SAN JOSE — A newly filed search warrant affidavit that fueled the police detainment and interrogation of San Jose City Councilmember Omar Torres last week details allegations of sexual misconduct involving minors, including an online sexual — then physical — relationship with someone who might have been a minor when it began.
San Jose City Councilmember Omar Torres listens to a question following a rally in front of San Jose City Hall to express concerns over Mayor Matt Mahan’s plan to reallocate Measure E funds in downtown San Jose, Calif., on Tuesday, May 16, 2023. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)
On Oct. 3, San Jose police detectives approached and detained Torres at City Hall, which was followed by lengthy questioning at the site.
Torres was never placed in custody or taken to police headquarters, and he has not been criminally charged to this point.
The police department has still not officially acknowledged the nature of the investigation. But the affidavit evidence implicating Torres with at least felony crime of oral copulation of a minor and at least one misdemeanor of showing abnormal interest in a child.
While Torres, 42, was being questioned by detectives, police searched one of his residences and his car. The underpinning warrant was submitted into Santa Clara County Superior Court records in compliance with statutory filing requirements, and, since it was not sealed by a judge, is now public record.
The same night that the warrant was served, and after his interrogation ended, Torres gave a statement in which he passively acknowledged the allegations and strongly rejected them, saying they were “based on misinformation” and “a clear act of retaliation” from a person whom Torres had reported to police for allegedly extorting and stalking him.
The warrant affidavit authored by Detective Mark Minten affirms part of that claim, stating that Torres went to San Jose police at the end of August to report that he was being extorted by a man in Chicago; Torres said he had an ongoing online sexual relationship with that person.
The man, Torres told police, had begun threatening to release nude photos and videos from their sexual messages to Torres’ partner and other people. Torres initially complied with the man’s demands for money, paying upwards of $22,000 over time.
San Jose police got the assistance of Chicago police to serve a search warrant on the man, who was described as being 21 years old.
Unbeknownst to Torres, the trajectory of the resulting investigation had changed and begun to point back at him. That portion of the investigation led to the man making his own claims about Torres, saying that their online relationship happened between three and four years ago, which by the longest estimate would have made him 17 at the time.
That includes an in-person encounter at the man’s Chicago home, when Torres was in town for the Democratic National Convention in August, for which Torres was a delegate.
The sexually explicit messages highlighted by Minten in the affidavit also include an exchange in which Torres reportedly described the genitalia of someone he described as his autistic 11-year-old son.
In a 2022 text, Torres is reported in the affidavit to have told his accuser that while working at an unspecified college, he performed oral sex on a 17-year-old boy.
An April 2022 text, as detailed in the affidavit, shows Torres asking his accuser, in a conversation about a multi-partner sexual encounter, if “U got any homies under 18.”
This news organization has contacted Torres’ attorney for comment. After his interrogation ended Thursday, Torres asserted his innocence: “Let me be clear, these accusations are entirely false.”
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“I want to be clear that I am the victim in this matter,” Torres said in the statement.
The statement also passively confirmed that police confiscated electronic devices from Torres, who said he “cooperated fully with SJPD and turned over my passwords without issue as I have nothing to hide.”
Torres also pledged to be resolute in carrying out his duties as the District 3 councilmember, representing downtown and its surroundings, though he has kept a low public profile in the days following his police encounter. His colleagues on the council and political allies have given responses ranging from voicing disbelief in the allegations to declining to comment.
But passive signs of the fallout have become evidence. Political ally Domingo Candelas has joined Arjun Batra in scrubbing Torres’ endorsement off his campaign site, with both declining to comment on the allegations. Torres has been absent from official city proceedings and community events since his detainment, but at a Wednesday night community meeting, his chief of staff Kiara Arreola told the Alma Neighborhood Association that Torres was still “working” to represent District 3.
This is a developing report. Check back for updates.
Staff writer Devan Patel contributed to this story.
