SAN JOSE — Omar Torres, a former city councilman who resigned last fall after a string of sexual abuse scandals, has pleaded to sexually assaulting an underage relative in the 1990s, another milestone in a shocking case that rattled the city’s chief governing body and could shift its political balance.
Torres, 43, entered three no-contest pleas on Tuesday, which happened to be the day a special election was being held to choose his successor among seven candidates vying to replace him on the council.
There were no negotiated conditions or tradeoffs as part of Torres’ decision, which was registered in Judge Cynthia Sevely’s courtroom.
Torres’ attorney Nelson McElmurry had signaled previously that the former District 3 representative was working toward a plea agreement with the district attorney’s office, and that Torres was planning to accept legal responsibility for the crimes charged against him.
Torres only said, “Yes” and “Yes I did” in court to answer Sevely’s questions to confirm that he understood the terms of his plea and that he was entering it voluntarily.
“It is heartbreaking that someone elected to represent and serve thousands of San Jose residents had previously molested a small child,” District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in a statement. “Children are vulnerable and precious, and my office will do everything in our legal power to fight for their safety and fully prosecute those who hurt them.”
Mayor Matt Mahan also weighed in on the news Tuesday.
“Omar Torres has pleaded no contest on Election Day, which I hope gives the victim and all District 3 residents some measure of closure,” Mahan said in a statement. “We likely won’t know who our next D3 council member is for a few more months, but we do know that the future of our downtown, the heart of our city, will be in better, safer hands.”
The maximum prison sentence that Torres faces as a result of the plea is 24 years, but the exact term will not be decided until after the completion of a sentencing report by the county Probation Department, which is due at the end of May.
Torres will also be required to register as a sex offender with the state. His sentencing hearing has not been scheduled pending the probation report.
His plea came ahead of an April 28 preliminary examination date in which a judge would have reviewed the evidence against Torres and decided if the charges were solid enough to warrant sending the case toward trial.
He has been in custody at the county Main Jail since his Nov. 5 arrest, which was also on an election day, after he was charged with two felony counts of child sexual assault and one felony count of lewd and lascivious acts with a minor under the age of 14. He resigned hours before his arrest; his seat has been occupied on an interim basis by businessman Carl Salas.
The criminal charges involve accusations dating back to Nov. 25, 1999, about a month after Torres turned 18 years old. A San Jose Police Department report alleges that Torres abused the reported victim for several years, starting when the victim was 4 years old and when Torres was a minor.
The victim contacted police on Nov. 4 last year in the wake of a scandal stemming from a separate department investigation 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 warrant affidavit from that earlier investigation states Torres asked police to investigate a Chicago man allegedly extorting him under a threat to reveal a sexual tryst to his partner and colleagues. But the investigation uncovered sexually explicit text exchanges from 2022 between Torres and 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, in the midst of discussing a multi-partner sexual encounter, involved Torres asking the man if “U got any homies under 18.” Torres claimed that the messages were part of a fantasy role-play that was then exploited by the Chicago man.
After those allegations were reported, in November the victim conducted a police-monitored phone call in which Torres admitted to abusing the victim, according to detectives. During that same call, Torres told the victim that his abusive behavior was at least in part a consequence of his own sexual abuse as a child.
This is a developing report. Check back for updates.