There was an empty chair at today’s Santa Jose City Council meeting: 3rd District Councilmember Omar Torres.
Torres also was a no-show at a Friday press conference that involved the federal government awarding $4.5 million for the Spartan Keyes Park project in his district.
The council member has been keeping a no-comment low profile since revelations on Oct. 3 that he is the subject of a criminal investigation – with police offering no further details.
Torres was not so shy the night after San Jose investigators served him with a warrant for undisclosed materials and detained him for an interview about unrevealed allegations.
He released a statement at the time declaring: “Today I was wrongfully detained and questioned by detectives regarding baseless allegations. Let me be absolutely clear — these allegations are entirely false.”
Neither Torres or police gave any details about the allegations. Several media outlets have reported the allegations involve possible sexual misconduct related to online searches.
Torres said on Thursday that he was cooperating with investigators and that he had turned over his passwords to police. “I have nothing to hide,” he said.
“This detention was based on misinformation provided to law enforcement in response to a police report I filed against an individual for extortion and stalking and is a clear act of retaliation from this person,” he said in the statement he posted on social media.
Torres said he is a victim, and said the allegations were “attempts to discredit me.”
“It’s heartbreaking that my family, my partner, my team and myself have to respond to such unfounded and defamatory allegations,” he said.
Since then, he has retained a prominent criminal defense lawyer, Nelson McElmurry. The council member’s office is referring all inquiries to McElmurry.
McElmurry responded to San Jose Inside inquiries with this email: “Councilman Torres is anxious to address the matter and maintains his innocence. However, he will not be taking questions or conducting interviews until the law enforcement investigation is over.”
He added: “Based on statements that officers made to Mr. Torres, we are cautiously optimistic that the Investigation will finish sooner rather than later.”
The San Jose Police Department said Thursday it “can confirm that a police investigation is underway involving a member of the San Jose City Council,” but did not offer more details.
“The investigation is active and ongoing. For this reason, we do not have more information to provide at this time,” the department said. “As the investigation unfolds and new information is discovered, the San Jose Police Department hopes to provide an update at a later date.”
San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan also declined to comment but added that City Hall was focused on serving the city’s constituents in response to questions about whether the investigation could become a distraction.
“I can’t comment any further because it’s an ongoing investigation and we have to let our detectives do their jobs,” Mahan said Friday. “I know that our police department is working very hard to get to the truth. When there’s more information, our police department, in consultation with the city attorney, will be able to share that.”
I understand Councilmember Torres cannot currently comment further because he is the target of a criminal investigation.
However, the mayor and the entire city council needs to publicly comment on the allegation, reported elsewhere, that months ago anonymous texts were sent to another unidentified council person’s staff warning that Torres was allegedly improperly touching children and that the sender had proof, and yet law enforcement was not contacted immediately or at all. That allegation, if true, is an independent scandal — whether or not the underlying allegations against Torres are true. I hope San José Inside is investigating with a public records request of its own. We cannot have a city council so cavalier about allegations of predatory behavior in their midst.
interesting choice of photo
Aren’t a lot of these allegations being leveled by the ESSJ and a stalker of Councilman Torres who seems to be a bigot. Where’s the credible evidence…. This “John wick” appears to be a coward with an axe to grind and essentially doxxing an elected official
To obtain a search warrant in CA, there must be some level of evidence. And, Omar keeps claiming to have a “stalker,” which just sounds like a deflection. The real issue here, and I live in D3, is “can Torres do his job currently?” The answer is NO! He missed several big meetings/events as mentioned in this article – and this situation, at a minimum, derives from poor judgment. He should resign and resolve this matter.
And as mentioned above – I am not certain about any mandated reporting requirements for positions at City Hall/Council. But, when adults are receiving allegations of child sexual abuse, it should be reported immediately. Even if Torres or whoever dismisses it as “not credible” – or a “stalker.” These adults at City Hall should really be ashamed of themselves.
Now it appears the City is engaged in a coverup. Spotlight reports the City’s public information officer sought its confidential sources for an investigation of a leak to the media. Consider that. They are more concerned with covering leaks than getting the truth. And they’re spending our tax money in the process. What are they trying to hide?
Several big meetings/events? He missed a photo op and one city council meeting. Let’s be honest, indeed.
Let’s also be honest that the person (who’s also CL on San Jose Spotlight comments) calling for him to resign was also against him being elected in the first place, and is still trying to fight that battle from 2 years ago. And started to call from him to resign from the day after the warrant. A resignation resolves nothing as the accusation is still out there, and there would be a vacancy for months.
By extension, any city council member who is accused of anything needs to resign immediately, regardless of the merit or truth behind the accusation. That seems like it would have a chilling effect on conducting city business not to mention wildly disruptive.
This is a very serious allegation, but at the moment it’s just that and that’s all we know. It feels incongrous to both complain about the city hall official not taking the text messages seriously–as ridiculous as it would be for the allegation to come from a fake alias and not immediately to the police, AND also assume that there’s a preponderance of evidence before obtaining the warrant. Who wants to be the detective who ignored it? Who knows what the threshold is in a situation like this? In the grand scheme of things, it is more prudent to wait until there’s more public info.
SJC –
The police affidavit in support of the warrant has now been filed with the court (10/9/24) and reported by the Merc and Spotlight. Certainly sufficient evidence for probable cause for the warrant, at least in my mind. And the evidence cited does not appear to have anything to do with ESSJ Times.
This is the first councilman for District 3 in years to be responsive and very active in the community. I hope this turns out to be nothing but a hateful distraction.
I am assuming “time to be dishonest” has seen the recent news about the details/messages Torres exchanged that are related to this case?
If not, here are some of those details. You be the judge:
On Feb. 24, 2022, Torres asked Beeks to masturbate while he drove to work. Later that day, Torres sent the Chicago man a photo of “a juvenile male smiling,” the report says. Torres identifies him as his “autistic son.” Torres does not have a son.
The two men allegedly begin talking about the child’s penis, according to text messages described in the filings.
“He is like daddy lol he already has a big penis haha,” Torres writes.
Beeks also said Torres asked him about finding minors for sex.
“U got any homies under 18,” Torres texts a man police have identified as Beeks.
Welp you are right, Don – revising my last statement that police report is pretty damning and there is no defending him. He should resign and be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law
wow, is all this documented? this aint good
Indeed. Now that more public info is available, it’s a completely different discussion.