Trooper faces charge over stop

SEATTLE – A Washington State Patrol trooper accused of forcing sex on a woman he pulled over for drunken driving has been charged with custodial sexual misconduct.

Carlos Torres, 44, stopped the woman, identified in court papers as T.G., in June 2005, as she was driving home to Federal Way with her boyfriend and daughter.

But once she was alone and sitting, under arrest, in the back of Torres’ patrol car, the trooper began a flirtation that quickly turned explicit, court papers said.

The State Patrol has turned the investigation of the case over to the FBI.

The woman was 38 at the time. Charging papers said that after the arrest T.G. said Torres began a sexually frank discussion and asked for her e-mail address.

Investigators said they found T.G.’s e-mail address ripped into pieces in Torres’ car.

Charging papers said Torres drove the woman to the Federal Way weigh station.

“T.G. felt compelled to submit to Torres’ explicit conversations and demands for sexual contact as she was under arrest and handcuffed in the back of his patrol car,” the papers said.

Torres, who is married and has children, flatly denied the charges when reached at his Dupont home. “No, no, no,” he told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, declining further comment. His lawyer, Michael Schwartz, said the trooper was interviewed several times by the State Patrol as well as the FBI and “has always denied the allegations.”

Torres, who has been with the WSP since 1998, is on paid administrative leave.

Two other women who also were pulled over for drunken driving in 2005 have told investigators that Torres made either verbal overtures or sexually inappropriate comments toward them while they sat in the back of his patrol car. Those accusations, however, have not resulted in criminal charges.

Torres has not been arrested. He will be arraigned on May 2 at the Regional Justice Center in Kent and will enter a plea of not guilty, Schwartz said.