Court Dismisses Prosecutor’s Appeal; Sex Offender Sentence Remains 3 Years

COURT HOUSE — The county Prosecutor’s Office lost a recent appeal to have a sex offender’s sentence reconsidered.
Assistant Prosecutor J. Vincent Molitor told the Herald prosecutors were “dissatisfied” with a three-year sentence handed down on Aug. 22, 2008 by Superior Court Judge Susan Maven to a Del Haven man who was convicted of sexual assault for having consensual relations with a 13-year-old girl. Brian Bowden, the offender, was 20 years old at the time.
A Herald article from nearly two years ago reported that Middle Township police arrested Bowden on July 17 for sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child.
According to Molitor, Bowden accepted a plea agreement that included a sentence of five years. Court documents said Bowden was “sentenced as a third degree offender for a second-degree crime.”
The Prosecutor’s Office decided to appeal the sentence, but due to a mistake within the office failed to file the appeal until Sept. 8, 2008 — more than two weeks later. State law requires that appeals be filed within ten days of sentencing.
Molitor said his office knew the appeal was untimely, but asked the Appellate Division to consider it anyway.
In its decision, the appeals court said, “the offense was downgraded for purposes of sentencing…and, in any event, the sentence imposed was within the range for a downgraded offense, and the remedy for such a downgrade and sentence is embodied in that statute which requires the appeal to be filed within ten days of the sentence.”
“We dismiss the appeal as untimely,” the decision stated.
According to the state Department of Corrections, Bowden is lodged in the Mid-State Correctional Facility in Wrightstown, Burlington County. His projected max release date is March 16, 2010 and he would be eligible for parole on Oct. 22 this year.
Contact Hart at (609) 886-8600 Ext 35 or at: jhart@cmcherald.com