Former trooper is arrested

Danny Bowers, facing molestation charges, is held in the Land O'Lakes jail.

By THOMAS LAKE
Published July 3, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT [Times photo: Carrie Pratt (2000)] Danny Bowers waits outside a courtroom during the trial of Melanie Bowie, accused of DUI/manslaughter.

PORT RICHEY - Danny Bowers faded from public view about six years ago, soon after he lost his job with the Florida Highway Patrol, soon after he admitted to having an affair with a woman he had helped investigate in a possible case of DUI manslaughter.

When he reappeared Monday, the news was even worse.

Sheriff's deputies arrested him about 5 p.m. on two charges of lewd or lascivious molestation. According to preliminary information from agency spokesman Doug Tobin, the victims were two females younger than 15.

Further details of the allegations were not available at press time. Bowers, 41, was held at the Land O'Lakes jail in lieu of $20, 000 bail.

In 11 years with the FHP, according to previous St. Petersburg Times reports, Bowers botched four major crash investigations, drove with a suspended license, smashed a patrol car and was sent to a driver-education class.

On Sept. 14, 1998, he was the first trooper on the scene when a 27-year-old pedestrian named Louis Rapisarda was struck and killed by a truck on Alt. U.S. 19 in Holiday.

The driver, Melanie Bowie, had a blood-alcohol level of 0.14 an hour after the crash, nearly double the level at which the state presumes impairment. She neither braked nor swerved before the crash, and she kept driving nearly 300 yards after it.

She was charged with misdemeanor DUI.

Bowers admitted to a Times reporter that he'd had an affair with Bowie while she was under investigation, but he said it did not affect the charging decision.

On Monday, after dispatchers told deputies to look out for Bowers because there was a warrant for his arrest, a Times reporter found him on Maplehurst Drive in Port Richey, outside a neat little house with a bird bath and a porch swing.

The reporter did not tell him he was wanted; he merely asked him how he'd been doing lately. But Bowers declined to be interviewed.

"I did that a few years ago, " he said, "and it got blown out of proportion."

Moments later, the green Cadillac Escalade he arrived in drove away again, and deputies followed it up Little Road.

They pulled it over on the side of State Road 52, just east of Little, in the parking lot of Scott Paint, under a giant orange paint can.

Robert Dundore, an airbrush artist who custom-paints motorcycles, was working in his shop when he heard the commotion.

"Hands out the window!" he remembers hearing a deputy say. "Now!"

And Danny Bowers surrendered.

Thomas Lake can be reached at tlake@sptimes.com or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6245.

[Last modified July 2, 2007, 21:45:42]