Shattered Peace . . . and the Dogged Pursuit of a Rapist

Like countless other streets in Orange County, Avenida Presidio in San Clemente winds slowly up into what once was a hillside but is now a full-grown residential tract. When the Broadmore area was built up 15 years ago, it offered the California dream: a house you could afford and elevated views of the Pacific Ocean once thought to be the sole province of the rich. The notion of isolation was built right into the Broadmore plan--most of the streets were “single-loaded,” meaning homes were built on only one side of the street with the natural terrace of the hill on the other side.

A walk through the Broadmore neighborhoods on a weekday morning still seems more like a stroll across the canvas of a still-life painting--the quiet in the streets is deafening, the sense of solace reassuring, the views of the Pacific inspiring. It’s easy to imagine that residents who make the gentle climb up Avenida Presidio from Avenida Pico and into Broadmore think they’re being delivered into a secluded, tranquil world removed from the madness below.

It’s now Police Detective Gary Logalvo’s job to find out who made that climb up Avenida Presidio last weekend, not to escape the madness but to bring it with him.

Around 8:30 last Saturday night, a man rang the doorbell of a house in Broadmore. As a 13-year-old girl approached, the man burst in, bound and gagged her, and raped her. The girl was home alone, and the man ran off when the girl’s mother returned a few minutes later.

About a month earlier, a 29-year-old woman was kidnaped off the street in the same general part of San Clemente and driven to an apartment where she was sexually assaulted but not raped.

Logalvo, a 13-year veteran of the San Clemente Police Department, believes that the same man committed both assaults. He’s now doing all he can to get to know him.

It’s probably not happening fast enough for the citizens of San Clemente, which has a relatively low crime rate among cities in the county and which has averaged only one or two rapes a year.

Logalvo is now trapped in that world of pleasure and pain that detectives live in. Like the rest of us, they don’t like to see someone brutalized by a crime; on the other hand, once it’s done, the thrill of the hunt for the criminal is the reason they’re in the business.

“I’m trying to get a sense of who he is, what he is, why he does what he does,” Logalvo says.

The assailant obviously knows the cat-and-mouse game with police has begun. “He knows somebody is on his trail looking for him,” Logalvo said Thursday in a room where police have scratched notes on a big board to compare the two crimes. “I think he will try to do it again.”

In the meantime, Logalvo has followed up leads that vaporized before his eyes. Dozens of tips have been pursued and then abandoned because they fizzled. One that looked too good to be true proved to be just that when the trail led to someone already in jail.

That doesn’t mean Logalvo has no idea of whom he’s seeking.

“He probably seems very normal. He probably has a job, he probably works with other people, he’s out there mingling with people, gets along with people. But in the back of his mind, he’s got this black spot.”

The young girl wasn’t much help because she only saw the man for a split second, Logalvo said. The victim of the other assault is mentally retarded and was also blindfolded through much of her ordeal.

But police know they’re looking for a white man of average build, believed to be in his 20s. For now, that’ll have to do for Logalvo.

“Right now, I’ve got him focused as to what he looks like, possibly what he does, and I feel if I get real close, I’ll know it’s him.”

This rapist has some traits that intrigue Logalvo. “With most rapists, there’s either the threat of force, or they use force and beat on their victims. This one is very cool, calm; he’s not really offensive. He just ties them up, nice and easy, blindfolds and gags them, and does his thing. There’s no foul language. Rape is a crime of violence, not a sex thing, but there’s been no violent assaults with these two (assaults).”

The rule of thumb for cops is not to get personally involved in a case. It’s a rule Logalvo tries to abide by. “I still go home after work and do my normal things,” Logalvo says. “But I’m still thinking about it when I’m relaxing or watching TV. There are some things you don’t block out; you just don’t.” The residents of Broadmore probably don’t want him to block it out. Not until peace is restored to their once-quiet sanctuary in the hills.

Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Readers may reach Parsons by writing to him at The Times Orange County Edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, Calif. 92626, or calling (714) 966-7821.