.’ They have to live with this every day… Our system focuses so heavily on the defendant that we forget the impact on crime victims. And it’s tragic.”
A former prosecutor, Ford said she thought she had “seen it all.”
“This has just been such an incestuous case, with the links between people and how things have happened, and continuation after continuation and bond hearing after bond hearing, it’s just really troubling,” she went on. “To try explaining that to victims… It doesn’t make any sense to me, so how can I make it make sense to people who don’t work within the system?”
Turner is due back in court on June 2, according to court records. His lawyer, State Sen. Brad Hutto, did not respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comment.
