PEMBERTON PARK Seasonal worker did not disclose all criminal convictions

The park employee remains jailed pending a probation violation hearing.
By PATRICIA MEADE
VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- A seasonal park employee charged with theft in office neglected to list his complete criminal background -- such as child endangering -- on his job application.
James T. Bowers, who lists addresses on Delaware and Hudson avenues, is charged with making more than $425 in calls in April and May to a dating service from a phone at Pemberton Park. The case was bound over from municipal court to a Mahoning County grand jury June 16.
Bowers, 25, remains in the Mahoning County jail pending a probation violation hearing July 7 in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court that was triggered by the theft charge. He received three years' probation in September 2005 after pleading guilty the month before to three amended counts of attempted endangering of children.
In March 2005, a grand jury indicted Bowers on three counts of endangering children. He failed to appear for arraignment and a warrant was issued. He was apprehended May 25, 2005, records show.
On July 27, 2005, Bowers applied for seasonal employment with the park department and listed his address as Magnolia Avenue.
The park application asks for convictions other than minor traffic violations. Bowers wrote "possession of criminal tools" but no date or disposition. He noted no other convictions.
Records show that in January 2002 Bowers was convicted of domestic violence and endangering children in Girard. He was fined and placed on one year's probation. He also received probation in May 1998 on a theft conviction, records show.
The park application doesn't ask "are you currently under indictment," which was the case with Bowers. At the time, the three endangering children charges from the 2005 indictment were pending in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
Joseph R. McRae, park director, said Bowers is no longer employed by the park department. He was employed in July 2005 and then, after the standard 500 hours of seasonal work, laid off until this spring, the park director said.
McRae said it is his understanding that criminal background checks are conducted only if the applicant will be working around children. He said because Bowers was a laborer at the ballpark, his criminal background wasn't checked.
The child-endangering case, meanwhile, was investigated by Detectives Chuck Emery and Martin Marsico with the Mahoning County Sheriff's Department. In late February 2005, the detectives, accompanied by a Mahoning County Children Services Board case worker, visited the Delaware Avenue home where Bowers, his girlfriend and their three children lived, records show.
The investigators had been advised by the case worker that the electricity and water had been shut off at the house. The investigators said they didn't find anyone home, but they did find the place in deplorable condition, with two dogs that had not been let out to defecate. The dogs had dry food but no water, and detectives arranged to have them rescued from the unoccupied house.
Bowers, his girlfriend and the children were then found living at a house on Magnolia Avenue, which detectives also described as deplorable.
Aside from endangering children, Bowers was charged with animal cruelty but those charges were dismissed, records show.
meade@vindy.com