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Teen Rapist’s High-Profile Lawyer Says He Violated Bond 50 Times Because He Was Depressed

As part of his “therapy,” Bowen Turner simply “needed to get out of the house just a little bit,” the state senator representing him in court told the judge.

A privileged South Carolina teen who received an astonishingly light sentence of probation after he pleaded guilty to rape, violated the terms of his house arrest while awaiting trial as many as 50 times in four months—but he only did it because he was feeling kinda down, his lawyer now claims. Bowen Turner, 19, was placed under strict home confinement by Judge George McFaddin, who specifically told him he could leave only to meet with his attorneys or for medical appointments, and that he was “not to go shopping, go to any malls, any vacations, day vacations to the beach. It’s there and back. There will be no frolicking on those trips.” Yet, Turner’s GPS monitor caught him playing golf, going shopping, and eating out. Turner’s lawyer, Democratic State Sen. Brad Hutto, tried to explain away the transgressions in an email to McFaddin, claiming, “As part of the therapy for his depression, [Turner’s] doctor told his parents that he needed to get out of the house just a little bit.”