At a hearing this morning, Charles Harper put in a guilty plea on charges of stalking/domestic violence against his former foster dad, Broward County Circuit Judge John Bowman.
Cops arrested Harper in December near Bowman's home. Afterward, Harper came forward with sex abuse allegations against the judge while he was awaiting trial on the stalking charge.
Harper's half-brother Joseph Gibbs said that Harper pleaded guilty at the urging of friends and family. Harper will serve a year on probation, and he has to
complete a "battery intervention
program," a class for convicted domestic violence offenders (though
these charges never alleged that Harper had physical contact with
Bowman). In addition, he was ordered to issue a public apology to
Bowman.
Gibbs spoke to New Times from
outside the jail, where he was waiting for Harper's release.
Bill Direnzo, the erstwhile
DUI attorney who was assigned to Harper's case after the
Public Defender's Office bowed out, says that the case could have gone
further.
"There are a lot of things we could
have done that we didn't get a chance to do because we got this plea
today," Direnzo said.
Direnzo had been out of the office, and sat
down with Harper only yesterday to discuss the case. He says he previously
visited Harper in jail and had met him briefly during a previous
hearing on the status of his case.
A group of private attorneys told New Times
as recently as yesterday that they were interested in representing
Harper pro bono but could not reach him in jail under regulations about
soliciting clients.
Harper made a statement to Plantation police
a week ago detailing alleged sexual abuse and child
pornography by Bowman. It's unclear whether this plea will have any
bearing on the investigation of those allegations.
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