SAN JOSE — A judge has denied bail for Omar Torres, the disgraced former city councilmember who left office earlier this month under the cloud of two sexual misconduct investigations, including one alleging past serial abuse of an underage relative that led to his arrest and jailing last week.
Omar Torres is shown in a police booking photo following his Nov. 5, 2024 arrest in San Jose. The former city councilmember, who submitted his resignation letter hours before he was taken into custody, has been charged with sexually abusing an underage relative in the 1990s. His accuser came forward after the surfacing of an unrelated police investigation into Torres alleging he sent text messages demonstrating sexual interest in minors. (San Jose Police Dept.)
Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Hector Ramon issued the ruling in a San Jose courtroom Thursday, citing in his explanation a reported confession that Torres made in a police-monitored phone call between him and his accuser.
“The court is going to find by clear and convincing evidence … the substantial likelihood that if Mr. Torres is released, a boy under 18 years of age will suffer great bodily harm,” Ramon said.
The judge also sided with Assistant District Attorney Brian Welch in deciding that Torres’ sexually charged text messages mentioning minors, unearthed in an unrelated police investigation, shows the risk Torres poses “continues to this day” and can’t be mitigated without jail confinement.
Torres attorney Nelson McElmurry said he disagreed with the judge’s decision, and had argued to Ramon that his client qualified for monitored release. He said the threat Torres poses to the public is “nothing more than speculation at this point.”
“I felt like there were scenarios whereby bail could be granted,” McElmurry said. “We’re very disappointed.”
Torres, who pleaded not guilty Thursday, was arrested and charged Nov. 5, and was arraigned the next day on three felony counts of child molestation encompassing sodomy and oral copulation by force and lewd and lascivious acts with a minor under the age of 14.
His resignation, handed in just hours before his arrest, has touched off a political firestorm at City Hall as the mayor and council jostle over how to fill Torres’ seat when his resignation becomes effective Nov. 27.
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 of this 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 an arrest or charges, surfaced publicly Oct. 3 when Torres was detained and questioned by San Jose detectives.
According to detectives, on the same day the allegations were reported, the victim conducted a phone call with Torres — monitored by police — in which Torres admitted to abusing the victim and at least one other underage relative.
Former San Jose City Councilmember Omar Torres stands behind a doorway during his arraignment on three felony counts of child molestation, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024, at the Hall of Justice in San Jose, Calif. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)
“I’m so sorry that I hurt you,” Torres is quoted telling his accuser in the police report. “I’m in intense therapy right now to, you know to work on myself and I haven’t stopped thinking about the harm that I caused you.”
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.
McElmurry said Torres knew when he took the phone call with the reported victim that it might be monitored. He added that while it was not prudent for his legal defense, his reported confession should be seen as a sign of remorse.
“He chose to have that conversation. He was addressing his demons. He was holding himself accountable,” McElmurry said.
Judge Ramon has issued no-contact orders for Torres to stay away from his accuser, who was referred to in court as John Doe, and one other person.
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Resigned SJ councilmember Omar Torres charged with alleged molestation of relative
A search warrant affidavit from the earlier investigation states that Torres asked police to look into a Chicago man allegedly extorting him to keep a sexual tryst secret from his partner and colleagues. But the investigation turned up evidence of Torres’ own illicit acts.
Those included sexually explicit text exchanges from 2022 with the man, who is from Chicago, 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 planning a multi-partner sexual encounter, with Torres asking the Chicago man if “U got any homies under 18.”
After news of the October interrogation got out, Torres defended himself by claiming the Chicago man facilitated the extortion by goading him into discussing “damaging” topics “under the guise of eroticism.” Torres also asserted that the texts “do not reflect any real-world actions or intentions and were entirely fictitious.”