Judge denies bond for accused rapist

COEUR d’ALENE — A Coeur d’Alene judge refused to reduce bond for a 35-year-old Coeur d’Alene man charged with raping a 19-year-old who was staying at his home.

Magistrate Judge James D. Stow said he was concerned about the violent nature of the offense and the threats Clifford Geronimo Borowiak allegedly made toward the alleged victim.

At Tuesday’s hearing in First District Court, Stow kept bond at $250,000 despite urging from defense attorney Jeanne Howe who said Borowiak was raised in the area, had family here and had no reason to flee, or fail to appear at future hearings.

Howe asked that bond be reduced, or that Stow release Borowiak on his own recognizance.

According to police, Borowiak allowed a homeless 19-year-old woman to stay at his residence earlier this month on the 1000 block of North D Street. The woman slept in Borowiak’s bed, according to police, and she had rejected the defendant’s advances.

“He tried kissing her. She tried pushing him away,” deputy prosecutor Donna Gardner said. “This was a forceful rape and a violent rape.”

The woman was able to get away after the incident, according to police, but she was allegedly dogged with a slew of messages in which Borowiak reportedly threatened to hurt her if she reported the incident.

The threats are what kept her from immediately reporting the incident, according to Tuesday’s testimony.

Before his June 13 arrest, Borowiak supposedly told the alleged victim he had ties to outlaw motorcycle gangs including the Hells Angels and that he was a drug dealer, according to testimony.

Gardner said despite a lack of felonies in Borowiak’s past, the 35-year-old had accrued 16 misdemeanor offenses, he was unemployed and had only lived at the D Street residence for a week before the alleged incident.

A misdemeanor battery three years ago was the closest Borowiak had come to a similar offense, Howe argued.

Stow scheduled a preliminary conference July 7 and a July 11 preliminary hearing, in which the court will determine if there is probable cause to bind the defendant over to District Court on the felony rape charge.

In the meantime, Borowiak will remain at the Kootenai County jail unless he can post the required amount to be released on bail.

The penalty for rape is between one year and life in prison.