Fayette County DA’s son charged with DUI in Route 119 crash
The son of Fayette County’s district attorney was charged Wednesday in connection with the wrong-way crash on Route 119 in Dunbar Township nearly two months ago that injured the other driver.
Richard E. Bower Jr., 29, of Connellsville, was charged with two counts of driving under the influence and three summary offenses in the Aug. 7 crash in which state police said he crossed the highway median near the Fayette County Fairgrounds and crashed into oncoming vehicle.
Investigators previously said Bower was driving north on the divided highway near Laurel Mall shortly after 10 p.m. when his sport-utility vehicle crossed into the southbound lanes and crashed into a vehicle driven by Joshua Willard, 37, of Adah.
According to court documents, troopers were leaving another call at the fairgrounds when they came upon the crash in the southbound lanes. A trooper wrote in court documents he could smell alcohol on the breath of Bower Jr., who was not injured and denied drinking before the crash. A breath test at the state police barracks near Uniontown found that Bower had a blood-alcohol level of .172%, more than twice the legal limit to drive a vehicle in Pennsylvania, leading to the highest rate DUI charge.
Bower’s father, Richard Bower Sr., is the county district attorney, but he assigned Uniontown attorney Samuel Davis to serve as the special prosecutor on the case. Davis did not return a phone call seeking comment on the case Thursday.
Bower Jr., who is a member of the county’s Bureau of Investigations overseen by his father’s office, was permitted to continue working in the department after his arrest following the crash. If convicted, Bower Jr. would be eligible for the state’s accelerated rehabilitative disposition program for first-time offenders.
Charges against Bower Jr. were filed Wednesday afternoon in District Judge Richard Kasunic II’s office near Perryopolis. He also faces summary offenses of carless driving, reckless driving and disregard of traffic lanes. No preliminary hearing date has been set for Bower, and no attorney is listed for him in online court records.
State police previously said they planned to charge Willard, 27, of Adah, with driving under the influence of a controlled substance, although no charges had been filed as of Thursday afternoon.