Update: Judge denies move to add rape charges in Kristin Smart case, delays evidence hearing
Update, 4 p.m.:
San Luis Obispo Superior Court Judge Craig van Rooyen also tabled a discussion over a subpoena issued for Susan Flores, the mother of Paul Flores.
Susan Flores is opposing her subpoena to testify at the preliminary hearing.
Van Rooyen said that he will hear arguments between the prosecution and Susan Flores’ attorney immediately prior to the Aug. 2 preliminary hearing.
Update, 3:30 p.m.:
San Luis Obispo Superior Court Judge Craig van Rooyen denied the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office’s motion to add two rape charges against Paul Flores, saying evidence of a sexual assault in the Kristin Smart murder case was “weak.”
“There’s no evidence of a sex crime in the charged crime (the murder case) itself,” van Rooyen said. “Proof of the LA charges can’t act as a substitute ... for the SLO case.”
Van Rooyen said that, in cases where prosecutors add charges, the court has to consider whether they’re adding a strong case to a weak case, to prove the weaker case.
The judge — who called Paul Flores’ alleged conduct “very troubling and disturbing” — noted that adding additional charges when prosecutors have no physical or forensic evidence “invites error” in the case.
Van Rooyen also chose to delay a preliminary hearing, originally slated to start July 20, to Aug. 2.
The hearing will be the first time details about the investigation into Smart’s disappearance will be discussed in court testimony.
Update, 3:15 p.m.:
San Luis Obispo Superior Court Judge Craig van Rooyen on Wednesday ruled to unseal the court records in the Kristin Smart murder case related to the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office’s amended complaint.
Van Rooyen made the ruling at the request of defendant Paul Flores’ attorney, Robert Sanger.
The judge also ruled that the media and public will not be barred from the hearing, after Sanger requested to close the proceedings to the public.
“I understand your concerns,” van Rooyen said. “But the press and public have a right to criminal proceedings.”
Before a brief recess, the District Attorney’s Office also presented its amended complaint, which calls for two additional charges of rape of an intoxicated person related to incidents in 2011 and 2017 to be filed against Paul Flores.
Deputy district attorney Christopher Peuvrelle said Los Angeles police as well as the SLO County Sheriff’s Office have made contact with four women who say they were drugged and raped by Flores.
Peuvrelle said that, in a search of Paul Flores’ San Pedro home, police also found pornography on his computer titled “Real Drunken Girls Drugged and Raped While Passed Out,” as well as homemade videos showing Flores allegedly raping an intoxicated woman.
The videos were located in a computer file labeled “Practice,” according to the prosecutor.
During the 2020 search of his home, police also located two prescription drugs that could be used as date rape drugs, Peuvrelle said, as well as numerous amounts of “fetishized rape fantasy porn.”
“Paul Flores is a defendant who likes to rape and drug intoxicated women,” Peuvrelle said. “That’s who he is.”
Additionally, Peuvrelle said, on the night of Smart’s disappearance on Memorial Day weekend in 1996, multiple witnesses observed Flores forcing himself on women at a party both he and Smart attended.
Peuvrelle said that showed Flores’ intent. Smart was last seen with Paul Flores leaving that party and heading to the Cal Poly dorms that night.
Sanger argued Peuvrelle’s statements were “a closing argument with a lot of innuendo.”
“As the prosecution knows there is a lot more to this story that we’ll hear in the prelim,” Sanger said.
He cited alleged witness statements that before her disappearance, Smart had traveled to Hawaii without notifying loved ones, implying that she may have gone missing on purpose.
There was also a peeping tom incident at Smart’s dorm shortly before her disappearance, he said, that police failed to follow up on as a lead. Sanger added that three witnesses interviewed following her disappearance separately said that Smart was also rumored to have been pregnant, suggesting that might be related to her disappearance.
“(The Flores family) says they hope Kristin Smart shows up someday. She still might,” Sanger said, eliciting audible gasps from members of the Smart family seated in the audience.
