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Coach held for court in T-ball case

By Jennifer Harr 6 min read

Harry Bowers could barely see over the witness stand Thursday, so he stood, telling a packed courtroom that he was hit twice by a baseball and that his coach told him to sit out a T-ball game. His teammate Keith “Keithy” Reese Jr. testified that he threw the ball at Bowers at the behest of coach Mark Downs Jr. Reese Jr. said Downs, 27, offered him $25 to hit Bowers, a 9-year-old autistic youth who played for Downs on the Falcons, a tee-ball team in the R.W. Clark Youth League in North Union Township.

After a preliminary hearing, Magisterial District Judge Deberah L. Kula held Downs for court on charges of solicitation of aggravated assault, conspiracy to commit simple assault, corruption of minors and endangering the welfare of a child.

Reese Jr., 8, of Uniontown, testified that at the June 27 playoff game, he warmed up with Bowers “because Mark told me to.”

“He told me if I would hit Harry in the face, he would pay me $25,” Reese Jr. said.

When District Attorney Nancy D. Vernon asked him why Downs wanted Bowers to be hit, Reese Jr. said the coach wanted him out of the game.

He testified that, although he was “not very happy” about what Downs allegedly proposed, he followed his coach’s instruction and threw a ball that hopped up and hit Bowers in the groin area. Reese Jr. testified that he went to see Downs afterward.

“He told me to go out there and hit him harder,” Reese Jr. testified. “Then I threw the ball and it hit him in the ear, and Mark set Harry out of the game.”

Bowers testified that Downs told him to warm up with Reese Jr. before that game.

“I was trying to catch,” Bowers testified.

But two pitches hit him, one in the ear and the other in the groin area, he testified. When he went to his mother, crying, his coach came over too and told him to take the night off, Bowers said.

Jennifer Bowers took her son to his doctor on Friday, four days after he was hit with the baseball, she testified. The night Harry Bowers was hit, Jennifer Bowers opted to take him with the rest of the team to the Arctic Cove ice cream shop on Route 51, she said.

When defense attorney Thomas W. Shaffer asked Harry Bowers why his mother waited so long to take him to the doctor, Bowers answered simply, “I didn’t think I could get in until then.”

Jennifer Bowers testified that her son suffers from apraxia (a speech impediment), autism, mild mental retardation and poor memory. Going into fourth grade at a local elementary school, Harry Bowers attends mainstream classes, except for math and reading, his mother said.

Reese Jr. said that after the game, he told his stepmother, Darlene, what he did, and he eventually told his father, but not the same day of the game.

Reese’s father, Keith Sr., testified that his son told him the same day about throwing the ball at Harry Bowers, after they too joined the rest of the team for ice cream.

Reese Jr. testified that he asked Downs about payment then, but said the coach told him that he would give it to him during the fall baseball season. Reese Sr. said the league did not have fall ball.

After the game, Reese Sr. said, Downs asked him for help carrying equipment to his car. Downs then admitted that he “did something ignorant,” Reese Sr. testified.

“Just in case (your son) asks you about it, I told him I would give him $25 to hit Harry in the face and take him out of the game,” Reese Sr. testified that Downs told him.

By the time he and his stepmother had walked back to the field, Reese Jr. said, he had already told her about the incident. Reese Sr. testified that his wife was “very upset” and she asked Downs if it was true. Downs told her it was not, Reese Sr. testified.

“And that was five minutes after he told me (it was),” Reese Sr. testified.

Shaffer asked Reese Sr. if he told league officials that his wife’s bringing the complaint was “a misunderstanding,” but Reese Sr. testified he did not.

League president Eric Forsythe, the sole defense witness called at the hearing, testified that league officers investigated the incident the next day, prompted by a complaint from Darlene Reese.

Downs was present and was “pretty much surprised at the accusation,” Forsythe testified, noting that no one had ever lodged a complaint against Downs before.

Forsythe testified that Darlene Reese dropped the accusation that Downs had done anything wrong.

With only one game left in the season, Forsythe testified, the league opted not to suspend Downs, because officials found nothing “to find him innocent or guilty.”

Forsythe also acknowledged that he told Jennifer Bowers that if she was not satisfied with the league’s probe, she could contact state police.

During cross-examination by Shaffer, Reese Sr. said he is confident his son is telling the truth about being offered money.

“My boy don’t lie. I know what he was told,” he testified.

Reese Sr. said police made no promises of his son not being charged for throwing the pitches in exchange for his testimony.

“I know what my boy did was wrong. We’re just doing what we’re told. The truth is the truth,” he testified.

Vernon said after the hearing that authorities never had plans to charge Reese Jr.

Downs made remarks about Bowers’ tee-ball abilities in the past, Reese Sr. testified.

“He said to me in the past before that (Jennifer Bowers’) boy brings the team down,” Reese Sr. said.

He also said Downs told him that when there was a question about scheduling a playoff game this season and if Jennifer Bowers called, Reese Sr. should tell her the game was canceled.

Vernon said she was satisfied with the outcome of the hearing, and that she believes the case has generated so much attention both because it involves a coach and a disabled youth player.

Representatives from local and Pittsburgh media, as well as Sports Illustrated and Good Morning America, were at the hearing.

Shaffer said he was not surprised at Kula’s decision. And while he does not believe the Reeses or Bowers lied on the stand, “I’m saying they don’t have their facts straight,” he said.

Downs left the hearing without comment, but Shaffer said the case has taken a toll on his client.

He said Downs has been getting threatening letters from all across the country, nasty phone calls and “sneers from the public.”

“He’s very emotionally upset. He truly believes he’s done everything he can to help the child,” Shaffer said.

He said that when Bowers was unable to play some positions on the team because he had difficulty, Downs moved him around until he found a fit for him. Bowers was last playing catcher on the team, Shaffer said, because he worked out well in that position.

“Mark Downs made an active effort to help this child,” Shaffer said, noting he intended to vigorously defend against the claims in county court.

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