POLK COUNTY, Minn. – A Crookston man failed to appear in Polk County court on Thursday, April 6, because he was transferred to federal custody on federal child pornography charges last month.
Jorge Alberto Torres Jr., 51, has three open felony cases in Polk County, which allege he engaged in sexual contact with children.
Torres was being held at the Northwest Regional Corrections Center until March 13, when he was transferred to federal custody on two counts of child pornography production.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, a first-time offender convicted of producing child pornography is required to serve a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison. The maximum sentence is 30 years.
Since he is in federal custody, Torres didn’t show up for his Polk County omnibus hearing on April 6, and now there’s a warrant out for his arrest. However, it’s likely there will be no movement in those cases until the federal case’s resolution.
ADVERTISEMENT
Torres is facing four felony charges in total across his three Polk County cases. In one of his cases, he is charged with two counts of felony soliciting a child to engage in a sexual act. These charges have maximum penalties of three years in prison and $5,000 in fines.
According to an affidavit in the case, an unlicensed child care center was being run out of Torres’ home. During law enforcement’s investigation, they determined Torres was “producing child pornography of his victims by hiding a camera in the bathroom and taking videos of his victims while they were in the shower.”
A camera and cell phone were seized from the residence, the affidavit said.
In the other two cases, he is charged with one count of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, which has a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison and $40,000 in fines. There is also a mandatory minimum sentence of 144 months, which is 12 years.
According to an affidavit in the case, Polk County Social Services received a report that Torres “may have sexually assaulted a seven year old girl who was at the Torres child care center,” the affidavit said.
The girl gave a forensic interview corroborating this, according to the affidavit.
In the other case, a 16-year-old girl “reported to a school official that she had been sexually abused [by Torres] since the age of eight years old,” the affidavit said.
Torres is scheduled for a motions hearing in his federal case on April 27.
ADVERTISEMENT
The Trust Project
