Youth baseball coach gets prison sentence
October 12, 2006 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
Mark R. Downs, Jr., of Dunbar (PA) was sentenced today to one to six years in prison. Downs is the youth baseball coach who offered to pay one of his players $25.00 to hit another player, then-9-years-old Harry Bowers, who is autistic, with a ball while warming up before a June 2005 game. Downs was sentenced to consecutive six-to-36-month sentences for “corruption of minors and criminal solicitation to commit simple assault,” as reported in today’s FoxNews.com.
As reported in today’s CBSNews.com:
“These acts are extremely outrageous and extremely reprehensible since the defendant was involved in the coaching of a youth league,” [Fayette County Judge Ralph ]Warman said.
Bowers’ mother, Jennifer Bowers, said Thursday that since her son was hit, she has struggled to get him to try new activities. She said the boy fears that he would get hurt again.
I am not sure if anyone “wins” in this case.
Maybe whenever this jerk comes up for parole, the parole board needs to be reminded that this poor kid is terrified to try new things because he’s afraid he’s going to get hurt again.
Keep him in prison allll 6 years.
-mean mean Rettdevil
The reference in this article was one of the first I’ve seen what happened to the child who was injured. More attention had been given to the (former) coach, wrongly.
this is the league office contact info
R W Clark Youth Baseball Lg
724-438-2950, 16 Ash Rd, Uniontown, PA 15401
However long he stays in prison, he’d better not be let around children. Sickening.
What a jerk, good thing it wasn’t my kid or *I* would be going to jail for 1-6 for making sure this moron got hit good upside the head.