Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / 30 Years for Pervert 'Prophet' Pediatrician Convicted of Sex Abusing Young Patients | Crime Alert 6AM 12.19.25
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Crime Alart hourly update breaking crime news. Now a former
- 0:04Speaker 1: Maryland pediatrician who claimed demonic entities made his victims lie
- 0:11Speaker 1: about sex abuse. Now he's sentenced. One recent eleven year
- 0:15Speaker 1: old victim reports to her mom seventy four year old
- 0:18Speaker 1: Ernesto Cesar Tortis molested her during a pediatric exam. Authorities
- 0:24Speaker 1: then find at least twenty four victims, all very young
- 0:28Speaker 1: female patients from Tortoise medical practice.
- 0:31Speaker 2: I'm Sidney Sumner. Judge William Nicholas sentenced seventy four year
- 0:35Speaker 2: old Torres of Friedrich, Maryland, to thirty years for sexual
- 0:39Speaker 2: abuse of a minor in three counts of third degree
- 0:41Speaker 2: sex offense. On May seventh, twenty nineteen, Friedrich police received
- 0:46Speaker 2: a call from the mother of an eleven year old
- 0:48Speaker 2: victim to report that her child had been sexually abused
- 0:51Speaker 2: by Torres during a pediatric exam in his office. The
- 0:54Speaker 2: mother told police she brought her child to Torres to
- 0:57Speaker 2: treat a mild skin condition, but that her child's said
- 1:00Speaker 2: Torres made her uncomfortable by placing his hand down her
- 1:03Speaker 2: pants and touching her down there. In addition, the child
- 1:06Speaker 2: described Torres rubbing her stomach repeatedly and kissing her. FPD
- 1:10Speaker 2: contacted Child Protective Services and the Child Advocacy Center, who
- 1:14Speaker 2: conducted a forensic interview with the victim. Torres was subsequently
- 1:18Speaker 2: arrested at his medical practice. After the initial allegation. A
- 1:22Speaker 2: judge allowed the pediatrician to continue seeing patients, but he
- 1:25Speaker 2: later agreed to stop practicing medicine as part of the
- 1:28Speaker 2: terms of his bail. As the investigation continued, detectives identified
- 1:32Speaker 2: twenty four victims, all young female patients, who saw Torres
- 1:36Speaker 2: between nineteen eighty and twenty eighteen.
- 1:39Speaker 3: Some of the parents said that they thought that he
- 1:41Speaker 3: was doing an abdominal survey. Meanwhile he had his hand
- 1:45Speaker 3: down her pants and what was commanding a sex offense
- 1:48Speaker 3: right in front of the mother.
- 1:50Speaker 2: State's attorney, Charlie Smith, initially charged Torres with ninety seven
- 1:54Speaker 2: criminal counts of sexually abusing dozens of his juvenile patients,
- 1:58Speaker 2: but the court ordered the indictment beside by victim. Trial
- 2:01Speaker 2: proceeded on count twenty four sexual abuse of a minor
- 2:05Speaker 2: and counts twenty five, twenty six, and twenty seven sexual
- 2:08Speaker 2: offense in the third degree, representing three years of sexual
- 2:12Speaker 2: abuse on mh from age nine to eleven. At sentencing,
- 2:16Speaker 2: the doctor claimed he was a prophet in a previous
- 2:18Speaker 2: life and demonic entities are possessing the victims, making them
- 2:23Speaker 2: lie about experiencing abuse at his hands.
- 2:26Speaker 3: He blamed the victims. He did not take responsibility for
- 2:29Speaker 3: his actions, which I thought was just egregious. I mean
- 2:32Speaker 3: he already traumatized them bi sexually molesting. To traumatize this
- 2:35Speaker 3: young girl again by saying she's possessed by demons.
- 2:38Speaker 2: Mh told the court, I now can't trust male authority.
- 2:41Speaker 2: My childhood was taken away from me. Upon release, Torres
- 2:45Speaker 2: will serve five years of probation in lifetime sex offender
- 2:48Speaker 2: supervision on the registry, but prosecutors say they aren't done
- 2:52Speaker 2: yet and hope Torres will spend the rest of his
- 2:54Speaker 2: life behind bars.
