Meridian man, a clown performer, sentenced in California for child sex assaults
A longtime Meridian resident who previously worked as a children’s entertainer was sentenced to more than 39 years in California prison following convictions on nearly two dozen counts of sexual assault of a young girl from as far back as 20 years earlier in a Sacramento suburb.
Bobbie Arthur Owen, 64, was sentenced to the prison term earlier this month by Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Deborah Lobre. A jury found him guilty in March of 22 felony charges, including lewd acts on a child, according to the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office.
For several years, Owen regularly molested the girl starting when she was 11 years old, the DA’s office said in a news release. That sexual abuse continued until she turned 18, with gaps in time when it stopped, including when Owen moved out of state for work, according to California court records. The incidents included penetration with a foreign object, oral sex and attempted sexual intercourse, the DA’s office said.
Owen had lived in Meridian since 2008, according to public records reviewed by the Idaho Statesman.
Before that, Owen lived in Sacramento for a handful of years after nearly two decades in Oregon into the early 2000s. Owen was known around Springfield and Eugene, Oregon, for performing as Boo Boo the Clown, The Register-Guard newspaper reported. Owen did so until at least 2002 and more recently worked in the Boise area as a long-haul truck driver, according to his LinkedIn page.
In August 2024, the victim, now an adult, went to Citrus Heights police in California with her allegations. She estimated that Owen’s total incidents of sexual contact numbered in the hundreds during her childhood.
Owen was confronted with the victim’s allegations in Idaho by a Citrus Heights detective in November 2024, according to court records. At that time, Owen admitted during an interview with the detective to having molested the girl for years and recounted more recent phone conversations he had with her about his past sexual abuse of her.
Immediately afterward, Boise police arrested Owen on a fugitive warrant, Idaho court records showed. He was extradited to Sacramento County in February 2025 to face the raft of charges.
A Sacramento jury convicted Owen on 22 felony counts following a three-day trial in March of this year. Judge Lobre gave him the maximum sentence.
Sacramento Bee local news editor Daniel Hunt contributed.
