By Mark Gutglueck
The ultimate impact the alcohol-related hit-and-run incident involving Ontario City Councilman Jim Bowman on Monday, July 8 will have on his political career, now in its 28th year, is unclear, and will likely be dependent upon the thoroughness of detail to be included in the police report of the matter, which has yet to be completed.
That report is to be compiled, the Sentinel has learned, by Traffic Officer Jeff Holcombe before undergoing extensive review by three command levels of the department, including Chief Mike Lorenz, before being provided to the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office, which is to make a conclusion as to whether to charge Bowman in the incident. That report in the form Holcombe provides is likely to be edited before it goes to the prosecutor’s office. Nor will the matter be considered in a vacuum prior to a recommendation being made by Supervising Deputy District Attorney Joe Gaetano as to whether Bowman’s action with regard to separate issues rose to the status of a criminal offense. It is anticipated that an attorney representing Bowman will be given the opportunity to provide the prosecutor’s office with both medical and factual detail along with video footage and other digital data Bowman and his supporters maintain indicate that what occurred late Monday afternoon was a medically-related episode that resulted in Bowman temporarily conking out behind the wheel of his pick-up truck rather than the councilman driving under the influence of alcohol.
The digital data, including that to be gleaned from his cell phone and his vehicle’s event data recorder, i.e., the pickup’s so-called “black box,” will establish that Bowman did not purposefully leave the scene of the accident, as was indicated in the citation he received after the incident and which formed the basis of media reports to the effect that he had engaged in a hit-and-run, his advocates are preparing to propound.
Already, Bowman’s supporters point out that a decision to cite release him rather than formally arrest him and book him into the custody of the sheriff after he was examined at a hospital in the immediate aftermath of the incident is an indication that there was a medical cause to what happened rather than a matter of Bowman having consumed an excessive amount of alcohol.
Nevertheless, certain known details about the mishap, taken together with Bowman’s history of alcohol-related driving offenses and the Ontario Police Department’s willingness to ignore Bowman’s tendency to frequent drinking establishments within the city and just outside city limits and then drive himself home, has created quite a stir that is likely to make any effort to minimize the seriousness of what occurred extremely problematic for both the police department and the district attorney’s office.
According to information conveyed to investigating officers in the aftermath of the incident, Bowman, who resides on Armsley Square at the north end of the city, on Monday afternoon picked his girlfriend, who lives in the section of Ontario south of Mission Boulevard, up and drove her to the Colonies Crossroads commercial center in Upland located off of Campus Avenue where they had a late lunch and shopped at the Target department store. With groceries, including perishables, in the truck’s rear seat compartment, Bowman drove the black pickup back to Ontario, headed south on Euclid Avenue. As they approached Mission Boulevard, Bowman, driving in the middle southbound lane, apparently lost consciousness and his truck hit an Ikea driven by Danie Jawad, who was likewise headed south in the middle lane of the three southbound lanes. The impact whiplashed Jawad and broke her wrist, as she was gripping the Ikea’s steering wheel. A four-second duration of footage from a security video shot from within a nearby business at the corner of California Street and Euclid Avenue just north of the intersection of Euclid Avenue and Mission Boulevard obtained by the Sentinel shows Bowman’s truck flush against the back of Jawad’s blue Ikea, as the Ikea’s brakes are locked up and audibly squealing, while Bowman’s truck, with its wheel’s rolling, is pushing the Ikea at what appears to be at or slightly exceeding 30 miles per hour. Bowman is not easily visible as the driver of the truck, nor can his passenger be readily discerned. Throughout the relevant four seconds of the video, both vehicles remain, remarkably, on a straight course in the middle of the middle lane and do not appear to be drifting right or left, fortuitously, as vehicles can be seen stopping and lining up in the left turn lane at Euclid and Mission just to the left of Bowman’s pickup. The Sentinel shared the video with seven others, all of whom were left with the impression that the driver of the pickup was oblivious to what was occurring, which logically implies that the driver, i.e., Bowman, had lost consciousness at that point.
