Man back in jail 2 days after release following attack

Personal Injury News

Article Date: 6/8/2009 | Resource: MLG

Man back in jail 2 days after release following attack

“Domestic violence call in Ladera Ranch is under investigation.”

The second attack in several weeks has left as a woman with severe head trauma and a man back in jail.

The attack, which appears to be a domestic dispute between a live-in boyfriend and girlfriend, occurred early Monday morning as many residents in the family oriented community prepared for work and school. At 7:50 a.m., residents in the close-knit neighborhood of The Gables heard a woman’s screams.

Orange County Sheriff deputies responded to frantic 911 calls and found Mark Alan Jarosik, 44, held by neighbors after an attack occurred an unidentified woman in her 40s.

The woman was rushed to Mission Hospital with severe head trauma. Jarosik was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and booked into Orange County Jail. He is being held without bail and is scheduled for an arraignment Tuesday.

The attack happened at a cluster of mailboxes in front of Laura Wilson’s house. She tried to call 911 twice but couldn’t get through. Many other calls were flooding in.

Wilson said she witnessed no argument before the attack. She said Jarosik just rushed over and started pummeling the victim. Her husband went to help the woman after the suspect was brought under control.

“My husband brought a pillow out,” she said. “It’s part of evidence now. It was covered with blood.”

Sheriff officials believe that Jarosik may also have attempted to break into the woman’s house, which he at one time shared with her, on Sunday night. He also was suspected of attacking her several weeks before and had been charged with rape and attempted sodomy with a foreign object, according to court records.

He was arraigned on those charges in May and pleaded not guilty Friday to both counts. On Saturday, he was released on $100,000 bail. He was set to have his pretrial hearing July 1, and a preliminary hearing was scheduled for July 24.

Commissioner James Odriozola set bail at the scheduled amount for such a crime – $100,000, prosecutors said. There was no argument to either raise or lower the bail.

Assistant District Attorney Roseanne Froeberg, who is in charge of the D.A.’s sex-crimes prosecution unit, said there is always a concern in a rape case that the accused might re-offend.

“We are always concerned about the safety of the community,” she said.

But in order to have bail set at higher than the adopted schedule, a prosecutor would have to show aggravating circumstances not connected to the underlying charge, for example, a prior criminal record.

In Jarosik’s case, there was no aggravating circumstance, Froeberg said.

Bail was posted by Jarosik’s mother and sister, who came from Chicago to retrieve him.

For some in Ladera who witnessed the Monday morning attack, it seemed to come out of nowhere. But Jarosik’s family said the relationship between Jarosik and the woman has been the cause of much pain and controversy in their family.

Mark Jarosik, according to his brother, left his wife and three children in Chicago to pursue a relationship with the woman, who was divorced with children. An architect with a master’s degree from the University of Illinois, he left his business and came out to California to be with “his soulmate.” He told his family.
He went to work in Orange County managing an architectural firm. The couple lived together in a home in Ladera Ranch.

“It was a serious relationship, and they were planning to get married,” Eric Jarosik said. “He would call us every six months but he’d always be really quick on the phone saying he was really busy. He seemed happy. He’d tell us one thing but what really went on, we don’t know.”

Eric Jarosik said he would see pictures of the woman but added his family had no contact with her. He said his mother and sister had flown to Orange County to meet with his brother and make sure he had “gotten the woman out of his mind.”

Eric said that his brother assured his mother he was ready to change his life and to return to Chicago to rebuild his business there.

Once he was bailed out, Mark Jarosik – who had a restraining order against him – told his mother he had left some belongings with a neighbor in Ladera Ranch. On Monday, they dropped him off near a local grocery store from where he told them he would pick up his belongings.

That’s when he encountered the woman and attacked her.

“This is crazy,” said Eric Jarosik. “My mom is so upset. She had him on a plane tomorrow ready to go back to Chicago to be reunited with his three children.”

For more information regarding this article please contact:

Jeffrey Marquart
(949)589-0150
jmarquart@marquartlawgroup.com