Police Jail Alleged Thief of O.C. Women’s Hearts, Cash

Police say his victims were lonely hearts, women who looked for love, romance and companionship in classified ads.

James Robert Borzynski allegedly regaled them with the same story: He was a widowed lawyer interested only in a meaningful relationship, the answer to their dreams. Soon, they would buy a house, marry, and start life anew. Together.

But after the first few dates, police say, Borzynski, 45, would talk about how the Internal Revenue Service was nipping at his heels for delinquent taxes and how he needed money to avoid arrest. A Huntington Beach apartment manager chipped in $1,200, a Fullerton woman pawned her gold jewelry and plunked down $2,000, and a recently widowed Lake Forest woman shelled out $51,000 from her savings, according to investigators.

Then Borzynski--a one-time used-car salesman--disappeared.

He was arrested Thursday on an Orange County warrant as he drove away from his newly rented Tiburon apartment with a view of the Golden Gate Bridge. Investigators said they suspect that Borzynski, using at least 12 aliases, left a trail of broken hearts--and theft victims--from Wisconsin to California. They estimate he stole more than $90,000.

“He employs a true gigolo talent,” said Orange County Sheriff’s Investigator Cliff Deller. “It’s bad enough that he took their money. But he stole their hearts and their emotions. You can’t put a value on broken hearts.”

Orange County prosecutors have filed three counts of grand theft against Borzynski, who is being held in lieu of $250,000 bail at Marin County Jail. Investigators said they are looking for more victims.

Four women interviewed by The Times on Friday related tales of betrayal and deception, saying that the guilt and embarrassment they have suffered is more painful than the money Borzynski took from them.

Yvonne Tovar, a 27-year-old Huntington Beach apartment manager named as one of the three Orange County victims, said she rejoiced when she heard Borzynski was in jail.

“I’m looking forward so much to testifying against him in court,” Tovar said. “He’s subhuman. He’s not a man in no way, shape or form. I can’t stand the thought that I was ever involved with him.”

Last February, Tovar had kinder thoughts of Borzynski.

She said she knew him as Robert Hyatt, the Newport Beach lawyer who answered her ad in an Orange County newspaper: “Single Hispanic female, 27, with long dark curly hair, looking for a professional male. Must be a great lover of life who loves to travel, nonsmoker.”

Tovar received about 50 calls. After eliminating inquiries from students and jobless men, she returned about 10 of them. Borzynski was the best prospect, she said.

“I can remember he spoke in this strong confident voice,” Tovar said, “and during our first telephone (conversation), he told me he had strong beliefs, morals and values. I’ve been looking for these things in a man.”

Investigators said Borzynski told Tovar the same story he also told at least five other women: His inheritance from his dead wife’s estate was tied up in probate court and he needed to borrow money to pay the IRS. He allegedly promised the women they would get a healthy return on their loan, and that they soon would be living in a new house as newlyweds.

A Lake Forest woman, whose husband recently died, said she gave him more than $51,000. “I believed I was investing in my future,” she told investigators.

The alleged victims and police said that Borzynski was not one to romance women by bringing them flowers or gifts. His gift of gab was enough, they said.

And the women said they have since learned that he was using these same lines to win their hearts:

“I want a woman that will be there for me. I would put her high on a pedestal and she would be my whole world.”

“I love you more than you’ll ever know.”

“My definition of love is compassion, loyalty and trust. Trust me.”

Tovar said she bought those lines at first, but after a few months became suspicious: Borzynski avoided answering her legal questions. He would disappear, then a few days later would call to say that he was on business in San Diego and calling from a pay phone. But more than once, Tovar said, she heard a click on the phone. Public telephones don’t have call waiting, she thought, so she began to scribble his inconsistencies in a note pad “just so I could study him and wouldn’t doubt myself.”

One night, she drove to his Laguna Niguel apartment, stood outside and overheard him talking to another woman. “He was using the same words like, ‘My little baby wouldn’t do that, . . .’ so I left and turned around.” Tovar said. “I could have ended the relationship then, but I wanted it to be true.”

In July, Tovar went to the apartment again, but this time, the furniture was gone. There, she said she met a Fullerton woman who claimed to be Borzynski’s girlfriend and future wife. They cried together--then called the police, Tovar said.

Since then, sheriff’s investigators said they have received similar complaints from women in Upland, Northern California and Wisconsin.

A 50-year-old woman from Milwaukee, who asked to be identified only as Carol, said Friday that she gave Borzynski $20,000 in 1989 and it forced her to declare bankruptcy.

She said he had promised her she would never have to work again and he would be a father to her teen-age son.

“I still have nightmares about it,” Carol said. “It was the most devastating experience of my life. He charmed me out of my emotions and my self respect. Everything is down the tube. I hope he gets the death penalty.”

Acting on tips, sheriff’s investigators in Orange County tracked Borzynski’s whereabouts to Tiburon in Marin County, where they suspect he was preparing to repeat the scam.

During the last few weeks, Tiburon Police Officer Jerry Wachiowiak has been knocking on doors in his affluent community on the edge of the San Francisco Bay, asking landlords if they saw Borzynski. When one apartment owner said a man fitting Borzynski’s description told him he was a lawyer from Germany and that his wife recently died, Wachiowiak said he knew he had his man.

And when the officer pulled over Borzynski on Paradise Drive in nearby Corte Madera on Thursday, the driver identified himself as Jason Caldwell. “When I asked if he was Borzynski, he did not deny it,” Wachiowiak said in an interview Friday.

Records show that Borzynski has a prior criminal record, including a 1989 arrest in San Mateo for violating probation after being convicted in Wisconsin on fraud charges, police said.

Orange County Deputy Dist. Atty. Joe D’Agostino said Borzynski faces a maximum sentence of five years and four months in prison if convicted on the three local charges.

As for Tovar, she said she is dating a former boyfriend. And she is staying away from the classified ads.

“I’m in my comfort zone,” Tovar said. “I wanted to believe so much that there was truly a wonderful man like Robert out there. That hooked me.”

Police Seek Other Victims

Orange County sheriff’s investigators say suspect James Robert Borzynski has several aliases, including: Jason Robert Caldwell, Jason Eldridge, Jason Alexander Elridge, Robert James Hyatt, Cecil Robert Hyatt, Jay Peter Ashley, Jason Ashley, and Jason Thomas Sinclair.

They ask that anyone with information regarding Borzynski call Investigator Cliff Deller at (714) 647-4103 or Sgt. Stan Kinkade at (714) 647-7486.