Prominent mountain real estate developer Bob Bowden will serve the full term of probation handed to him for threatening to kill his ex-wife last year.
Bowden’s lawyer, Richard Cummins, entered a motion to change the terms of probation on June 12, asking it be terminated early. Judge Erin Fernandez-Ely denied the request in Pitkin County court yesterday, after Deputy District Attorney Richard Nedlin objected to curtailing it, and after an impassioned speech by the victim.
“This man threatened to take my life,” said Bowden’s ex-wife and mother of their 4-year-old. “He told me he would kill me and I would never see my child again.”
She pointed out that Bowden, who did not attend the hearing, had already been given some breaks in this case. Originally charged with felony harassment, Bowden agreed to plea to a lesser misdemeanor charge. He was handed a deferred judgment, meaning a conviction will never be entered against him as long as he does not violate his probation, completes domestic violence classes and does community service.
“I understand he was drunk or using or whatever,” the victim said, adding claims that Bowden had attempted to have her deported and had failed to pay child support. “I just want him to stand up and be a decent human being.”
Fernandez-Ely said she generally ends direct supervision of probationers once they’ve completed court-mandated counseling sessions — which Bowden nearly has — but does not entirely lift probation early.
“And I never, ever, ever lift probation when the victim requests it stay in place,” she explained.
Bowden formerly owned the space where the Belly Up music hall now operates and boasts more than $500 million in developments around Aspen and Big Mountain, Mont. In May of last year, he left threatening messages on his ex-wife’s voice mail. His probation is set to expire Sept. 25.
andrew@aspendailynews.com