But Sanger said “there is no evidence of a homicide and there’s zero evidence of a rape.”
“They’ve never come up with any evidence related to this case,” he said. “They don’t have any more evidence than they did in 1996.”
Judge van Rooyen is now expected to rule on whether those charges are within San Luis Obispo County’s jurisdiction, and can be added into the District Attorney’s Office’s case.
That decision is expected shortly.
Original story:
The two men accused in the 1996 disappearance of Cal Poly freshman Kristin Smart will make their first courtroom appearance on Wednesday.
Paul Flores, who is accused of murdering Smart, and his father Ruben, who is charged with criminal accessory, are expected to appear in San Luis Obispo Superior Court ahead of a marathon preliminary hearing set to begin Tuesday in which evidence will be presented.
That hearing is expected to last at least 12 days.
Both men will appear in court with their attorneys Wednesday, marking the first time either defendant had stepped foot into a courtroom.
Paul Flores, a 44-year-old San Pedro resident, had been appearing in court via Zoom from San Luis Obispo County Jail.
His father, 80-year-old Ruben Flores of Arroyo Grande, was released from County Jail on April 22, hours after Superior Court Judge Craig van Rooyen significantly lowered his bail because he is not a flight risk or a risk to public safety.
Ruben Flores remains out of custody.
The defendants’ attorneys are expected to argue a motion by the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office to amend their criminal complaint, which could add additional charges in the case.
The Los Angeles Times reported after a court hearing Monday that deputy district attorney Christopher Peuvrelle is expected to ask van Rooyen to add two charges of rape against Paul Flores for alleged crimes that occurred in San Pedro, where Paul has long lived.
The newspaper cited a Los Angeles police captain who said San Luis Obispo County prosecutors were looking at two sexual assaults that occurred in the San Pedro area.
Those rape charges could bolster the prosecution’s murder case by establishing a pattern of behavior, Jonathan Tippett, who oversees the Los Angeles Police Department’s Robbery-Homicide Division, told the newspaper.
District Attorney Dan Dow alleged at a news conference that Paul Flores committed Smart’s murder during the commission of a rape or attempted rape. He also said that his office was investigating sexual assault allegations made against Paul Flores by several Los Angeles-area women.
Van Rooyen is also expected to hear arguments from attorneys of several people who are challenging their subpoenas to testify during next week’s preliminary hearing.
The hearing, now scheduled to start Tuesday, will be the first time details about the investigation into Smart’s disappearance will be discussed in court testimony.
On Wednesday, Van Rooyen is expected to hear a motion by attorney Jeffry Radding, who represents Susan Flores, Paul’s mother, to quash a District Attorney’s Office subpeona to testify in the July 20 preliminary hearing.
Paul Flores faces 25 years to life if convicted of murder
Paul Flores was the last person seen with the then-19-year-old Smart before her disappearance in 1996. Her body has never been found, although investigators believe it was buried at Ruben Flores’ Arroyo Grande home and “recently” moved, according to court documents.
Paul and Ruben Flores were arrested in connection to Smart’s disappearance on April 13 in San Pedro and Arroyo Grande, respectively, and the District Attorney’s Office announced the criminal charges against the men the following day.
Paul Flores and his father pleaded not guilty at their arraignment April 19, when van Rooyen ordered Paul Flores be held without bail.
Paul Flores faces a sentence of 25 years to life if convicted of first-degree murder.
Ruben Flores faces a maximum of three years if convicted of the accessory charge, though it is not clear if that sentence would be served in County Jail or state prison.
Van Rooyen has issued a gag order preventing parties involved — including Dow and San Luis Obispo County Sheriff Ian Parkinson — from making any public statements regarding the proceedings outside the courtroom.
This story was originally published July 14, 2021 at 10:52 AM with the headline "Update: Judge denies move to add rape charges in Kristin Smart case, delays evidence hearing."
