Published: Thursday, November 4, 1999
Section: LOCAL
Page#: B05
Mike Kataoka
The Press-Enterprise
RIVERSIDE
Prosecutors contended that Michael Bowers' delusions about globalgovernment and rock stars made him a dangerous man who needed to be kept offthe streets, but on Wednesday, a jury didn't buy it.

The 35-year-old Perris man, who has spent this decade in prisons andmental hospitals, will be released within five days as a result of the verdict in Riverside County Superior Court.

After deliberating part of Tuesday and much of Wednesday, the juryconcluded that Bowers is not a mentally disordered offender. An emotional Bowers embraced his attorney, Deputy Public Defender SylviaGraber-Pastrone, upon hearing the verdict that will free him.

Outside of court, jurors said prosecutor Kenneth Fernandez failed to prove Bowers poses a substantial risk of danger to others, as the law requires. Fernandez argued that Bowers' past violent history -- battery on a policeofficer in 1986 and in 1989, inflicting corporal injury on a child andresisting arrest -- makes him a future risk.

But jurors agreed that Bowers' lack of any violent episodes since he hasbeen in prisons and hospitals would suggest he isn't dangerous.

Bowers maintained that the crime that got him in trouble wasn't childabuse but the mere spanking of his then-girlfriend's child, which she blew outof proportion. After serving his prison sentence, Bowers remained locked up at AtascaderoState Hospital, where doctors diagnosed him as delusional.

In recent months, Bowers has been a patient at Patton State Hospital, andmental health experts testified that he still has delusions about playing akey role in the New World Order, the concept of global government some viewas a conspiracy. Graber-Pastrone contended to jurors that Bowers' statements may have seemed delusional but he did, in fact, work for an attorney who had access to government leaders, including presidents, and who discussed the New World Order.

And, she said, Bowers also worked as a sound technician that put him intouch with entertainers such as Mick Jagger.

Jurors said they did agree that Bowers has mental problems that requiremedication but are not serious enough to justify his continued incarceration. Bowers testified that he plans to take his medication and also attend 12-step meetings to avoid the drug and alcohol abuse that got him in troublein the first place. Graber-Pastrone expects Bowers' re-entry into society to go smoothly. "After what he's gone through, his family is going to be veryprotective," Graber-Pastrone said. Sharon Bowers said her son will live on her ranch property in Perris and perhaps work for his sister's cleaning service.

He'll need some time toadjust, however. "They didn't have scanners in stores or ATMs when he went in," she said. Had the jury found Bowers to be a mentally disordered offender, he would have remained at Patton State Hospital for another year. In a similar trial last year, a Riverside County Superior Court jury deliberated two days before finding Bowers was a mentally disordered offender.

Zone: MORENO VALLEY ; DESERT & PASS ; INLAND EMPIRE ; TEMECULA-MURRIETA ; SOUTHWEST ; CORONA-NORCO ; RIVERSIDE Notes: Also ran 11/5 in SBEV zones. Copyrigh t The Press-Enterprise Co.