Pasco councilman target of sexual assault investigation

Pasco’s newest City Council member is being investigated on allegations he twice inappropriately touched a young girl.

Chi Flores has been ordered to have no contact with the neighborhood girl for the next five months, according to a temporary sexual assault protection order signed by a Franklin County Superior Court judge.

Meanwhile, Prosecutor Shawn Sant confirmed Tuesday that his office has received a new referral on Flores from the Pasco Police Department.

Sant — who is in training this week — said the file has not yet been assigned to a deputy prosecutor and might not be done until next week. The police reports will be reviewed like other cases that are sent over for screening to determine if criminal charges are warranted, he said.

Richland attorney Scott Johnson is confident that his client will not be charged. Johnson was hired by Flores to represent him on both the civil protection order and the criminal investigation.

“We have investigated the allegations ourselves and there is absolutely no truth to the allegations at all,” Johnson told the Herald, speaking on behalf of Flores.

“The timeline doesn’t make sense. The specifics of the allegations don’t make sense. Other witnesses that were in the room at the time of the allegations say that the allegations did not happen,” Johnson added. “So I am confident that there are not going to be charges filed on this case.”

Flores was appointed to the City Council in October to replace the late councilman Mike Garrison, and sworn in Nov. 7. He was unanimously selected by the rest of the council from five finalists, and is the second sitting Latino member.

Flores represents District 4, which extends from Convention Drive west to Broadmoor Boulevard and Road 100, and crosses over Interstate 182 from Argent Road on the south to the northern city limits.

All seven Pasco council seats are up for election this year as part of a new council district system approved by a federal judge. The filing period starts Monday, and Johnson said Flores does plan to file to retain his position.

“We have very serious, serious questions about the motivation to make this report, especially in light of the fact that there just is no credible evidence,” Johnson said. “In fact, there is no evidence at all and there is credible evidence that nothing happened.”

“Here you’ve got the most serious allegation that you can make against somebody and it’s being done at a time when people are starting to make decisions about filing,” he added. “The last thing (Flores) is going to have happen is let a false allegation intimidate him into not serving the public. He loves being a councilman.”

Janell Waters, a Northwest Justice Project attorney, filed a petition April 12 for the protection order for the grade-school girl and her parents.

The girl’s older brother reportedly told his father in late March that his sister claimed Flores “had touched her in an inappropriate place,” the petition said. The girl alleged that both times she had been at Flores’ home.

It is not known when the allegations happened, but the petition said the girl had only been to the house once since last summer because she claimed Flores became mad and scared her.

The parents said since Flores lives in their neighborhood and they’ve gone to the police, they’re “worried that he might try and talk to her about what happened, or maybe even threaten her.”

The protection order file includes a declaration from Detective Chris Caicedo, who said an alleged sex crime was reported March 30 to the department.

Caicedo said the family’s lawyer had requested his report on the matter, but since “this is an open investigation, the report for this matter is not releasable at this time.”

Flores must not come within 250 feet of the girl or her family while the civil order is in place.

Johnson said Judge Vic VanderSchoor on April 24 extended the temporary order to Oct. 2 while they wait for a decision from the prosecutor’s office.

This story was originally published May 9, 2017 at 6:44 PM with the headline "Pasco councilman target of sexual assault investigation."