At 5:05 p.m., Ontario’s emergency dispatch center received the last of multiple 9-1-1 calls, reporting a traffic accident in the area of Euclid Avenue and Mission Boulevard. Those witnesses consistently stated that two vehicles were involved and that one had left the scene of the accident.
At some point after clearing the Euclid/Mission intersection, Bowman’s truck uncoupled from the Ikea. The Ikea at that point pulled to the side of the road while Bowman’s pickup continued south on Euclid slightly more than seven-tenths of a mile, at which point he turned west on Locust Street. After moving down the road roughly 500 feet, he pulled over near Laurel Avenue. It was there, at 5:06 p.m., according to the department that Bowman, whom the department described as “the involved party who reportedly left the scene,” made a 9-1-1 call received by the Ontario emergency dispatch center. “The caller requested police aid,” according to the department, correctly identifying his location as “in the area of Locust Street and Laurel Avenue.”
In short order, first one and then two Ontario patrol cars had responded to the location of the Ikea near Euclid and Mission. In less than 15 minutes first two and then a third Ontario Police patrol car, including a traffic investigator, contact Bowman at the Locust and Laurel location. It was at that point that Bowman was identified.
The officers examined Bowman, who was disoriented and unsteady, and his vehicle.
Based on one of the officers’ exchange with Bowman’s girlfriend, they determined that Bowman’s truck had rear-ended the Ikea, which remained at the side of the road near the Euclid and Mission intersection, where other units of the department were engaged.
Shortly after the third officer arrived at around 5:21 p.m., an attorney who had been called by Bowman, arrived at the Locust and Laurel location.
The officers attending Bowman at that point administered at least one and perhaps two field sobriety checks, using one or perhaps two breathalyzers. The Sentinel is informed that one of the surveys gave an indication that Bowman had an 0.054 blood alcohol content and the other showed he had an 0.05 blood alcohol content, both below the California intoxication threshold of 0.80.
According to the department, the traffic investigator “began a thorough investigation of the incident. Councilman Bowman was determined to be at fault, and was placed under arrest.”
Nevertheless, the breathalyzers’ charting of Bowman’s blood alcohol level as at an intensity well below the level legally designated as, and normally considered to be the point of human intoxication, was taken as an indication that Bowman’s disorientation was most likely not alcohol-induced. This prompted a decision to transport him to Kaiser Hospital, on Vineyard Avenue north of the 60 Freeway, where he was examined in the emergency room for stroke, seizure or a cardiac episode. Coincidentally, Jawad, too had been transported to Ontario Kaiser Hospital, where she was examined and treated for what was variously described as a broken arm or fractured wrist.
While Bowman was cited for driving under the influence and leaving the scene of an accident, there was a sufficient degree of ambiguity with regard to what had triggered the accident and his immediately subsequent behavior, with the suggestion that Bowman’s loss of consciousness/gross inattention behind the wheel was as likely to have been medically-related than triggered by excessive alcohol consumption. Consequently, pursuant to Penal Code § 849(b)1, he was cite-released from the hospital rather than booked into West Valley Detention Center.
Penal Code § 849(b)1 allows a police officer to cite release an arrested person from custody if the officer has grounds to believe that there might be insufficient facts to support a criminal complaint against the arrestee.
According to information obtained by the Sentinel, Bowman, who was initially at the scene of the arrest incoherent and disoriented, grew gradually more lucid after being transported to the hospital, where he was examined within that facility’s emergency ward.
There, he told the police officers and medical personnel that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease more than two years ago, for which he had been prescribed medication. Recently, within the last two to three weeks, Bowman told the investigators and hospital personnel, his physician had increased the dosage of his Parkinson’s medication. Further, Bowman described having utilized the over-the-counter medication NyQuil earlier that day because he had caught a cold.
