This is truly one of the more disturbing and bizarre criminal cases of the year. Kathy Rowe, 53, was shouldering a huge load with a severely disabled daughter and ill husband. She not only worked full time but slept in a chair in her daughter’s room every night. She was such an extraordinary mother that, in 2006, was picked as one of San Diego’s 50 best moms and mother of the year in 2007. She is now looking at jail time for how she decided to get a house that she felt was meant for her family.
When a house opened up in the Carmel Valley neighborhood that she loved, she quickly visited it and found it had all of the elements that she wanted: single story, private garden, and even a pool. The problem is that another couple bought the house. Rowe offered the couple $100,000 more than the $779,000 they paid, but the Rices never responded. Most would leave it there but Rowe was a woman on a mission. She started to carry out a series of dangerous pranks to drive the Rice family from the home.
Jerald Rice discovered that his wife, Janice Ruhter, had been listed with her address and photograph on an Internet sex site. Rowe pretended to be Ruhter and told men: “Adult entertainment of all types when my husband is not home,” the ads said. “Not for the faint of heart. Come see me during the day while my husband is at work and we can get our freak on.”
Men started to appear at the house and it was discovered later that Rowe was pretending to be Rice and enticing them. “Just stop by any Monday-Friday 9am-3pm” she wrote, “I like the element of surprise.” When one man asked for an address, Rowe gave him the Rice’s address. The man spotted Rice but Rowe told him not to worry. “Once in a while my husband drops by during the day to see if he can catch me in the act. He knows about my men…. Are you into threesomes?” She also reportedly stopped the mail of the Rice family around Christmas and ordered a torrent of books and magazines to be delivered.
Thousands of items were ordered in their name. Then someone sent Valentine’s Day cards to the couple’s female neighbors. One husband confronted Rice with a card reading “Thinking of you.”
The FBI finally interviewed Rowe — just one year after she lost the house bid. She finally admitted to the pranks, though “pranks” hardly capture the act of sending strange men to a woman’s home during the day. She told one man that “I love to be surprised and have a man just show up at the door and force his way in the door on me, totally taking me while I say no.” She added that she particularly liked anal sex and sent the man a picture of Ruhter.
Rowe apologized to Rice and Ruhter and reached a confidential, out-of-court financial settlement. She still faced two felony counts of solicitation of rape and sodomy and misdemeanor counts of harassment and using another’s personal information. After a trial judge threw out the solicitation charges (on the controversial notion that the email exchanges were for consensual sex), an appeals court reinstated the charges.
Rowe is fighting to stay out of jail pending trial on the grounds that if she goes to prison, there will be no one to take care of her cancer-stricken husband and her daughter.
Truly a sad story.
Source: LA Times
Nick – entitlement could explain it. Feeling like she wasn’t getting what she deserved, and then finally reaching her threshold to act.
Sad.
It sounds like she just completely lost it. So sad.
Paul – I agree that she needs to be evaluated. Sounds completely irrational, and a danger to everyone. I do think she knew it was wrong, though. But I see someone burning the candle at both ends and then acting like a savage, and just hope we can figure out what the heck happened.
Pogo – I also agree that these were vicious acts, and would not want her to use a false insanity plea to get off. Even if she had some sort of mental breakdown, she’s still responsible because she retained her sense of right and wrong. I believe that trying to hide her involvement shows she knew it was wrong.
I agree with Darren that she might no longer be competent or safe to care for her family.
I could NOT believe the original judge threw out the solicitation of rape charge because the email exchanges were for consensual sex. What the heck? Obviously even though the men thought this was consensual, the woman was not a willing party. It would have been a rape. I also think she was soliciting a assault, sending “Thinking of you” cards to women knowing their husbands would find them.
And here’s the problem – what if those horrible ads got shared, and men continue to show up? What a frightening case.
She was enticing to potentially have her neighbor raped. Not funny, not worthy of humor but dangerous and sick. If she was psychiatrically impaired I would think she would not have been able to be so logical and organized in how she went about this.
“This is a civil matter, not a criminal matter.”
Would your opinion change if one or some of the men had decided to break into the home and sodomize the woman? What if one of the women who received bogus cards, had a husband who was jealous angry and did something violet towards the innocent victim/husband?
Inciting and soliciting harm, physical [rape] or financial [robbery or arson], against another person is a crime.
