Blood Samples May Reveal Whether Intruder Was San Clemente’s Rapist

Blood samples from a 27-year-old unemployed house painter who shot and killed himself after breaking into a home and terrorizing a couple last week will be sent to a crime lab to determine if he is the serial rapist who has plagued this city for the past year, police said Monday.

Although playing down a possible link between the latest incident and five other sexual assaults over the past year, police nevertheless said they were seeking the crime lab’s assistance in determining if James H. Boliek was the man involved in all six cases.

“We will be investigating this as far as we can to determine if this is the man,” Police Sgt. Richard Downing said. “However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that we think this is him.”

Boliek turned a shotgun on himself early last Friday after being cornered by San Clemente police following 20 minutes of terror for a local couple.

On Monday, police released new details of how the former Marine broke into a house shortly before midnight last Thursday, tied up the husband and sexually assaulted his wife. A police report describes the ordeal that ended with the couple risking their lives to gain their freedom.

“They showed an amazing amount of bravery,” Downing said. “They are lucky to be alive.”

According to the report, the couple were in their kitchen around 11:30 p.m. when they heard a noise on the bottom floor of their tri-level home. When the husband went downstairs to investigate, he was confronted by a masked man with a shotgun.

The intruder tied up the husband and told the couple that he wouldn’t harm them. He then ransacked the house, taking jewelry and a few other valuables, the report said.

But when he got back to the kitchen, Boliek sexually assaulted the woman as her husband sat helpless, out of sight in another part of the room, Downing said.

At one point, Downing said, the woman made a move that might have saved the couples’ lives. Seizing an unguarded moment, she kicked her assailant in the groin and fled out the front door screaming.

Boliek gave chase, but the husband managed to break free of his bonds and went after the armed man, buying time for his wife’s escape, the report said.

He caught the man at the bottom of the stairs descending to the garage and grabbed the shotgun, Downing said. The men struggled for control of the firearm, firing one blast into the ceiling. A second shot ripped into the husband’s arm, tearing a hole from near his pectoral muscle to the top of his shoulder. He was listed in good condition at Mission Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo.

By then the woman was inside a neighbor’s home, and residents of the street were calling 911 to report screams and gunshots.

Police caught up to Boliek about nine minutes after the first call. He was walking several blocks away from the crime scene on a dimly lit section of South Ola Vista.

“He was told to halt, then he showed the shotgun and ran up the stairs of a nearby house” onto a garage patio just above the street, Downing said. Boliek sat in a patio chair and put the shotgun between his legs.

“He would let the gun fall and point at the officers, then he would bring it back up,” Downing said. “Then he pulled the trigger. I’m not 100% certain that he meant to kill himself.”

Investigators say they are getting conflicting reports about the existence of an accomplice. Some neighbors reported spotting two men fleeing from the scene, but police say other neighbors remember only seeing one person run away.

“In any case, the couple assaulted said that only one man was there,” Downing said.

According to records in Orange County Superior Court, Boliek was the target of a temporary restraining order three years ago. It was filed by a San Clemente woman who complained that he had physically abused her.

According to the order, the woman said Boliek “pushed me around to the point of breaking the bathroom door down and pushing me into the bathtub, injuring my tail bone (and)) bruising my hands.” The order was granted Feb. 3, 1988, requiring Boliek to stay at least 150 yards from the woman.

At the time of his death, police said that Boliek lived about a mile from the couple whose home he entered.

Boliek’s only means of support was doing maintenance around the three-unit apartment complex where he lived, according to an employee of a property-management firm that runs the building.

He was “always in financial trouble,” said Linda Asher, an employee of Del Mar Realty in San Clemente. “We had to carry him several times on the rent. He was pleasant enough. A little weird to be around, but nice.”

A neighbor who declined to be identified said she had several run-ins with Boliek, including disputes about his allegedly going through her mail.

“He always made me very uneasy,” she said. “There was something very strange about him.”

Others described him as warm, likable, and good with children.

“He would spend hours working on a reel for some poor kid who could not fish well,” said Shirley Stanley, who co-owns San Clemente Pier Tackle at the city’s pier. “Everyone here is wiped out by this.”

Stanley said Boliek often took her grandchildren fishing. “He had a witty, clever sense of humor,” she said. “He would point out funny little things and we’d laugh together.”

“I guess he obviously had a dark side,” Stanley said. “But there was definitely another side to him.”

Times staff writer Matt Lait contributed to this report.