Austrailian Man Charged in Fatal Hit-and-run

Rick Patterson

Attorney

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Prosecutors charged an Australian businessman with a felony hit-and-run charge in connection with the death of a 21-year-old woman who was struck and killed by the driver of a Bentley last week in West Hollywood, a spokeswoman for the L.A. County district attorney's office said Monday.

Ryan Bowman, 43, was released from custody Monday afternoon after posting $50,000 bail, which had been reduced from $2 million. Bowman did not enter a plea to the hit-and-run charge put forward by prosecutors. He is scheduled to return Jan. 4 to Beverly Hills Superior Court.]

Bowman was behind the wheel of a Bentley that slammed into Lauren Ann Freeman as she was in the crosswalk at Hammond Street about 11:50 p.m. Wednesday, authorities said. Freeman's body was thrown about 50 feet.

Sheriff's investigators said Bowman sped away in the car, and that debris found at the scene suggested that the vehicle could have been a dark-colored Bentley. Investigators said they found a Bentley abandoned in a residential neighborhood near the intersection of Melrose Avenue and La Cienega Boulevard, about 1 1/2 miles from the incident.

Bowman is a director of Zeal Entertainment, a Sydney Australia based company that provides content licensing agreements for mobile phone companies. The company owns the rights to "Girls Gone Wild" for Australia.

John Nazarian, a Beverly Hills private detective who is representing Freeman's family, said the woman left the concert early because she had to get up early for an internship.