Drifter Faces 350 Molestation Counts : Crime: The suspect disappeared five years ago in Washington state before a trial on sex abuse charges. His arrest in San Diego results in a record number of charges.

Five years ago, on the eve of his child molestation trial, Richard E. Howard boarded a Washington state ferry and disappeared.

Sometime during the one-hour trip across Puget Sound, Howard, who was out on bail, left his dog and his car and vanished, officials say. His mother told authorities it was a suicide--her son had been despondent about the charges he faced, she said. But when the Coast Guard found no body, investigators were not so sure.

“We thought it was a ruse,” said Dan Clem, a prosecuting attorney in Kitsap County, Wash., where Howard allegedly had molested two girls--ages 7 and 9--in 1986. “There was nothing to indicate he was dead.”

Earlier this year, San Diego County authorities say, Howard turned up very much alive. Arrested under a different name on charges of making lewd gestures to a child, he is being held in San Diego’s downtown jail on $5 million bail. Arraignment is set for today.

At a recent hearing, prosecutors said they have three videotapes Howard made of young girls he allegedly molested in San Diego in 1990 and 1991. At the time of that hearing, the 46-year-old drifter stood accused of 268 counts of child molestation and child pornography--a county record.

On Wednesday, the eve of Howard’s arraignment, prosecutors filed an additional 82 counts of child molestation and pornography, bringing the total charges he faces to 350.

All of Howard’s 15 alleged victims in Southern California are girls, ages 3 to 12. If convicted on all counts, Howard, who once served 14 months in a Washington state prison for fondling a girl, could be sentenced to more than 500 years in prison.

During the recent hearing, the heavyset Howard--at 5-foot-10, he weighs more than 300 pounds--sobbed uncontrollably as Deputy Dist. Atty. John Williams presented evidence about the alleged abuse. His head down, with his fists jammed into his ears, Howard’s huge body shook. At one point he gasped, “Oh, God!”

As he awaits trial in California, law enforcement officials in three other states are trying to determine if Howard has stalked children in their jurisdictions as well.

San Diego County investigators are still piecing together the route Howard traveled after his disappearance. But interviews with Howard and items found in his possession have led them to believe that he spent time in Louisiana, New Mexico and Arizona before coming to California.

Had it not been for a 10-year-old San Diego County girl who told her mother about Howard in April, he might still be on the run, officials say. According to the mother’s testimony, her daughter was attending a birthday party at a park in Chula Vista when Howard approached her and offered to store her candy in his car.

Howard, who called himself Bob Barret Holder, took hold of the girl’s hand and led her to his vehicle, the mother testified, recalling what she had learned from her daughter. He showed the girl a pornographic magazine and described a sexual dream he said he had had about her, the mother said.

Minutes later, when told of the incident, the mother called the police. When they arrived, Howard was still in the park. He offered them a New Mexico driver’s license that identified him as Holder.

A combination of luck and hard work led investigators to discover Howard’s true identity. First, Chula Vista detectives received a call from a Washington state woman who had seen a newspaper photo of the man they believed to be Holder. She said she recognized him as the missing Howard.

Then, while searching the defendant’s car, Chula Vista police Detective Scott Young discovered a copy of a New Orleans birth certificate for Bob Barret Holder.

With the help of New Orleans police, Young learned that the real Holder had died in 1952, at the age of 2 1/2. Finally, FBI fingerprint analysis confirmed it: The man in custody was definitely Howard. Howard, meanwhile, still refers to himself as Holder.

Albert Bradley, Howard’s court-appointed attorney, has refused to comment on any aspect of the case--including his client’s identity. Members of Howard’s family, who apparently still live in Washington state, could not be reached for comment.

Investigators believe Howard obtained the copy of Holder’s birth certificate in 1987. They are working with New Orleans police to determine if there are any victims there.

San Diego County investigators also are cooperating with law enforcement officials in Las Cruces, N.M. They have provided police there with a videotape they now believe was filmed in that state. Like the other videotapes found among Howard’s belongings, it depicts him engaging in sexual activity with a girl younger than 14 years old, officials said.

In the recent testimony, Young, the Chula Vista detective, said Howard had told him about some illegal activities in other states. Young said that during an interview he conducted after Howard was in custody, Howard told him that, as he drove from New Mexico through Arizona, he had videotaped a girl named Rebecca.

“He believed she was 8 years old,” Young said.

Young testified that Howard also told him that, during his 1 1/2-year relationship with two Chula Vista youngsters, one of the girls would often tell him she didn’t like his fondling.

“He would say to her, ‘If you didn’t want to have sex with me,’ he would find somebody else,” Young testified. “He would tell them he didn’t want to do this to them any more. And they would say, ‘Well, then don’t do it.’ And he said, ‘You don’t understand. This is something I do.’ ”

That was not news to Patrolman Dan Scott, the lead investigating officer in the 1986 Washington case that Howard evaded. That complaint originated in Bremerton, at a health club where Howard was known to frequent the Sunday “Family Swim” nights. While adults sat nearby, Scott said, Howard would ply the children with toys and plastic jewelry.

“Then he would touch the little girls,” Scott said. “He would throw them up in the air like a great uncle; then he would cop a feel here and there.”

Howard was charged with one count of first-degree statutory rape and another count of indecent liberties. Had he been convicted, he could have been sentenced to life in prison.

At the time, Scott recalls, he heard from other law enforcement officials around the state who were overjoyed to hear Howard was in custody.

“One guy had chased Howard around the Yakima County area extensively. He wanted Howard really bad,” Scott said. “When he found out that we had him, he offered to take me on a hunting trip.”

Five years later, Sgt. Mike Amos of the Yakima Police Department still remembers making that offer. Amos had arrested Howard before--once for urinating in the dressing room of a Yakima clothing store. But what he really wanted, he never got: enough evidence to charge Howard with child molestation.

So, in 1986, when Bremerton investigators called, Amos was elated. And recently, when he heard that Howard was in custody in San Diego, Amos felt that feeling again.

“I just hope he does get some time for all those hours I put in trying to get him,” Amos said. “That sounds kind of vindictive, and you’re right, it is.”

In San Diego County, Howard is alleged to have cultivated his victims at places where children commonly congregate.

Few of the charges involve force. “He looks more towards the manipulative,” said Williams, the prosecutor.

In Kitsap County, Wash., there is still a warrant out for Howard’s arrest. It was issued five years ago, when a judge who did not believe that Howard was dead revoked his $5,000 bail--money that Howard’s ailing mother had guaranteed.

Clem, the Washington state prosecutor, says he is keeping a close watch on the California case. He said he hasn’t decided whether to go to the trouble of putting Howard on trial there.

“If he goes to prison forever down there, I don’t know what value it is to prosecute,” he said. “The guy’s only got one life to live, not counting the afterlife, and that’s not going to be very pleasant.”

But Amos, the Yakima police sergeant, felt differently.

“If I could come up with something here, I would take him back just so I could say, ‘I finally got you, Dick. It’s time for you to go bye-bye,’ ” he said.