Trooper charged with sexual misconduct in 2005 DUI stop

View the article here

04/20/2007

King County prosecutors have charged a Washington State Patrol trooper with a sex crime after he allegedly stopped a woman on suspicion of drunken driving in June 2005 and touched her sexually.

Carlos Torres, a 44-year-old DuPont resident, was charged Thursday with one count of first-degree custodial sexual misconduct, a class C felony that is punishable by six to 12 months in jail. He’s out of custody and will be arraigned on the charge May 2 at the Regional Justice Center in Kent, said Dan Donohoe, spokesman for the King County Prosecutor’s Office.

His lawyer, Michael Schwartz, said the trooper was interviewed several times by the State Patrol as well as the FBI and “has always denied the allegations.”
- He's in denial! I'm being sarcastic. This is the same BS they say when an average citizen denies charges...

According to court documents, three women independently filed complaints with the Washington State Patrol during mid-June 2005 that accused Torres of making inappropriate and sexually explicit comments with them after they were stopped for suspected drunken driving.

The State Patrol turned over the investigation to the FBI. Federal agents, along with the State Patrol’s criminal investigation division, investigated the claims.

The court documents make the following claims:

One woman, identified as T.G., told investigators that Torres pulled her over June 23, 2005, as she headed to her Federal Way home with her boyfriend and daughter. Torres arrested the woman on suspicion of drunken driving and put her in the back of his patrol car.

He took the woman to the Fife Police Department for a Breathalyzer test, then to the Puyallup Tribal Police Department for another Breathalyzer test when the first wasn’t taken. During the car ride, he made comments about oral sex and asked the woman what she liked.

Torres planned to book the woman into Pierce County Jail after she blew a .055, but when the jail was full he drove her around Tacoma and then to the Federal Way truck scales, where he parked behind the weigh station.

The trooper made comments about how he’d had sex in the back of his patrol car and in the weigh station with other women he’d arrested.

The woman told investigators Torres touched and put his mouth on one of her breasts. She claimed he also touched her genital area.

The woman told FBI agents she “felt compelled to submit to Torres’ explicit conversations and demands for sexual contact. She said she felt this way as she was under arrest and handcuffed in the back of his patrol car.”

During his interview with FBI agents in September 2005, Torres denied having sexual contact with the woman. He also said he avoids talking with female suspects during arrests.

Another woman told investigators she and Torres exchanged e-mails, phone calls and had sex after Torres arrested her on suspicion of drunken driving in May 2005. She ended the relationship.

A third woman reported that Torres pulled her over June 1, 2005, as she headed to her mother’s house. He placed her under arrest on suspicion of drunken driving. He said he’d give her a ride home. During the ride, he asked the woman about her relationship with her husband and made sexual comments.

Federal agents interviewed eight other women Torres had pulled over between 2004 and 2005 on suspicion of drunken driving. Five said Torres was professional. Two voiced concerns over Torres’ behavior – one said he talked about hot tubbing, the other take he talked dirty when they were in the car.