San Jose councilmembers are calling for the resignation of Omar Torres almost a week after a police affidavit revealed he’s under investigation for alleged sex crimes involving minors.
“We are in the midst of an active and ongoing investigation, and as our police department uncovers the truth, that truth will be shared with the community. Given the appalling nature of Omar Torres’ own words and the allegations against him, we believe that he has lost the trust of the community and is no longer able to effectively serve the residents of District 3,” reads the joint statement by the San Jose City Council.
The statement is attributed to Mayor Matt Mahan, Vice Mayor Rosemary Kamei and Councilmembers Sergio Jimenez, David Cohen, Peter Ortiz, Dev Davis, Bien Doan, Domingo Candelas, Pam Foley and Arjun Batra.
The announcement came Wednesday, several hours after Torres’ staff sent an email pledging their commitment to District 3 constituents without any attribution to Torres himself. Police revealed their criminal investigation on Oct. 3, after serving a search warrant on Torres for the passwords to his devices. On Oct. 10, police filings revealed Torres exchanged text messages about sex with minors and texted a photo of an 11-year-old boy Torres said is autistic, with descriptions of the boy’s genitalia.
‘What took them so long?’
The San Jose Police Officers’ Association was first to call on Torres to resign amid the criminal investigation. The group renewed its call Wednesday and questioned why it took Silicon Valley leaders so long to speak out against Torres.
“Although we commend this action, we are left wondering: what took them so long?” said police union President Steve Slack. “After reading Torres’s self-admitted text messages seeking sex with underage minors and participating in an extortion scheme to keep his ‘fantasies’ and ‘role-playing’ about minors quiet, when are other leaders and organizations going to demand Torres resign?”
The demand from the council came a day after San José Spotlight questioned city policymakers about their silence on the issue.
Torres has maintained his innocence — even after acknowledging the text messages about minors through his lawyer, calling them “role-play.” The police filings show Torres was being extorted by a man in Chicago, Terry Beeks, over their lewd conversations and that Torres paid Beeks $22,000 to stop him.
Nelson McElmurry, Torres’ attorney, says the District 3 councilmember doesn’t plan to resign.
“He has not been arrested — he was only detained and he has not been charged,” McElmurry told San José Spotlight. “His goal is to continue serving constituents the way he always has. This is a distraction, but until something substantively changes in the criminal justice system related to Councilmember Torres he will continue to represent his constituents.”
The Santa Clara County Democratic Party broke its silence Wednesday, with leaders saying they are “deeply concerned” by the police affidavit which revealed Torres is being investigated for alleged “oral copulation of a minor.”
“Given the appalling nature of Omar Torres’ own words and the allegations against him, we believe that he has lost the trust of the community and is no longer able to effectively serve the residents of District 3.”
San Jose City Council
“Members of the community rightly expect their elected representatives to adhere to the highest standards of behavior in their personal and professional lives,” a statement from party leadership reads. “The message exchanges described in the Statement of Probable Cause do not meet that high standard. We call on those investigating the matter to conduct a full and transparent investigation and for all those found to have committed a crime to be held accountable.”
Before the council’s joint statement on Wednesday, Democratic Party Chair Bill James said the party is reserving further judgment — including calling for Torres to step down — until more information about the case becomes available.
But the party has in the past taken harsher stances against officials such as Mahan — voting in 2022 to “condemn” him after a supporter made racist remarks about Mahan’s mayoral opponent, Santa Clara County Supervisor Cindy Chavez, who lost the race that year. The party also asked past San Jose City Council candidate Rolando Bonilla to drop out of his race in that same year over domestic abuse allegations, which he denied. Party members also voted to censure former San Jose Councilmember and current Planning Commissioner Pierluigi Oliverio in 2018 over a sexual harassment claim filed against him in 2014 by an ex-staffer, which he denied.
James told San José Spotlight the Democratic Party made stronger statements on Mahan, Bonilla and Oliverio because “the individuals being criticized by the resolution didn’t take responsibility for conduct that was described and the central committee felt it was appropriate to make a strong statement in those cases. They weren’t acknowledging the conduct that was being complained about.”
Torres has long been close with the Democratic Party. He started with the Young Democrats almost 20 years ago as the regional director, an elected position. Torres was also a delegate for the Democratic National Convention in Chicago this past August, where he met up with the man that police say has been extorting him over their lewd conversations.
Before the joint council statement, Mahan, Doan and Candelas were the only councilmembers to react to the shocking revelations in the police affidavit. Over the past week, they voiced disgust with the text messages but stopped short of calling on Torres to resign until more information becomes available.
‘Deeply disturbing’
Jean Cohen, executive officer of the South Bay Labor Council – Silicon Valley’s powerful central labor council that endorsed Torres’ 2022 campaign – addressed the allegations Torres is facing.
“The actions Omar Torres has acknowledged and defended are deeply disturbing and disqualify him from holding public office,” she told San José Spotlight. “While he is owed due process in any criminal investigation, he no longer has the ability to properly represent the city of San Jose or his constituents. We fully support the city council’s call for his immediate resignation.”
Santa Clara County Republican Party Chair Shane Patrick Connolly, who is openly gay, said Torres’ behavior perpetuates harmful and untrue myths about the LGBTQ+ community.
“When you behave like this it dredges up these horrible stereotypes,” Connolly told San José Spotlight.
Connolly said Torres is entitled to his due process, but that it’s appropriate to step down since Torres admitted to those texts.
“I understand he’s not showing up for community events and disappeared from the public eye,” Connolly told San José Spotlight. “At this point I think it becomes difficult for him to properly represent and serve his constituents.”
Story last updated Wednesday at 5:06 p.m. Original story published at 12:14 p.m.
Contact Brandon Pho at brandon@sanjosespotlight.com or @brandonphooo on X, formerly known as Twitter.
This story originally appeared in San José Spotlight.
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