The Region - News from Feb. 5, 1987

All but four of the 16 counts against Leroy Stowe Jr., convicted in a widely publicized Bakersfield child molesting case, were reversed by the 5th District Court of Appeal on technical grounds. The state appellate justices, one of whom observed that “a travesty of justice may have occurred,” suggested that defense attorneys try to clear Stowe entirely by means of a habeas corpus petition. That, they implied, would allow introduction of a state attorney general’s report critical of the manner in which Kern County investigators questioned children who at first said they were molested, then told stories of a satanic cult. Stowe was convicted primarily on the testimony of two children who later recounted their tales of such a cult. The cases involving Stowe’s original co-defendants were settled in Superior Court with plea bargains.