STAMFORD — A former educate who preyed on a Westport scholar has pleaded guilty to sexual attack and will spend years and eight months in prison. Juan Torres, forty-two, of Waterbury, pleaded guilty Tuesday in kingdom Superior Court in Stamford to felony 2nd-diploma sexual assault, the threat of damage to an infant, and third-degree ownership of toddler pornography, which had been pix he took of the girl naked. Torres confronted the opportunity of decades in prison after being charged with 21 counts of legal 2d-diploma sexual assault, a hazard of damage to a toddler, and employing a minor in an obscene overall performance. Torres instead popular the plea deal on Tuesday morning while his three-day trial turned into a set to begin.
Torres made the pleas below the Alford Doctrine, which allows him to disagree with the kingdom’s facts of the case, specifically that he had sex with the lady who was 14 while the incidents started in 2015. By making the plea underneath the Alford Doctrine, Torres also stipulates that he might have been convicted at trial even though he disagreed with the information of the case. Torres will spend two decades on probation after serving his prison sentence. During that time, he could be made to serve a suspended seven years and four months in jail if he violates his probation by breaking the law.
Stamford State’s Attorney Richard Colangelo, who was about to take the case to trial with Assistant State’s Attorney Michael Nemec, stated the plea settlement turned into fantastic final results. “The sufferer turned into thrilled with the disposition,” Colangelo said. “We have been ready to continue, and the defendant took the possibility to avail himself of the plea. The victim is knowing and accepting of that plea.” Defense attorney Ioannis Kaloidis and Torres declined to touch upon their manner out of the court. Kaloidis later said Torres has usually maintained his innocence and refuted what the victim informed the police.
“But he diagnosed that there has been an excellent hazard he might be convicted, and we elected to take this offer in place of risk a greater serious sentence,” Kaloidis stated. The sufferer, who reputedly was equipped to take the stand against her former train, watched Torres make his guilty plea with little show of emotion. Judge John Blawie instructed Torres to have his affairs in order and be prepared to start serving his sentence while he returns to court for sentencing on Sept. Thirteen. Bowie advised him that he risked a 25-year sentence — the maximum the law lets in for the 3 costs to which he pleaded guilty — if he did no longer show up in the courtroom to begin serving his jail sentence. Torres has been free on $ seventy-five,000 bond following his September 2017 arrest.
The Westport police investigation into Torres started in August 2017 while a 17-12 months-old Westport youngster informed her mother that she was sexually abused using her coach. The lady stated she did not comprehend what he had finished until she attended a sexual attack seminar at university. The female has become dissatisfied and contacted her therapist and disclosed that her piano and the educational train had intercourse with her usually, in step with Torres’ seven-web page arrest affidavit.
The girl came home from university and advised Westport police that Torres started assaulting her while she became 14 years vintage, the affidavit stated. The girl advised police they started their weekly classes through kissing and masturbating each other, the affidavit said. She said Torres took nude snapshots of her, and she took comparable ones of him, the affidavit stated. The girl stated the schooling sessions simplest consisted of sexual activities. The female also stated that once their emotional bond became more potent, she instructed her mom that she wanted more help in college and satisfied her with increasing sessions with Torres to 3 times every week, the affidavit stated.
The teenager informed the police that she had intercourse with Torres at least 10 instances, the affidavit stated. She said that Torres, who turned into being paid $2,500 in step with month by way of her mom, even brought her to his spouse and his 16-12 months-antique daughter, the affidavit said. In one among seven letters the female gave to police, Torres expressed his love for her. “You are stunning, splendid, hundreds of a laugh, and I stay up for connecting once more—thx for those candy phrases the day passed.
I so needed to pay attention. ‘I am so freakin in love with you’ reason it completely lines up with how I experience for you. Hope to maintain you once more,” the letter said, signed with a heart symbol, in keeping with the affidavit. When she began courting a boy her personal age, Torres became indignant and threatened to quit their dating, the affidavit stated. The youngster advised police that when she looked back on her courting with Torres, she found out that he stopped her from being a teenager or doing greater things with pals, the affidavit said. She stated Torres turned into controlling and informed her who she ought to dangle out with, in step with the affidavit.