Man gets six months for assault

Cincinnati Post/March 16, 2005
By Kimball Perry

An avowed white supremacist will spend six months in jail for assaulting his girlfriend after an African-American man nodded at her. The woman, not being named by The Post because of the crime against her, testified Tuesday that she was living with Dusty Bowman last May when they went to a fast-food restaurant downtown.

While in line there, she testified at Bowman's Tuesday trial, an African-American man working at the restaurant's grill looked up and nodded at her, which triggered a line of angry accusations from Bowman.

Under questioning from assistant Hamilton County Prosecutor J. Bartley Cosgrove, the woman said she tired of Bowman's questions and lied -- saying she not only knew the man but had had a sexual relationship with him -- to get Bowman to shut up.

Instead, she said, Bowman took her back to their home, stripped her and, as he was ranting against blacks, sexually assaulted her.

"He told me if I said anything or did anything, he would cut my throat because he had his knife open," the woman testified.

Bowman sexually assaulted her "for five to 10 minutes," she said.

For the next two weeks, Bowman never left her alone, she said, even checking restaurant bathrooms after her to ensure she hadn't left a note seeking help.

"He wouldn't let me out of his sight, so I couldn't go and tell," she testified.

Two weeks later, she said, Bowman finally left the apartment and she ran upstairs to her landlady and told her of the abuse.

"It was my opportunity to go, and I took it," she testified. "I said, 'To hell with it. I'm tired of being abused,' so I left."

She also told police of the abuse.

After Bowman was arrested, he consistently denied he had violated the woman. But he gave police a taped statement that was a rambling racist rant, expressing his hatred for blacks and Jews, using the crudest terms.

Bowman was indicted for rape, a charge that carries a 10-year prison sentence.

Ironically, Bowman's case was randomly assigned to Common Pleas Court Judge Melba Marsh, the only black female judge handling such cases.

Probably because Bowman's taped statement to police could have swayed a jury against him, Bowman chose to have the judge hear his case without a jury.

Instead of the rape charge, though, Marsh found Bowman guilty of assault.

She immediately sentenced him to six months in jail.