Trial Approaches For Rape Suspect In Arboretum Case

A Jamaica Plain resident charged with the rape of a 19-year-old woman in the Arnold Arboretum last month will probably come before a Suffolk County grand jury within the next month.

A Roxbury municipal court judge found probable cause for the charges of aggravated rape and assault and battery after the victim identified Thomas J. Hourihan as the man who raped her in the Arnold Arboretum, Harvard's 278-acre tree park and botanical research facility in Jamaica Plain.

Hourihan yesterday refused to comment on the judge's decision, but his lawyer said that because of a recent rules change, Hourihan had to sign a statement waiving his right not to be tried without a grand jury indictment.

Since the rape and an unrelated stabbing which occurred three days earlier, police have increased patrols of the Arboretum in cars and on horseback. Boston police are responsible for the security of the Arboretum grounds, which Harvard rents from Boston under a 99-year lease.

Roxbury police detective Thomas O'Rourke said yesterday that an "intensive investigation" is underway to find the assailant of Alice Bodnar, a Jamaica Plain resident who was released from the Faulkner Hospital in good condition March 31, two weeks after she was stabbed repeatedly in the back near the gate of the 278-acre arboretum.