SAN JOSE — The investigation that led to the arrest Tuesday of former City Councilmember Omar Torres — who had resigned his position hours earlier — involves a family member who accused him of serial molestation in the late 1990s, according to court records and sources familiar with the case.
Detectives state in an explosive police report that Torres admitted to the crimes earlier this week in a phone call with the reported victim that was monitored by police.
Torres was arrested Tuesday afternoon and booked into the Santa Clara County Main Jail, where he was being held without bail. Court records show he is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday afternoon on three felony counts of child molestation involving sodomy and oral copulation by force and lewd and lascivious acts with a minor under the age of 14.
The date of the charged crimes is Nov. 25, 1999, about a month after Torres turned 18 years old. According to a criminal complaint and accompanying San Jose Police Department report filed by the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office, ongoing sexual abuse was alleged prior to that point.
The reported victim contacted police Monday in the wake of the scandal tied to a separate department investigation looking into other allegations of Torres’ sexual interest in minors that surfaced publicly Oct. 3 when he was detained and questioned by San Jose Police Department detectives at City Hall.
No arrest was made after that October interrogation, which also involved police confiscating his electronic devices and searching his home and vehicle, but it apparently prompted the reported victim behind Tuesday’s arrest to come forward.
According to the police report, Torres admitted to molesting the reported victim and at least one other family member, with some of the abuse occurring in Texas as well as in San Jose.
Torres’ accuser told police that the abuse against him started when he was 4 years old. The report includes claims that the sexual acts occurred in family homes and at family functions, out of sight from other relatives.
Torres had disappeared from the public eye as he faced mounting pressure to resign from prominent politicians, business groups and labor organizations. He conceded to that pressure in a resignation letter submitted to the city hours before his arrest Tuesday.
“The choice comes with a heavy heart, but I believe it is in the best interest of my constituents and my community,” Torres wrote. “Serving the people of San Jose has been one of the greatest honors of my life. … I remain committed to the values we’ve championed together and am confident that our city will continue to thrive.”
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A search warrant affidavit from the October interrogation — which coincided with the confiscation of his electronic devices and searches of his home and vehicle — outlined how Torres’ request for a police investigation, into a man allegedly extorting him to keep a sexual tryst secret from his partner and colleagues, eventually pointed back at Torres and his own illicit acts.
Those acts 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 who has a family-type relationship with him. He also claimed in the texts that he performed oral sex on a 17-year-old boy while working at an unspecified college.
Perhaps the most explosive message in the running exchange was in the midst of the two planning a multi-partner sexual encounter, with Torres asking the Chicago man if “U got any homies under 18.”
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Torres told police that he had an ongoing online sexual relationship with that person going back two years; the affidavit states they last saw each other in August during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Multiple sources have told this news organization that they also met up in April when Torres traveled to Phoenix with other San Jose city staff as part of a commerce-related visit.
The man, Torres reported, had threatened to release nude photos and videos from their sexual messages. The affidavit states that Torres said he initially complied with the man’s demands for money, paying more than $22,000 over time before getting police involved.
Torres’ defense against the salacious text messages has been to claim that the Chicago man goaded him into discussing “damaging” topics “under the guise of eroticism,” so that he could later extort him. Torres would also claim that the texts “do not reflect any real-world actions or intentions and were entirely fictitious.”
Staff writers Nollyanne Delacruz and Devan Patel contributed to this report.
This is a developing report. Check back for updates.