NyQuil’s active ingredients consist of 10 percent alcohol; 15 milligrams per 15 milliliters of the cough suppressant Dextromethorphan; 12.5 milligrams per 30 milliliters of the antihistamine/hypnotic Doxylamine succinate; and 10 milligrams per 30 milliliters of the nasal decongestant Phenylephrine.
Bowman also acknowledged having drunk a single 12-ounce beer during his lunch with his girlfriend that afternoon.
Bowman’s girlfriend had called Uber to make her way home from the Locust and Laurel location. Bowman’s attorney had driven to Kaiser Hospital and was present during his examination by the emergency room personnel and physicians and his questioning by the police officers and investigators.
The entirety of the circumstance, including his existing medical condition, his use that day of both his prescription and non-prescription medication, his loss of consciousness and the consideration that his blood alcohol level did not exceed the legal limit constituted a reason to release Bowman at that point into the custody of his attorney.
Still, according to the police department, “Councilman Bowman remains under investigation for being in violation of VCV 23153[G] – driving under the influence and VC 20001[A] hit and run with injuries. The case will be submitted to the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office for independent review.
According to his defenders, the incident can best be described as a physiological reaction to the increase in his prescription medication coupled with use of a non-prescription medication in conjunction with the beer. The fact that his blood alcohol level was below the legal threshold for intoxication as defined by Vehicle Code § 23152(a), which makes it “unlawful for a person who is under the influence of any alcoholic beverage to drive a vehicle.” Under Vehicle Code § 23152(b), “It is unlawful for a person who has 0.08 percent or more, by weight, of alcohol in his or her blood to drive a vehicle.”
In this way, according to Bowman’s defenders, he was not driving while intoxicated or under the influence. Furthermore, they say, his rear-ending of Jawad’s Ikea came about as a direct consequence of his medical episode, which included his having blacked out. Bowman’s having continued driving away from the scene of the accident occurred, they said, because he did not realize what had taken place. That he had himself phoned 9-1-1 from the Locust and Laurel location after he regained consciousness and was told by his girlfriend about the collision demonstrated he had no intent to flee the scene of the accident. This was consistent, they said, with his statements to the police officers that he had no recollection of the accident.
For some, that narrative is too convenient and not in keeping with elements of the accident. That Bowman lost consciousness prior to and throughout the accident, which included the front of his pickup truck being in contact with the back of Jawad’s vehicle for a duration of more than 20 seconds during which his truck was propelling the Ikea forward for more than a sixteenth of a mile without either the truck or the car coming into contact with another vehicle, a curb or a number of structures surrounding the roadway seems extraordinary if not altogether unlikely. Similarly, the assertion that Bowman remained unconscious throughout the ordeal does not satisfactorily explain how he was able to uncouple the front of his truck from the back end of Jawar’s car and then maneuver around it to continue southward on Euclid, all the while managing to avoid coming into contact with any other vehicles, the curb or surrounding objects.
It has been known generally and specifically around Ontario for decades that Bowman has had recurrent, indeed consistent, issues with alcohol. He was displaced from his position as fire marshal with the Foothill Fire District in the 1980s when he was arrested for driving under the influence in a Foothill Fire District vehicle in Huntington Beach, 56 miles outside the boundary of the Foothill Fire District. As a consequence of that incident, Bowman left the employ of the Foothill Fire District and was hired by the Ontario Fire Department, which necessitated that he leave the Ontario City Council, to which he had first been elected in 1986. Subsequently, Bowman rose through the ranks with the fire department, and in 1990, again ran for the Ontario City Council. Under California law, an elected official with a city or public agency cannot be hired into a staff position with the entity he/she oversees in his/her elected capacity. But because, presumably, voters know or at least have the opportunity to know how a candidate for office is employed, a city or public agency employee can run for elective office overseeing the city or agency that employs him/her. Bowman was successful in his 1990 run for the Ontario City Council and was reelected in 1994. In 1998, he opted out of running again for the council when he accepted a promotion to fire chief. In 2003, while he was yet serving in the capacity of Ontario fire chief, he was arrested in Upland and charged with driving under the influence.
