Streamwood man admits on videotape to having sex with teenage girl
A Streamwood man charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl admitted to authorities on videotape that he had sex with the teen, who later gave birth to his stillborn son.
Portions of the videotaped exchange, which Juan Torres made during the early morning hours of Jan. 24, 2015, were shown to jurors Tuesday, the first day of testimony in Torres' trial on charges of aggravated criminal sexual abuse.
During the videotaped interview, Torres, 47, told detective Claudio Mercado and then-Cook County Assistant State's Attorney Katherine Levine he and the girl had sex twice between July and December in 2014. He said in the interview that he had been drinking when the teen "came on to" him at a relative's home where he and his wife were living at the time and the girl "wanted" to have sex with him.
While prosecutors played the tape, Torres sat with his eyes downcast, writing on a yellow legal pad.
The girl, now 17, testified earlier in the day that Torres sexually assaulted her repeatedly during the six-month period.
"He told me not to tell anyone," said the soft-spoken, high school senior who discovered she was pregnant in December 2014. She told her mother the baby's father was a teenage boy she had been seeing. Prosecutors say the truth came out in January of 2015, when the girl spoke with Mercado. About a month later, the girl, then 15, delivered a stillborn baby boy. He was about 17 weeks old, and his DNA matched Torres, according to prosecutors.
Cook County Assistant State's Attorney Jaclyn Lantz asked the teenager why she didn't tell anyone about the abuse.
"I didn't trust anyone," said the girl, adding she felt "trapped."
During her opening statement, Cook County Assistant Public Defender Camille Bachli reminded jurors that the U.S. Constitution guarantees "the right to a fair and impartial jury" and encouraged them to listen to all the evidence before drawing any conclusions about her client.
"You can't judge a book by its cover," she said.
Torres - whose criminal history dates back 29 years and includes convictions for criminal sexual abuse, aggravated battery, retail theft and robbery - remains in Cook County jail on a $1 million bail.
Testimony continues Wednesday in Rolling Meadows.