In response to this alarming issue I took a field trip to Frank Crowley and sorted through microfilm files from an era long ago. This photo is practically me, minus the fro.
So without a crash course in legal forensics, here’s what I’ve got.
It looks like Robert Dowe Coleman’s record began in 1980 when he plead guilty to sexual abuse of a child under the age of 17. He was sentenced to 2 years in the slammer and somewhere along the way ended up doing some hard time working on a prison farm (thanks to a few antique 1980s processes it’s hard to get super clear dates but it appears he served just under a year). He got out on probation after a bunch of people wrote character reference letters to the judge. You might find the letters chilling to read in 2010 as they spotlight some twisted views of pedophiles at that time if the perp was otherwise “a good person.”
Then it looks like in 1983 his probation was revoked after he plead guitly to sexually abusing another boy under the age of 17. So Coleman returned to the slammer with a sentence of 5 years. Files are fuzzy as to how long he actually served.
Then in 2006 another male came forward alledging that he was abused by Coleman in 1996. That case was later dismissed because the victim wouldn’t testify. It appears all three of the boys were 13-15 years old at the time and have ties to the Park Cities- their names are redacted.
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UPPD was the filing agency listed on this 1983 True Bill of Indictment. So I think it’s safe to say that Coleman has been on University Park law enforcement radar for at least 27 years. But only on neighborhood radar for 2 weeks?
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