Ex-Knoch student admits threats Most charges dropped with his guilty plea
A former Knoch High School student admitted in court Monday to making online threats in January and accepted a plea deal offered by prosecutors.
Jason Bowen, 19, of Penn Township was charged with risking a catastrophe, terroristic threats, possession of a prohibited offensive weapon and possession of drug paraphernalia. Bowen was charged after a video surfaced on Snapchat depicting Bowen firing a gun with the caption “Training for Prom Walk” scrawled over the video.
In addition to the video, police said Bowen switched out a photograph of grieving parents on a front-page story on the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting in Newtown, Conn.
That photograph, in which the defendant inserted a photograph of himself giving a thumbs-up gesture regarding the massacre, was posted on his Instagram account last year, according to court documents.
In Monday's plea deal, prosecutors agreed to drop the majority of charges against Bowen, including a felony, if he pleaded no contest to terroristic threats.
Assistant District Attorney Laura Pitchford noted that the most serious charge Bowen faced, risking catastrophe, would be hard to prove. Bowen accepted the deal, which calls for him to be sentenced to time served to one year in jail followed by two years of probation. Judge Timothy McCune, who presided over Monday's court appearance, noted that the risking catastrophe charge was not an appropriate charge against Bowen.
Bowen received credit for time already served since he spent a month in jail after he was unable to post a $100,000 bail set by District Judge Sue Haggerty on Jan. 7. Part of the plea deal requires Bowen to stay off all social media during his government supervision. Additionally, he is not permitted on South Butler County School District grounds and he must undergo a mental health evaluation. He will be formally sentenced later.
During the investigation, police discovered that Bowen did not own the rifle he was holding in the video after police later recovered it at another person's home. Bowen admitted during a police interview that he did not intend to act on the threat.
Police took Bowen into custody at 1:48 a.m. Jan. 7 at his family's home on the 100 block of Church Road near the border of Penn and Middlesex townships.
A search of the teen's room turned up a set of brass knuckles and a container and glass pipe with suspected marijuana residue, according to police documents.
During Monday's hearing, Bowen's lawyer, Robert Mielnicki, said that “it was a unique type of crime that was committed.”
After the hearing, he explained that Bowen hadn't actually threatened anyone in particular.
He also noted that Bowen's case tests the limits of free speech protected in the Constitution. While Bowen hadn't yelled “fire” in a building, Mielnicki said, he had done something that could be seen as a threat to a group of people.
“In the end, it was a bad joke taken too far,” Mielnicki said.
