Cleared by a jury of child molestation, this Ex-Pasco councilman wants to heal and move on

Ten months after a young girl told relatives and a school counselor that she’d been molested at a friend’s Pasco home, a jury determined the evidence wasn’t there.

Chi Flores, 39, was acquitted Monday following a seven-day trial on two counts of first-degree child molestation.

The former Pasco councilman, who lost his seat just months after the allegations surfaced, felt relieved but says he doesn’t understand why he was targeted.

“I’ve said since the beginning that these accusations are totally false, and I just feel vindicated today that I can now move on with my life,” Flores said at a news conference with his lawyer.

“It was shocking when these things came out. I just didn’t know where these things came from and it was a shock to us,” he added. “You go through a string of emotions, from anger to sadness, but it was very difficult for us to understand and I don’t know that we will ever understand why.”

The girl testified during the Franklin County Superior Court trial, but prosecutors were prohibited from using any of her prior statements to family, the school employee or police.

Flores did not take the stand.

“I am disappointed in the result, but respect the jury’s verdict,” Deputy Prosecutor Maureen Astley told the Herald. “With approximately four hours of deliberation time, I am confident they took their duty seriously.”

The jury spent three hours Friday afternoon reviewing the evidence and testimony, including asking to re-watch video of Flores’ short interview with Pasco police investigators. Jurors returned for another hour Monday morning before announcing they had reached a unanimous decision.

Flores hugged his wife and cried “tears of joy” after the verdict was read.

“These 12 people who I’ve never met before in my life, who knew nothing about this case, saw the evidence or lack of evidence and saw that this was absolutely not true,” he said.

Flores was accused of inappropriately touching the grade-school girl on two occasions in 2016.

The girl told her brother and then her entire family in late March 2017. She could not remember specific times of when the alleged molestations happened, saying it was sometime between summer 2016 and the end of that year.

The girl earlier told her parents that Flores had hurt her arm, and she was scared to go back to his house.

Astley told jurors that original story was a coverup for what really happened, and that delayed disclosures weren’t uncommon with young victims.

Flores was charged in May. He had filed to keep his Pasco City Council seat, but was challenged by five others and lost in the primary election.

“When someone is charged with a crime like this, just the charge itself is so heinous there’s no way he was going to be able to keep that seat,” said defense attorney Scott Johnson. “It’s a horrible, unintended consequence of these charges. He’s lost a lot.”

Flores’ job was put on hold until the criminal case resolved. He said Monday that he hopes to be back at work soon, because his family was hurt financially by the allegations.

“It’s still very surreal that this horrible chapter in my life is over and I’m moving on,” he said. “It’s still sinking in. My family and I … we’re just going to continue to heal.”

Johnson had argued that the girl’s arm-twisting story actually was the truth, but police and prosecutors got “tunnel vision” and only focused on the story they wanted.

“It hasn’t been a fair process. … The equalizer in this case was the jury,” said Johnson, pointing out that some evidence was not disclosed until just days before trial.

“It was always our point that something, that this case doesn’t add up. It doesn’t make sense. This accusation isn’t true, and we pushed and pushed on that,” he added. “Only until the jury heard the whole truth was Chi able to be exonerated for a case that he never should have been charged with.”

This story was originally published January 22, 2018 at 7:48 PM with the headline "Cleared by a jury of child molestation, this Ex-Pasco councilman wants to heal and move on."