Suspect charged in groping

After the arrest of one suspect, Seattle police say a nearly two-year string of sexual attacks on women in South Seattle appears to be the work of more than one person.

Darran Bolar, believed to be 37, was arrested and charged on Thursday for allegedly groping a woman in Rainier Valley on Saturday. A registered sex offender, Bolar is being investigated for several attacks but not all 25 of the reported gropings, said police Sgt. Sean Whitcomb.

"We don't believe it's the same person doing all of them," Whitcomb said. "We're looking at him [Bolar ] for many of them."

According to a crime analysis released by police on Thursday, the majority of the attacks occurred on weekdays between 5 and 11 p.m. Nearly all of the suspects were described as black men, but in other characteristics such as skin tone, build, height and clothing style, descriptions have varied drastically.

Bolar was charged Thursday with fourth-degree assault for allegedly groping a woman who was walking with a toddler near the intersection of Renton Avenue South and 43rd Avenue South shortly before 10 a.m. on Saturday.

Bolar was also charged with second-degree robbery for allegedly stealing the cellphone of a witness who saw Bolar touching the woman's buttocks and then photographed Bolar's license plate with the cellphone, according to charging papers filed in King County Superior Court.

According to court documents, Bolar has an extensive criminal history that includes at least 75 arrests and scores of convictions for crimes including two instances of third-

degree rape of a child; first-

degree robbery; drug possession; domestic-violence assault; obstructing a law-

enforcement officer; possession of a fraudulent driver's license; hit-and-run driving; driving while under the influence of intoxicants; at least nine convictions for driving with a suspended license and 25 convictions for driving without a valid license in his possession.

In addition, at least 56 warrants were issued for his arrest between 1987 and 2005.

Bolar has twice been sentenced to serve time in state prisons, in 1984 and in 1993, and was on probation until 1998, when he was released from supervision, according to state Department of Corrections spokesman Chad Lewis.

According to prosecutors, Bolar has one prior conviction that qualifies as a "strike offense" under the Persistent Sex Offender three-strikes law. If convicted on the current second-degree-robbery charge, Bolar would have a second strike against him. Under state law, people who have been convicted of three "strike" offenses must be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

In requesting bail be set at $500,000, prosecutors said Bolar represents a significant threat to the community.

He is scheduled to be arraigned on June 4.

Since shortly after the first reported attack on Aug. 2, 2006, women in Rainier Valley, Beacon Hill and several other South Seattle neighborhoods were warned to be on the lookout for the man police call "the groper." While none of the victims has been raped or critically hurt in the attacks, police noticed that many of the attacks were on Asian or Asian-American women standing at bus stops. The victims ranged from teenagers to middle-aged women, police said.

Police said the assault on Saturday was the first reported since March and the sixth reported since January.

After Saturday's attack, police tried to find the victim, described as a woman in her 40s, but were unable to track her down, according to court charging papers. Witnesses said the woman ran north with the child after she was attacked.

Jennifer Sullivan: 206-464-8294 or jensullivan@seattletimes.com.

Seattle Times news researcher Miyoko Wolf contributed to this report.