Judge seals old criminal file for presumed father of Bowers
The Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office on Thursday obtained an emergency order to seal the file in a 39-year-old criminal case believed to pertain to the father of Robert Bowers, the accused Tree of Life gunman.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and other media outlets this week requested the records, which are held in archives of the county’s Department of Court Records, and were told they would be available Thursday.
Just before 3 p.m. Thursday, however, prosecutors filed a motion to have the record belonging to Randall Bowers sealed. Allegheny County Common Pleas President Judge Jeffrey A. Manning then signed the order.
The Post-Gazette is filing a motion to unseal the records.
Robert Bowers, 46, of Baldwin Borough, was arraigned Thursday in U.S. District Court on 44 counts, including 11 counts of obstruction of free exercise of religious beliefs resulting in death and 11 counts of discharging a gun to commit murder during a crime of violence. Eleven people were killed at the synogogue on Saturday and six others were injured.
Online records indicate that in 1979, Randall Bowers, then 27, was accused of rape and related charges.
Six months later, he was found dead in a picnic area near the Tionesta Dam north of Pittsburgh from what police said was a selfinflicted gunshot wound.
The criminal case never went forward,
and it was closed.
According to the motion Thursday by the DA’s office, the victim and/or witnesses involved in the case “have a right to privacy guaranteed to them by the Pennsylvania Constitution.”
Further, it says they have a right to notification under the Victim’s Rights Act.
The motion sought to temporarily seal the information and related documents for the limited purpose of redacting them and notifying the victim and witnesses.
The motion also alleges that there is an “evolving policy of protecting victim’s privacy,” citing the state Supreme Court’s recent decision regarding the Pennsylvania attorney general’s grand jury investigation of child sexual abuse by the Catholic Church.
The court agreed to delay the release of the report to give those named in it time to respond.
“The release of unredacted information would violate the standards of protection and notification that are currently in place via Pennsylvania statutes and case law,” the motion said.
The motion also said the rights of the victim and witnesses outweigh the public’s right to know while the redaction and notifications are made.
Randall G. Bowers was 19 years old when he married Barbara Jenkins in March 1972. Less than six months later, Robert was born.
The marriage did not last. In 1973, according to scant remnants of a court docket, Barbara filed for divorce.
Roughly six years later, according to news accounts from the time, Randall Bowers was charged with attempted rape, kidnapping, indecent assault, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, simple assault, felonious restraint and resisting arrest in an incident reportedly involving a 20-year-old from Squirrel Hill. It was unclear Thursday howlong he was jailed.
Randall Bowers was the subject of a warrant issued Oct. 19, 1979, according to a court docket sheet. He was found Oct. 21 “under a picnic table with a .22 caliber rifle at his side, with a chest wound and bullet recovered” near the lower back, according to the coroner’s file, which was read to the Post-Gazette by Forest County Coroner Norman J. Wimer. It was ruled a suicide.
The coroner’s report characterized the deceased’s presumed psychology as follows: “Mental state: One of depression as indicated by anti-depressant drugs found at scene.”
“Motivation: Depression as indicated and the belief that he was certain to get jail time for a crime in Pittsburgh with the belief that he would suffer personal injury or more in prison,” the file says.
The file indicated that Randall Bowers had not been seen for 10 days and said he had been dead from four to seven days when his body was found, according to Mr. Wimer.
Paula Reed Ward; pward@post-gazette.com, 412-263-2620 or on Twitter @PaulaReedWard. Liz Navratil: 717-787-2141, lnavratil@post-gazette.com, @LizNavratil. Rich Lord: rlord@post-gazette.com, 412263-1542 or on Twitter @richelord.