In 2004, he retired from the Ontario Fire Department after 35-and-a-half years as firefighter. He subsequently accepted a year-long assignment to serve as Upland’s interim fire chief.
In 2006, he again returned to politics, and was elected to his third stint as an Ontario councilman. He was reelected in 2010, 2014, 2018 and 2022.
Throughout his current tenure as councilman, Bowman has been seen in public in Ontario at various venues consuming alcohol in substantial quantities. One of his favorite haunts until it closed a few years ago was Wingnuts, a combination restaurant/bar formerly located at 1520 North Mountain Avenue. Bowman was frequently seen there, on occasion so intoxicated that he was staggering when on his feet. Wingnuts provided him with the advantage of being located immediately proximate to Sixth Street, onto which he was able to turn directly from that establishment’s parking lot and then travel eastward for just over three-quarters of a mile, followed by two quick turns to arrive at his home. There have been reports that on multiple occasions within the City of Ontario over the last two decades Bowman has been stopped by Ontario police officers when he was behind the wheel in a state of inebriation and that the officers opted to take him home without effectuating his arrest.
In the immediate aftermath of what had occurred Monday, the Ontario Police Department appeared to be attempting to keep word of and information about Bowman’s arrest under wraps. The department on Tuesday and Wednesday stonewalled the Sentinel’s efforts to confirm a report it had received that Bowman was involved in an alcohol-related hit and run. While it confirmed that a traffic accident had taken place near Euclid and Mission, it would provide no detail as to the parties involved. Informed by a reliable source that an arrest had indeed been made, the Sentinel redoubled its efforts to obtain documentation to that effect but was rebuffed.
One individual with the city stated that he had strong suspicions that the documentation relating to the incident is being purposefully withheld. The Sentinel was told that other news organizations initially experienced similar responses, but that after the sheer number of inquiries mounted, a command decision was made within the department to disclose what had occurred.
It was bruited about the Ontario community that within the police department, with regard to the Bowman incident, there had developed a sharp divide among the officers who were cognizant of Monday’s event. According to that account, the city’s higher-ups had sought to minimize the matter and the department’s officers were pressured to bury the matter as deep as it could be buried. It was related that some or even a majority of the department’s officers were on board with doing just that, as they recognize that by acceding to the preference of the controlling majority of the city council and the senior echelon of city administration, the city’s police officers would remain in the vaunted position of being employed by the best paid law enforcement agency in San Bernardino County, in which positions they were to get along by going along. Nevertheless, the Sentinel was informed, a few “Pollyanna” types within the department felt Councilman Bowman should be held accountable for what he had done, despite his powerful position and political primacy in Ontario. They, it was said, wanted the department to follow through on having him answer for having engaged in a hit-and-run in which Jawad was injured. As a consequence, it was said, some degree of unrest/distrust had developed within the police department.
Neither Ontario City Manager Scott Ochoa nor Bowman responded to email and telephone inquiries relating to the matter. Mayor Paul Leon did respond to say that he had been provided with no information about the incident, but said he had been kept in the dark because he was undergoing medical treatment at the time and for that reason was not in contact with city officials and Ochoa in particular.
It was conveyed to the Sentinel that city officials want to prevent Jawad’s attorney, Armand D. Thurston, from obtaining information about the active or passive efforts of the Ontario Police Department in recent years to allow Bowman to drive while intoxicated on the city’s streets, as establishing this pattern of conduct could intensify the city’s liability in relation to any legal action she is to take regarding her injury.
