SAN JOSE — Omar Torres, the former city councilman who stepped down last fall after he was charged with sexually abusing an underage relative in the 1990s, formally pleaded not guilty Monday and a key hearing was set for the end of next month that will decide whether he will head toward trial.
Torres briefly appeared in Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Cynthia Sevely’s courtroom at the Hall of Justice in San Jose, where he entered the plea. That allowed Sevely to set an April 28 date for Torres’ preliminary examination, a proceeding in which a judge hears evidence to determine whether the charges are substantive enough to warrant a jury trial.
Torres’ attorney, Nelson McElmurry, indicated about a month ago his intent to seek a plea deal in the case, telling this news organization that “Omar has demonstrated from the beginning that he wants to take responsibility and bring peace to the lives of those that he has affected.”
The setting of a preliminary examination does not preclude McElmurry and the district attorney’s office from continuing conversations and reaching a potential negotiated plea prior to that court date. Should the charges be greenlit for trial, a deal could theoretically be reached at nearly any point prior to a jury verdict.
Torres remains in custody at the county Main Jail, where he has been held since his Nov. 5 arrest. He faces two felony counts of child sexual assault and one felony count of lewd and lascivious acts with a minor under the age of 14.
Torres resigned hours before his arrest; his seat has since been filled on an interim basis by businessman Carl Salas, pending an April special election for a permanent successor.
The criminal charges against Torres involve alleged acts from Nov. 25, 1999, about a month after Torres turned 18 years old. An accompanying San Jose Police Department report outlines allegations that Torres abused the reported victim for several years prior to that, starting when the victim was 4 years old but when Torres was also a minor.
The reported victim contacted police on Nov. 4 last year in the wake of a scandal tied to a separate department investigation looking into other allegations of Torres’ sexual interest in minors. That probe, which has not yielded criminal charges, surfaced publicly Oct. 3 when Torres was detained and questioned by San Jose detectives.
A search warrant affidavit from the earlier investigation states that Torres asked police to investigate a Chicago man allegedly extorting him to keep a sexual tryst secret from his partner and colleagues. But the investigation revealed sexually explicit text exchanges from 2022 with the man in which they share sexual fantasies that included Torres describing the genitalia of an autistic 11-year-old boy with whom he has a family-type relationship.
One of the most salacious messages was in the midst of discussing a multi-partner sexual encounter, with Torres asking the man if “U got any homies under 18.” Torres claimed at the time that the messages were part of a fantasy role-play that was then exploited by the Chicago man.
According to detectives, after the child abuse allegations were reported in November, the victim conducted a police-monitored phone call in which Torres admitted to abusing the victim. Torres also reportedly said on the phone call that he was the victim of sexual abuse as a child and suggested that the alleged assaults were a consequence of his own trauma.