SAN JOSE, Calif. (KRON) — San Jose City Councilmember Omar Torres is under fire after he was accused of sexually exploiting minors. According to a sworn police affidavit obtained by KRON4 Thursday, Torres is under investigation for the crime of oral copulation of a minor.
An investigation into Torres was launched by the San Jose Police Department, however, police have remained tight-lipped about the case. Officers served a search warrant at Torres’ home last week. SJPD said its investigation is “ongoing” and declined to release information.
The police officers union, in contrast, was vocal about Torres’ status as a city leader on Thursday. The San Jose Police Officers’ Association union told KRON4, “Today’s release of a sworn affidavit detailing repugnant alleged sexual crimes against children committed by Omar Torres warrants his immediate resignation.”
San Jose City Councilmember Omar Torres (KRON4 Photo)
SJPOA president Steve Slack said, “Omar Torres must resign immediately and face the consequences for his alleged wretched behavior that includes exploiting children for sex, paying hush money to cover it up, and detailing his sexual exploits with an autistic child. He must resign.”
No criminal charges have been filed by the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office, court records show.
Torres blasted allegations leveled against him as baseless. He said, “I was wrongfully detained and questioned by detectives regarding baseless allegations. Let me be absolutely clear — these allegations are entirely false. I have nothing to hide.”
The councilman asserts that he was victimized by a stalker. Torres represents San Jose’s District 3 and was elected in 2022. He is the first openly gay Latino to sit on any city council in Santa Clara County, according to his official bio.
San Jose City Councilmember Omar Torres (KRON4 Photo)
The affidavit was written by San Jose Police Department Officer Mark Minten. Minten is a detective for SJPD’s Internet Crimes Against Children Child Exploitation Detail Task Force. Minten wrote that on August 29, Torres contacted police to report that he was the victim of extortion.
Torres told police that a 21-year-old Chicago man, Terry Beeks, threatened to release nude photos and videos of Torres if he did not pay Beeks $2,500, the affidavit states. “In fear of repercussions Torres sent the money to Beeks,” Minten wrote.
Police officers determined that Beeks and Torres met online through Snapchat in 2022. They had a “sexual online relationship. During that time, Torres sent Beeks nude photos and videos of himself, some of which include his face. Torres admitted that this extortion had been going on for a long time, and that in total, he had sent the suspect approximately $22,000,” Minten wrote.
Torres traveled to Chicago to attend the Democratic National Convention in August. While in Chicago, the councilman met with Beeks in person to end their relationship, Minten wrote. But the extortion threats and demands for money continued, the affidavit states.
On August 20, Beeks sent a text message to Torres writing, “How if I send your nudes out? I’m posting them now. I’ll take them down once I receive my 800$.”
When Chicago Police Department officers served a search warrant at Beeks’ house in Chicago on September 20, they seized his iPhone, iPad, iWatch, and laptop. Beeks told police officers that his relationship with Torres began three years ago.
“He stated they met on social media and started texting. Early in their relationship, Torres sent him a photo of a younger kid that Torres said was autistic,” Minten wrote. Beeks told police that Torres wrote comments about the boy’s penis size, the affidavit states. “Torres had asked him about finding minors,” the officer wrote.
On September 24, a Santa Clara County judge gave authorization for SJPD to search Beeks’ phone and computer. Minten found text message exchanges between Torres and Beeks that began on Feb. 24, 2022, the affidavit states.
At this point in the investigation, police apparently began looking at Torres as a suspect, instead of a victim.
“Based on the messages, Torres was paying Beeks for masturbation videos and nude photos. He was also paying to Facetime with Beeks while he masturbated,” Minten wrote. “Torres tells Beeks he will pay for a video of Beeks having sex with a Mexican or Latin male,” the officer wrote.
The officer found a text exchange from Feb. 24, 2022 in which Torres sent Beeks a photo of a juvenile boy and wrote about penis sizes, according to the affidavit.
In another text message, the councilman allegedly admitted that he had oral sex with a 17-year-old student while he worked at a college, the affidavit states.
On April 8, 2022, the two men texted each other about plans to meet for the first time in person for a sexual encounter with multiple people. According to the affidavit, the councilman allegedly wrote, “U gonna be ok if ur friends f**k me. U got any homies under 18. I want hella homies u will see i’m wild in bed.”
Minten wrote that the evidence shows Torres may have committed felony oral copulation of a minor, as well as a misdemeanor for having an “abnormal interest in a child.”
The San Jose Police Department has not handed its investigation over yet to the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office to review.
Nelson McElmurry, Torres’ attorney, released a statement to KRON4 on Thursday afternoon. The statement writes, “Councilman Torres maintains his innocence regarding the recent allegations contained in the affidavit and wishes to address them directly and transparently. The content referenced in the affidavit pertains solely to private communications between adults of age that involved talk of outrageous fantasy and role play. These communications do not reflect any real-world actions or intentions and were entirely fictitious. The online relationship with the individual extorting him began in February of 2022 when the individual, who would later become his stalker, was 19 years old. Over time, the conversation turned sexual where both parties exchanged sexual fantasies and feelings.”
The attorney’s statement continues, “Unfortunately this relationship took a dark turn. This friend-turned-stalker started encouraging and steering the conversations into topics he knew would be damaging to my client. My client felt trapped in a cycle of manipulation where the individual leveraged the false statements my client made during role play to extort increasingly large sums of money. At this time, my client’s desire is to clear his name and get back to serving the citizens of his district. We respectfully request that the public and the media withhold judgment until all the facts are presented.”
Legal analyst Steven Clark said while the topics discussed in the messages may be objectionable to many, they do not yet rise to the level of prosecutors filing criminal charges.
Clark explained, “Online sexual banter, even of a sorted nature, as you see here, is not criminal.”
Clark continued, “But the question for law enforcement is: Is there some corroboration in the electronic devices to suggest this is more than just chat? That this is something that Mr. Torres has actually acted out upon or has tried to initiate, by either reviewing Child Sexual Abuse materials, sending inappropriate photographs?”
“But certainly, when you look at the salacious nature of these comments, this is something that will be difficult for Mr. Torres in the court of public opinion,” Clark added.
SAN JOSE, Calif. (KRON) — San Jose City Councilmember Omar Torres is under fire after he was accused of sexually exploiting minors. According to a sworn police affidavit obtained by KRON4 Thursday, Torres is under investigation for the crime of oral copulation of a minor. An investigation into Torres was launched by the San Jose […]
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