Kristin Smart case: Investigators believe the body was buried and moved ‘recently’, court document says

The court documents – bail reports filed by the prosecution and obtained by the San Luis Obispo Tribune newspaper – detail arguments against bail-down and the release of both Paul Flores and his father.

The documents, published online and confirmed by the court as authentic, were “accidentally accessed” and “not intended to be disclosed,” San Luis Obispo Superior Court spokesman Nikki Rodriguez told CNN.

Smart disappeared from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo nearly 25 years ago. Paul Flores, the last person to see Smart alive, has been charged with murder, although her body has never been recovered. Ruben Flores is accused of helping his son hide Smart’s body after she was murdered.

Both men pleaded not guilty to charges of first degree murder and complicity on Monday. They have been in prison since their arrests on the morning of April 13.

A detective from a sheriff’s office stated in the case that the detectives “are in possession of biological evidence leading them to believe the victim was once buried under the suspect’s deck.”

Prosecutors in the document also accused Paul Flores of being a “serial rapist,” an accusation that was first made public.

“Dozens of women have related the sexual assaults and predatory behavior of Paul Flores documenting his twenty-five years as a serial rapist,” Deputy District Attorney Christopher Peuvrelle wrote in the report.

Los Angeles Police Department officials confirmed last week that Paul Flores is under investigation for sexual assault in Los Angeles County, and police have filed two cases with the LA County District Attorney’s Office.

Peuvrelle urged the court to hold Paul Flores in custody and warned that if he were released, “the court would put a serial rapist back on the street and give him the freedom to victimize even more women.”

A judge ruled on Monday that Paul Flores should be held without bail.

Ruben Flores was initially held in San Luis Obispo County Jail on $ 250,000 bail. His attorney Harold Mesick requested a bail cut, arguing that the 80-year-old defendant posed no flight risk and is in poor health, has had triple heart bypass surgery and is suffering from colitis and diabetes.

However, Peuvrelle argued in his report that “The excavation beneath his deck … showed devastating evidence that a body had been buried at that site and then recently moved.”

The prosecutor noted that it is reasonable to believe that Ruben Flores knows where Smart’s remains are, and ventured that if he were released on bail, Flores would use his freedom to continue his efforts to get Paul Flores to thwart the prosecution in this case and to continue to hide her remains. . “

Smart’s family also opposed a cut in bail by calling Ruben Flores a “coward” and fearing that “his release on bail poses a direct threat to the safety of our family.”

On Wednesday, Judge Craig Van Rooyen, judge at the San Luis Obispo Supreme Court, lowered Ruben Flores’ bail to $ 50,000 under conditions.

The judge ordered that if Ruben Flores is released, he must wear an electronic recording device, not leave San Luis Obispo County, and return his passport 24 hours after returning home.

None of the lawyers involved in the case would comment on a gag ban.

“There is a protection order banning our office from publicly discussing the matter,” Eric Dobroth, deputy district attorney at San Luis Obispo, told CNN on Wednesday.

Robert Sanger, attorney for Paul Flores, had no comment, nor did Mesick, who previously called the evidence in the case “so minimal as to shock the conscience.”

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