Once a well-paid branch chief for the state Department of Public Health, a Grizzly Flats man assumed the role of federal prison inmate Thursday, his downfall the result of an ill-advised indecent exposure incident in Davis.
Nicholas Robert Bowen, 63, received a 12 1/2-year prison sentence in U.S. District Court, nearly three months after pleading guilty to charges involving the receipt and distribution of child pornography, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. He had faced a maximum 20-year term.
Authorities said Bowen was equipped with a “spy camera” built into his glasses when he and Wenyi Xu of Folsom came to Community Park on July 10, 2013, in search of young children. A worker called police after reportedly seeing Xu expose to several boys who were riding their bicycles.
The pair had previously engaged in a similar incident at a Folsom-area elementary school, according to an affidavit in the federal case.
The couple’s arrests led to searches of their computers and cell phones, where according to U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wager, Bowen kept a folder titled “boys” that contained more than 600 images of minors engaged in sexual conduct.
Xu, 31, sent explicit photos of her own toddler daughter to Bowen as well, authorities said.
Also a former state employee, Xu received a three-year, eight-month state prison term in October 2014 for her role in the Davis incident and must register as a sex offender for the rest of her life. She is incarcerated at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla.
U.S. District Court Judge Troy Nunley called Bowen’s conduct “egregious” during Thursday’s sentencing hearing, noting he potentially ruined the childhoods of the victims in the case, Wagner said.
Bowen continues to face criminal charges in Yolo County for the indecent-exposure incident, though officials from the District Attorney’s Office say they are evaluating the case in light of the federal court sentence. The case is scheduled for a review in Judge David Reed’s courtroom on March 2.
Xu also faced federal charges, but those were dropped as a result of her plea in the Yolo County case, in which she admitted to counts of possessing child pornography, conspiracy, indecent exposure, child annoyance and lewd conduct.
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene
Xu also faced federal charges, but those were dropped as a result of her plea in the Yolo County case, in which she admitted to counts of possessing child pornography, conspiracy, indecent exposure, child annoyance and lewd conduct.
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene