Girl’s Alleged Attacker Was Freed in ’88 Rape : Suspect, With History of Sex-Assault Arrests, Acquitted After Genetic Evidence Was Barred

Kyle Joseph Borges, the transient construction worker accused in the kidnap and rape of a 12-year-old Huntington Beach girl, has a lengthy record of arrests on sexual assault charges and was acquitted in April after a controversial trial on charges that he raped an Anaheim Hills woman.

Borges’ arrest on Tuesday prompted prosecutors to contend that he had gone free earkuer because a laboratory backlog prevented them from offering new genetic evidence that they believe directly linked him to that crime.

It was a “tragic miscarriage of justice,” one prosecutor said at the time.

But the public defender who represented Borges only scoffed, saying that prosecutors failed to make their case and are now trying to shift the blame. He pointed out that the kind of genetic evidence in question is so new that the court might not have allowed it anyway.

“The jury was unanimous--they said, ‘This is not the guy,’ ” recalled Deputy Public Defender Lewis Clapp. “I think there were really some sour grapes over this case.”

Borges, 29 and now facing the prospect of another rape trial, grew up in a middle-class neighborhood on Bergh Drive in Anaheim. Neighbors said he lived there on and off with his mother until she sold their $150,000 house two years ago and moved to St. George, Utah.

His background includes a lengthy police record dating back to April 31, 1974. Court records show that he was arrested on that date as a juvenile on a charge of assault with intent to commit rape. According to court documents, he was released into the custody of his parents.

On Feb. 22, 1978, Newport Beach police arrested Borges on suspicion of possessing marijuana or hashish for sale. Court records do not show how the arrest was resolved.

Ten years later, he was convicted in Orange County on a misdemeanor charge of forging or altering a vehicle registration and placed on probation.

And on Aug. 17, 1988, he was arrested in San Diego County on suspicion of oral copulation with a person under the age of 14. There is no record of criminal charges being filed, however.

At the time of his San Diego arrest, Borges was employed as a laborer for Clayton Engineering in Laguna Hills. He left that job at the end of August after working on the Sea Cliff on the Greens development, an exclusive, gated community near Palm Avenue and Golden West Street in Huntington Beach, where the abduction of the 12-year-old occurred.

Called Good Employee

Fellow construction workers described Borges as a good employee, who was given a second chance on the job after he was acquitted of the Anaheim rape charge this spring.

Borges had lived with his fiancee at the Ponderosa Trailer Park in Anaheim, but broke up with her during the case in April, according to interviews with co-workers and former neighbors. After that, they said, he lived with friends or out of his pickup truck.

“If you met him you’d never suspect anything, which is kind of frightening for someone when you work next to the guy,” said one co-worker, who spoke on the condition that he not be identified.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Ariadne Symons said she intends to file burglary, rape and kidnaping charges against Borges today in West Orange County Municipal Court, where he is scheduled to be arraigned. Borges is being held in Huntington Beach City Jail in lieu of $1 million bail.

“We are confident we have the right man,” Symons said.

Borges is suspected of carrying the 80-pound girl from her home in the 6000 block of Panorama Drive after entering through an unlocked, sliding glass door. Police said the attacker covered her mouth with his hand and pulled her from a living room sofa bed where she had been sleeping with a visiting girlfriend. As the abduction occurred, the frightened friend slid under the covers and pretended to sleep.

Police said the girl was driven to an open field near Smokey’s Stables near Warner Avenue and Bolsa Chica Street. There, officers said, the girl was raped in the truck and eventually pushed nude from the cab.

Huntington Beach Police Capt. Bruce Young said investigators believe the suspect entered the two-story condominium to commit burglary.

Borges voluntarily came to Huntington Beach police headquarters about 7:30 p.m. Tuesday for questioning after detectives telephoned him at the home of a friend in north Huntington Beach. Following the interview, he was arrested.

Detectives learned of Borges’ whereabouts after releasing a composite drawing of a suspect that was published by the news media. Detectives received calls from more than 100 people, including four or five with information directly related to Borges, Young said.

The girl has been shown an assortment of photographs that included a picture of the suspect, but police declined to say whether she identified Borges.

Members of the Huntington Beach police crime lab also are combing Borges’ white Toyota truck for evidence, and police said they might conduct genetic tests--such as the ones that became an issue in his Anaheim rape trial--in the current case.

As word of Borges’ latest arrest spread Wednesday, prosecutors in the Anaheim rape case expressed dismay, while Borges’ former lawyer continued to proclaim his client’s innocence.

“People right away think he’s guilty, and it’s so unfair to do that,” defense lawyer Clapp said.

Borges was acquitted of charges that he raped a 46-year-old Anaheim Hills housewife on Oct. 29, 1988. The jury was not allowed to consider the belated results of so-called DNA tests that prosecutors say identified him as the assailant to a virtual certainty.

“It was very persuasive and very strong evidence,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Dennis Bauer said Wednesday. “If this is the same guy, it would have prevented this kidnap and rape because he’d still be in custody.”

Main Molecule of Life

DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is found in blood, bodily fluids and human hair that can often be gleaned from victims or crime scenes. It is the main molecule of human life that carries a person’s unique genetic coding. Except for identical twins, the odds of two people having the same DNA are about one in 30 billion, experts say.

Although DNA testing has been used in criminal trials and investigations in at least 30 states, it has yet to be presented as evidence in an Orange County courtroom.

Superior Court Judge Richard L. Weatherspoon, who presided over the April case, said Wednesday that he decided not to allow DNA results in evidence because it would have stretched the proceedings out for months, while at the outset jurors had been led to expect they would last only a few weeks. He said the defense would have contested use of the test, which would have required a lengthy hearing.

Weatherspoon said that even without the test results, there would have been enough evidence to sustain a conviction. Foremost among the evidence was the identification by the victim of her assailant’s voice and wiretap evidence.

“It was a well-presented case,” the judge said. “You can read between the lines on that.”

Not Placed at Scene

Although jurors found some of the evidence compelling, several said Wednesday that they thought there was not enough to convict Borges.

“We just couldn’t say that he was absolutely the one,” juror Michael R. McNinch said. “It was a tough case, but the prosecution was never really able to place him at the scene.”

Meanwhile, the woman Borges was accused of raping in that case said Wednesday that she remains outraged.

“I really am furious about this, and there are a lot of things I’d like to say, but I’ve got to bite my tongue,” the woman said.

Times staff writer Mark Landsbaum and Davan Maharaj contributed to this report.

RECOVERING: Inner strength and counseling help Huntington Beach girl overcome trauma. Page 34