Wife of Utah restaurant owner accused of abusing employee arrested for alleged threats

MAPLETON, Utah — The wife of a Utah County restaurant owner accused of sexually abusing a teen employee has been arrested after police say she threatened the alleged victim.

Emily Ficklin Bowman, 42, of Spanish Fork, was charged Tuesday in 4th District Court with retaliation against a witness or victim, a third-degree felony.

Her husband, Kevin Gerald Bowman, 42, of Spanish Fork, was charged July 25 in 4th District Court with two counts of forcible sexual abuse, a second-degree felony; and lewdness, a class B misdemeanor. He is accused of being sexually inappropriate with a 16-year-old girl who was employed at the restaurant he owns in Spanish Fork.

On Saturday, police say Emily Bowman pulled up next to the girl and her mother who were stopped at a traffic signal in Mapleton and began making obscene hand gestures toward them, according to charging documents.

“(She) then rolled her window down and yelled that the daughter was (lying), that she would get what’s coming to her, and that she would kill her,” the charges state.

Investigators say Bowman followed the girl and her mother for about 2 miles into Springville before driving off. An officer later went to Bowman’s home to get her side of the story.

“I told Emily Bowman that I had heard a little bit different of a story from (the girl and her mother). Emily Bowman said that of course I did because she is a liar and made false allegations against her husband,” a police affidavit states.

When the officer attempted to read Bowman her Miranda rights before asking her more questions, she allegedly told him to just talk to her attorney and tried to go back in her home, according to the affidavit. That’s when the officer grabbed her by her wrist and arrested her.