A kidnapping and rape case that involved an Española woman who was allegedly “traded” for drugs was almost dismissed before the trial began Monday because of missing evidence.
State District Court Judge Michael Vigil told the court in Santa Fe it was a “close call” whether to dismiss rape, kidnapping, burglary and conspiracy charges against Herman Flores Jr., 23, and kidnapping and conspiracy charges against his father, Herman Flores Sr., 45, after public defender Sidney West accused Española Police of disposing of exculpatory evidence.
West filed the pretrial motion to dismiss the charges because a set of love letters the victim sent Flores Jr. went missing while in the possession of police.
Flores Jr. claimed the approximately 15 letters were in his father’s car when he was arrested. The car was processed for evidence by State Police, then kept in evidence by Española Police until it was released to Flores Towing in Santa Fe, which happens to be owned by Flores Sr.’s cousin, according to statements made in court.
State Police did photograph Flores Jr.’s belongings in the car, including what he claims are the letters. Flores Jr. said he told Española Police Sgt. Christian Lopez that the letters were in the car, and that Lopez told him to let his attorney know about the letters. In the recorded interview Lopez had with the victim, he asked her whether it was true she sent letters to Flores “saying you loved him and missed him.” Flores responded that she did send the letters.
“I can’t believe we would take a picture of (the letters) and not keep them,” Vigil said. “I’d like to hear (Lopez’s) thought process when he saw letters and didn’t preserve them.”
Lopez had to be interrogated over the phone since he was out of town on vacation. He said he never saw the letters in the car and didn’t know they were there. Prosecutor Joe CampBell even admitted that the photograph of the alleged letters appeared to show rolled up pieces of paper, but bristled at West’s suggestion the state lost the evidence on purpose.
“It’s very clear that this was Mr. Flores’ property,” West said. “I feel like this was intentional, Judge.”
“That’s so much bull,” CampBell responded.
After the car was returned to the towing company, the Flores’ family attempted to retrieve it but were told Española Police still had an investigative hold on the vehicle, according to statements made in court. Meanwhile, the car and its contents were sold for parts.
Although Vigil denied the motion, he said he would allow the defense leeway in discussing the letters as though they existed, and said Lopez should have taken a more active role in the car being processed for evidence.
The state was therefore able to proceed in presenting its evidence in a case so strange that it drew national media attention earlier this year. The victim, a 20-year-old Wal-Mart employee, alleges Flores Jr. and his father abducted her March 28 from Santa Clara Apartments and drove her to Santa Fe, where Flores Jr. allegedly raped her before police found them the following morning. She claims that months before this incident she had escaped from the defendants’ home after being traded by her brother as part of a drug transaction.
The first alleged crime was never reported to police, but the second one was reported by the victim’s boyfriend, who received frantic text messages from her and found cryptic notes in her apartment, written in red sharpie and glittery green eye makeup.
“I hiding in bathroom if I don’t make it help me… baby they looking through my (expletive) I scared they took my phone my cards,” one of the notes reads.
A broken plate and general disarray were found in the apartment because the victim hurled things at the Floreses in self-defense, or, according to the defense’s theory, because she staged the incident, “for what reason, we can’t imagine,” Flores Sr.’s public defender Cindy Turcotte said in her opening statement.
Most of the first and second day (Tuesday) of trial were taken up with the victim’s testimony. Many details brought out in direct questioning and cross-examination of the victim bring into question the credibility of her story:
• The victim texted and called her boyfriend Stephen Martinez while being transported to Santa Fe and while in Santa Fe, although he did not have service at his parents’ Chimayó home. She did not call 911 or call Martinez’s landline at any time during the ordeal.
• The night of the alleged abduction, the victim received text messages from Flores Jr. stating he missed her and wanted his jacket back. The victim admitted to calling him back several times that night because they were “arguing” about the jacket.
• The victim supposedly rode with Flores Jr. in the back seat of his father’s car all the way to Santa Fe with her head forced down out of view, yet she was able to text and call Martinez repeatedly without Flores Jr. noticing.
• During the abduction the Floreses allegedly brought the victim’s dirty laundry and other belonging she threw at them in self-defense. However, photographs entered into evidence of her belongings contained such necessities as shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, tampons, nail polish remover and a curling iron, allegedly packed for her by the Floreses.
• The victim at first didn’t tell police that she was taken against her will, because she was afraid of retaliation from Flores Jr. Once removed from his presence, the victim did report the kidnapping but not the rape
• When the victim later described the rape to Lopez, she said she didn’t struggle, believing it to be futile. However she testified how she “screamedt for her life” and attempted to punch and kick Flores Jr. She also told Lopez the rape lasted 30 minutes, but testified in court it lasted no more than five minutes.
• Although the victim claimed her brother traded her to Flores Jr. for drugs, she claimed they never had a sexual relationship, although she told the sexual assault nurse examiner he was a former “intimate partner.”
• The victim told Lopez she was bitten by Flores Jr. on the inner thigh. However, no injuries were found by the examiner, and she claimed on the stand never to have been bitten.
Flores Jr. was overheard Monday telling a relative that the state offered him a plea deal entailing nine months probation.
“Don’t take no plea offer,” the family member responded. “You didn’t do anything,” .
The trial is set to continue Wednesday (11/26).