Groping spree lands man in jail

PALMER — A 20-year-old man was charged last week for a spree he went on, groping employees of various downtown businesses.

On Sept. 25, a grand jury in Palmer charged Mark Bolus, 20, of Palmer, with sexual assault and two counts of harassment. He was jailed at the Mat-Su Pre-Trial Facility on $10,000 bail. Jail records Wednesday afternoon showed he was still there.

According to an affidavit officer Jason Crockett filed in court, the case began at around 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 15 with a call from the Dairy Queen where an 18-year-old store employee reported she’d been groped.

“Bolus came into the store and asked if he could have some free food,” Crockett wrote, based on the employee’s statements. “Bolus shook her hand and told her he would like out make out with her.”

Crockett’s affidavit says Bolus walked off and talked to another employee but came back with his pants part way down and his zipper open, gave the first employee a hug and squeezed her buttocks. Then he left.

As his Dairy Queen interview was wrapping up, Crockett wrote, he got another report of a groping, this time from Carrs.

So, he went up the road and talked to a 16-year-old employee who said she was out collecting shopping carts when Bolus approached her, hugged her, grabbed her breast, then left.

“Bolus then returned and put his hand on the back of her neck, patted her neck and said he was leaving and walked off,” Crockett wrote, based on the girl’s statements .

Just as he was finishing up that interview, Crockett wrote, a third call came in, this time from Fred Meyer. A third woman, this one 20 years old and an employee of Fred Meyer, said Bolus came up to her and “forced her into a hug.”

“Bolus asked (the woman) out and told her she was very attractive. (The woman) told him she was engaged,” Crockett wrote.

Bolus grabbed the 20-year-old’s buttocks, she pulled away, and he left. Crockett wrote that Bolus then went up to a second Fred Meyer employee, this one 17 years old, introduced himself and put his hands on her waist before she slipped past him.

The 17-year-old, “said she was uncomfortable and a little freaked out by Bolus,” Crockett wrote.

At the end of his affidavit, Crockett notes that all four women positively identified Bolus as the man who groped them. According to the grand jury’s indictment, the sexual assault count relates to the breast-grabbing incident.