While I think that the woman who instigated this is likely insane or on the verge of it…. but that isn’t any excuse. like Nick, my first thought was the entitlement mentality that is rotting our country..
“I want this stuff. I didn’t earn it or I didn’t get it through some circumstances beyond my control. But I WANT it. I deserve it. You owe it to me. Therefore I am entitled to get this stuff. I don’t care how I get it. I don’t care who I hurt to get it. I don’t care if other people are made to work and robbed so that I can have it. It is mine, Mine…MINE. You must give it to me or I will take it by any means possible. Even if that means harming directly other people, stealing it or robbing others to get it. I AM ENTITLED to what I want.”
The same entitlement that caused this woman to try to have harm caused to the family that got ‘her’ house, is the one that causes the young nephew or niece to kill Grampa and Grandma. The old farts are using up :”their” inheritance by continuing to inconveniently live. So…..we off Granny before she can use up OUR money that we are entitled to get. We hire rapists to scare people out of their homes. Entitled.
I hope she does go to jail for a very long time and her family finds a more stable and sane caregiver.
Nick ~ Without sounding too philosophical, I’m reminded of the quotation that says: “We don’t’ see things as they are–we see them as we are.”
paulette, Investigated a few scammers that fit this profile and read about many more. How about I change my qualifier to some times instead of “often times?” I see things as they are, that is my profession.
Nick ~
“Often times people w/ disabled children have a certain air of entitlement.”
If I agreed with you we’d both be wrong.
Often times people w/ disabled children have a certain air of entitlement. They carry a daily burden. To be “Mom of the year” you have to do some politicking, hoping for sympathy and remuneration. I don’t think this woman is crazy, just very entitled.
Kathy J. Rowe, 52, faces solicitation for rape, solicitation for sodomy and stalking charges, among other counts.”
“…The justices noted that the evidence in this case “… creates a reasonable inference Rowe intended the men to take indecent liberties with, lay hold of, or kiss the victim against her will when they made contact with the victim.”
…She told at least one man, who responded with a naked picture of himself, to ‘just stop by any Monday-Friday 9am-3pm,’ and sent him an image of the victim, which she took from a social media website.
…When one of the men actually went to the house, but found a locked gate, Rowe wrote him back and encouraged him to try again, court records show. The man did later that day, but was surprised when the husband answered the door.
…included listing the victim’s home for sale; putting a hold on her family’s mail; having over $1,000 worth of unsolicited magazines, books, and junk mail sent to the home; sending Valentine’s Day cards from the victim’s husband to the wives of the victim’s neighbors; having a county assessor’s office employee contact the victim and her husband about reassessing their home; having members of religious groups visit the home; posting an online announcement for a teenage party at the home; and posting an online announcement for a free fireworks giveaway at the home on Independence Day.”
Calling her ‘crazy’ is a convenient excuse.
What she did was evil.
It seems to me that females who want to stand in and bark at others, in your name, are common. We have a dog in our dog pack who chimes in here on the blog in my name. I am working on the Dogalogue Machine today so that when she chimes in, her name will appear at the heading of the comment and not my name.
This seems to far over the edge for this woman to be considered completely sane. I hope the judge is getting her a psych evaluation before sentencing.
Kathy Rowe — a former county employee, also lost her job. Had extra time on her hands to go on a revenge attack + $779,000 + another $100,000 to out bid the offer?
The out-of-court financial settlement with the Rices….I’m guessing, $100,000?
Being a carer can drive people over the edge. But the story is strange. She had enough money to pay for help.
This woman was willing it seems to allow another women to be raped as a result of her “prank”. I don’t see this as a civil matter it is a criminal one.
BarkinDog here: itchinBayDog gets to use my Dogalogue Machine but she is not me. See above comment. That was her bark, not mine.
itchinBayDog here: She is being prosecuted for being a prangster. A prangster is not a gangster. Wacko maybe. Take away her computer privileges and have an ankle bracelet on her typing fingers. This is a civil matter, not a criminal matter.
She needs a psychiatric examination. This is due to a post traumatic stress. She has PTSD. She needs some time off for good behavior. Bottom line here is that she probably wants to get some sex herself. Send her to Amsterdam for therapy.
I wonder how the court is going to measure her suitability to care for her family after incidents such as these.
Lmao…. But…she’s pretty nutty…. Sounds like the movie I think called Pacific Heights or the tenant…..