Olmsted judge rules on motions to suppress evidence in Bowman poisoning case
Connor Bowman / Olmsted County ADC
(ABC News) – An Olmsted County judge made several decisions about the use of evidence in a murder suspect’s trial late last week.
Former Mayo Clinic doctor Connor Bowman is accused of the premeditated poisoning and murder of his wife, pharmacist Betty Bowman, in August of 2023.
A Minnesota grand jury helped to charge Bowman with 1st-degree murder in January.
RELATED: Neighbors of Mayo doctor react to murder charge – ABC 6 News – kaaltv.com
On June 6, Bowman’s defense filed 12 motions –detailed throughout this article — to suppress evidence in the 1st-degree murder case, as well as a 13th motion to dismiss the former Mayo doctor’s 1st-degree murder indictment.
Multiple motions claimed officers violated Minnesota’s privacy standards regarding health records, or the court failed to protect patients’ medical information during the investigation.
Those related to search warrants also argue that law enforcement’s search warrants were too broad and did not specify a particular crime officers were investigating.
On Oct. 21, judge Kathy Wallace made several rulings about the motions to suppress evidence.
Wallace ruled that motions to suppress based on failure to state a crime in motions 1-5 and 10-11 were denied.
- Motion 1: Request to suppress (remove from use at trial) all evidence located in a search of the Bowman residence on Sandy Beach Lane, as well associated vehicles, in an attempt to locate toxic or poisonous substances.
- Motion 2: Request to suppress all evidence found in a search of Mayo Clinic, including Bowman’s medical record access logs, internet use, and internal investigation notes.
- Motion 3: Request to suppress all evidence provided by the University of Kansas in regards to Connor Bowman’s work as a poison specialist, including web browsing history, emails, queries directed to Bowman, and records detailing Bowman’s university-issued electronics.
- Motion 4: Request to suppress evidence from various electronics seized from the Bowman residence, including but not limited to: Connor Bowman’s University of Kansas work laptops, Betty Bowman’s iPhone and MacBook, several other laptops and iPhones, a smart watch, and multiple jump- and hard-drives.
- Motion 5: Request to suppress Mayo Clinic information about Betty Bowman’s treatment and death, follow-up notes about her illness and suspected cause of death, and details of her life insurance policies and payout.
- Motion 10: Request to suppress further evidence from University of Kansas work laptops.
- Motion 11: Request to suppress Mayo Clinic information about Connor Bowman’s employment, personnel file, emails sent and received by Bowman, and disciplinary records/notes.
She also denied arguments that Bowman had an expectation of privacy, which would keep law enforcement from accessing his electronics, in motions 2, 3, 5, 10, and 11 — which involved records from the former doctor’s workplaces
Motion 9, involving Bowman’s alleged purchase of colchicine, the gout medication that killed Betty Bowman, may have violated Connor Bowman’s privacy, Wallace ruled.
- Motion 9: Request to suppress evidence provided by Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drugs and Truepill.
That motion may still be challenged ahead of trial.
Wallace also ruled that while law enforcement had the right to search Connor Bowman’s University of Kansas laptop — where they allegedly found evidence of searches about fatal doses of colchicine for a woman Betty Bowman’s size — they may have invaded Bowman’s privacy in searching many other electronics in motion 4.
Wallace did not make a ruling about whether or not motions 1-5 and 10-11 involved search warrants that were sufficiently detailed.
She requested that Bowman’s defense and prosecution file new arguments by Nov. 27 about whether or not several warrants (1, 4, 7, 8, 9) allowed “exploratory rummaging” and/or violated medical privilege.
- Motion 7: Request to suppress information from Bowman’s Apple, Meta, and Bumble accounts.
- Motion 8: Request to suppress evidence from search of Connor Bowman’s iPhone.
The following motions were not addressed in Wallace’s Oct. 21 order.
- Motion 6: Request to suppress all evidence located in a second search of the Bowman residence on Sandy Beach Lane, as well associated vehicles, in a search for colchicine, purchase orders or receipts, and financial information about the Bowmans.
- Motion 12: Request to suppress financial information from U.S. and Emprise Banks.
- Motion 13: Motion to dismiss Bowman’s 1st-degree murder indictment.