A Denver police detective testified Tuesday that Karen Stillman knew Eric Torrez was having sex with her daughter when the girl was as young as 13 but allowed him and his family to keep her and a twin brother anyway, never reporting the abuse to the police.
Denver County Judge Andrew S. Armatas ruled there was sufficient evidence to hold Stillman, 57, over for trial on a charge of complicity of sexual assault on a child.
“It is difficult for me to believe she did not know what was going on,” Armatas said.
Stillman’s daughter, now 21, gave birth to four children, starting at age 14.
She told the detective she was afraid to leave the Torrez home and she had to turn over all her paychecks from working at Taco Bell to Eric Torrez.
The victim said that when she was 15 and pregnant, she reported to a health care worker and a school resource officer that she had been sexually abused. When social workers came to investigate, she recanted out of fear, Detective Philip Stanford said.
DNA testing shows three of the victim’s four children were fathered by 46-year-old Eric Torrez.
The testing could not rule out Eric Torrez or his 22-year-old son, Patrick Torrez, in the paternity of her fourth child.
The victim and her brother told the detective that when they were 8 years old, their mother was homeless and turned them over to Eric Torrez, his wife, Linda, and their son, Patrick.
The three are each charged with sexual assault on a child and sexual assault on a child while in a position of trust.
Stanford testified the brother told him he was also physically abused by Eric Torrez. For discipline, Torrez made the boy lie down on a weight bench in the backyard of their house until he was sunburned.
Eric Torrez would place a plastic bag over the boy’s head and remove it before he passed out and Torrez sometimes put his hands in boiling water, the detective testified.
Stanford said that when he confronted Stillman about her children’s allegations, he said she did not have a high opinion of her son and daughter.
“She said if she knew what kind of people they were, she would have aborted them,” Stanford said.
Stillman’s defense lawyer, Susan Martin, said Stillman had a long history of mental- health issues and although she was not going to win any “mother of the year awards,” she did not know Eric Torrez was having sex with her child.
In questioning the detective, Martin suggested that Stillman always told her son and daughter they could come and live with her, but they chose to stay with the Torrez family.
Felisa Cardona: 303-954-1219 or fcardona@denverpost.com