Councilwoman Debra Dorst-Porada, who has been on the council since 2008 and has proven out to be Bowman’s most loyal ally on the council as well as one of his closest friends, rallied to his defense in the aftermath of his arrest. Her effort on his behalf, however, was highly problematic, as it lacked credibility and plausibility. She maintained that the accident was caused by the brakes on Bowman’s pickup locking up. In actuality, the video of the accident establishes, it was Jawad’s Ikea’s brakes that appeared to be locked up. Rather, if anything mechanism on Bowman’s pickup was malfunctioning, it would appear to have been his accelerator, as the pickup was positioned behind the Ikea.
Thursday morning July 11 at 9:35 a.m. Ontario Police Chief Mike Lorenz responded to a previous Sentinel email. “To address your specific questions would be difficult at this time as this is an ongoing investigation,” Lorenz wrote. The public position someone may hold has no bearing on this or any of our investigations.”
Lorenz added, “Ontario PD is not split about this incident because our officers did their job. They did their job professionally, with care and compassion for all parties involved and will submit a thorough and complete investigation to the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office for review.”
Later that day, the police department put out a press release about the incident.
As to the prospect that the police department’s accident report will contain data and the basis for the district attorney’s office to opt out of charging Bowman, a key factor with regard to the impaired driving issue is the precise driving while intoxicated or driving under the influence statute to be utilized. Under Vehicle Code § 23152(b), blood alcohol content of 0.08 is the legal threshold, which Bowman reportedly did not meet, as his blood alcohol content was a mere 0.05 or 0.054.
Under Vehicle Code § 25153(a): “It is unlawful for a person, while under the influence of any alcoholic beverage, to drive a vehicle and concurrently do any act forbidden by law, or neglect any duty imposed by law in driving the vehicle, which act or neglect proximately causes bodily injury to any person other than the driver.”
A strict application of Vehicle Code § 25153(a) would thus appear to hem Bowman in. At issue is whether the district attorney’s office would, in its discretion, not apply it.
The elements of a Vehicle Code § 20002 hit and run offense, extend to an offender being 1) involved in a vehicle accident while driving; 2) causing the death or serious injury to another; 3) the offender knowing he or she had been involved in an accident that injured another; and 4) the defendant willfully failing stop immediately at the scene and failing to show identifying information to another person at the scene or police officer as well as failing to provide reasonable assistance to any person injured in the accident.
Bowman’s legal team has virtually no prospect of establishing the first two elements of the crime do not apply to his action/conduct on July 8. It is anticipated that his legal team will seek to demonstrate that as a consequence of his having blacked out behind the wheel, Bowman was not cognizant of having slammed into Jawad’s Ikea or that he had injured her. Such a contention might prove problematic for the defense, given that Bowman in very short order was able to take control of the vehicle, disengage from the back of Jawad’s car and then drive away from the scene. With regard to the fourth element, it is without dispute that Bowman failed to stop at the scene and that he did not render assistance to Jawad. His attorney will doubtless maintain that after he was contacted by the police in the vicinity of Locust and Laurel, he did provide his identifying information. His legal team will also likely assert that his driving away from the scene of the collision, given his dazed state, was not a deliberate effort to flee the scene of the accident.
The manner in which Bowman’s status as a councilman and high ranking fire department official has resulted in tolerance of his alcohol use by local government was noted by multiple community activists. This extended primarily to his positions in Ontario, but did go beyond that city. Bowman’s arrest in Upland for impaired driving in 2003 did not prevent the Upland City Council, then headed by Upland Mayor John Pomierski, to hire him as the City of Gracious Living’s acting fire chief.
The League of Latin American Citizens Ontario chapter enunciated its members’ concerns about “preferential treatment” being extended to Bowman on the basis of his elected status. “Jim Bowman should be held to account as would be any other resident of Ontario, the organization stated. “The should be applied equally to all.”
Ontario residents have approached the organization Mothers Against Drunk Driving to ask that it lend its prestige to an effort to force Bowman’s resignation from office.
Ontario spokesman Dan Bell refused to be drawn into a discussion of what action the city would take with regard to Bowman’s continuing tenure on the city council.