- 2:55Speaker 3: We're looking forward to prosecuting the other cases, getting consecutive sentences,
- 3:00Speaker 3: so that the number of years that he has to
- 3:01Speaker 3: serve are going to be far longer than the number
- 3:04Speaker 3: of days he has on this earth.
- 3:07Speaker 2: In California, a jury deadlocked on a verdict for a
- 3:10Speaker 2: mother who left her children in a hot car while
- 3:12Speaker 2: she received lip filler. Maya Hernandez's older son survived, but
- 3:17Speaker 2: his baby brother, Emilio did not. A current County jury
- 3:20Speaker 2: convicted Hernandez on two counts of child endangerment Thursday. They
- 3:24Speaker 2: deadlocked on second degree murder and involuntary manslaughter. The jurors
- 3:28Speaker 2: questioned implied malice in connection with the murder charge. Under
- 3:32Speaker 2: California Penal Code one eight eight, implied malice means the
- 3:36Speaker 2: deliberate intention to unlawfully take away a life. Twenty year
- 3:39Speaker 2: old Maya Hernandez is accused of leaving her two children,
- 3:43Speaker 2: ages one and two, strapped inside car seats inside her
- 3:46Speaker 2: vehicle as she visited the Always Beautiful Medspa in Bakersfield
- 3:50Speaker 2: on June twenty ninth for a lip injection procedure. At
- 3:53Speaker 2: around four point thirty pm, Hernandez allegedly returned to her car,
- 3:57Speaker 2: a twenty twenty two Toyota Corolla Hybrid, and discovered one
- 4:00Speaker 2: year old Amelio Gutierras in distress and foaming at the mouth.
- 4:04Speaker 2: A customer took his two year old brother into a
- 4:07Speaker 2: restroom and poured water on his face while first responders arrived.
- 4:11Speaker 2: Although the two year old survived the incident, Amelia was
- 4:14Speaker 2: pronounced dead after failed resuscitation attempts. Their grandmother, Katie Martinez,
- 4:18Speaker 2: is devastated by the loss in Hernando's's actions.
- 4:21Speaker 4: I couldn't stop screaming. I just kept picturing them alone.
- 4:29Speaker 4: They were strapped in their car seats. They couldn't even
- 4:31Speaker 4: get up to save themselves. She literally locked them in
- 4:35Speaker 4: their car seats and shut the doors. I can't even
- 4:37Speaker 4: imagine what they went through.
- 4:39Speaker 2: Hernandez told police that she left the children inside the
- 4:42Speaker 2: vehicle with the air conditioner on, while an employee reportedly
- 4:45Speaker 2: said the children could have stayed in the waiting room
- 4:47Speaker 2: during the procedure. The employee said when booking the appointment,
- 4:51Speaker 2: Hernandez asked if she could bring her children with her,
- 4:54Speaker 2: to which she replied that wouldn't be a problem and
- 4:56Speaker 2: they could stay in the waiting room during her procedure.
- 4:59Speaker 2: A nurse at the sp said that Hernandez made no
- 5:01Speaker 2: mention of the children being with her when she arrived.
- 5:04Speaker 2: A bystander who grabbed the two year old from the
- 5:06Speaker 2: car said that the AC was not turned on. The
- 5:09Speaker 2: vehicle's manufacturer indicated that the air conditioner automatically turns off
- 5:14Speaker 2: after an hour of inactivity. According to what an expert
- 5:17Speaker 2: told Bakersfield Police the lit procedure typically takes around fifteen
- 5:21Speaker 2: to twenty minutes. The police said Hernandez left the children
- 5:24Speaker 2: in the car for over two hours since the day
- 5:27Speaker 2: in question at the SPA had been unusually busy.
- 5:30Speaker 4: She just stood there with her lips done. That's what
- 5:33Speaker 4: she gave his life for, was to have that look
- 5:35Speaker 4: on her.
- 5:36Speaker 2: The judge ruled that since the jury deadlocked on the
- 5:39Speaker 2: murder charge, a mistrial would be declared for both murder
- 5:42Speaker 2: and manslaughter. A status hearing has been set for January twelfth.
- 5:46Speaker 2: During the hearing, it will be decided whether Hernandez will
- 5:49Speaker 2: be retried for murder and manslaughter. For the latest crime
- 5:53Speaker 2: and justice breaking news, be sure to follow the Crime
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- 5:58Speaker 2: crime Alert I'm Sydney some Earth