David Bowen, 50, of Charleston, faces felony charges of wrongful injury to timber, destruction of property and obtaining property by false pretenses for allegedly stealing timber from Coonskin Park.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — David Bowen, 50, of Charleston, faces felony charges of wrongful injury to timber, destruction of property and obtaining property by false pretenses for allegedly stealing timber from Coonskin Park.
An arrest warrant has been issued for a logger who allegedly stole timber from Coonskin Park last summer.
David Russell Bowen, 50, of Whitney Lane in Charleston, is charged with felony counts of wrongful injury to timber, destruction of property and obtaining property by false pretenses, according to a criminal complaint on file in Kanawha County Magistrate Court.
According to the criminal complaint, Bowen operated a trucking and logging business that was contracted by Kanawha County parks officials in May 2013 to remove debris and 91 logs left over from the 2012 derecho storm that swept through the area. Bowen was asked to cut another 31 trees that had sustained storm damage, the complaint says.
Bowen allegedly told parks officials it would probably cost him more to remove the logs and debris than he could make selling them, according to the complaint.
Instead of taking the 91 logs, the complaint says, Bowen allegedly took at least 1,006 logs out of the park between May and July, which he sold for more than $99,000, the complaint says.
The complaint says Bowen ended up timbering almost 39 acres of the park and cut logging roads in violation of a state timbering permit. A forestry survey conducted after the timbering operation was discovered found that Bowen allegedly damaged another 528 trees and tore up the forest…