‘There may be additional victims.’ DA wants information on potential Paul Flores sex assaults

The San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office believes Paul Flores may have sexually assaulted other victims in Southern California, and investigators helping to prosecute Kristin Smart’s alleged murder want to hear from them.

District Attorney Dan Dow announced on Wednesday that his office had filed a murder charge against Flores, 44, of San Pedro for allegedly killing Smart in 1996 “while committing or attempting to commit a rape.”

The county Sheriff’s Office on Tuesday arrested Flores, who was the last person seen with Smart nearly 25 years ago, on suspicion of killing her while the two were students at Cal Poly. Deputies also arrested Flores’ father, 80-year-old Ruben Flores of Arroyo Grande, on suspicion of being an accessory to Smart’s murder after the fact.

Dow said he cannot prosecute Flores for the sexual assault because the statute of limitations for that crime has expired. But he plans to use the attempted-rape allegation as the “basis for filing first-degree felony charges” against Flores.

Dow’s office believes Flores may have sexually assaulted other victims in Los Angeles County, where he’s spent much of his adult life. Information from victims Flores has encountered since 2005 could help support the district attorney’s case against him, as prosecutors “intend to use evidence of other sexual crimes in this prosecution to prove the facts necessary for the attempted rape in this case.”

Dow believes information from Southern California sexual assault victims would strengthen the attempted rape allegation, which could, in turn, help improve the first-degree murder case against Flores.

“We do have evidence in this case that leads us to conclude that there very well may be additional victims in the Southern California area,” he said. “I don’t want to go into the nature of that, but he was known to frequent bars in the San Pedro area and in Los Angeles County. And so we would ask that anybody that may have had an experience with him that they have questions about, for them to reach out and contact law enforcement.”

Dow encouraged potential victims, or “anybody that may have had an experience with (Flores) that they have questions about,” to contact San Luis Obispo County Crime Stoppers at 805-549-7867 or slotips.org.

“We need all the information we can (get),” Dow said. “We want you, if you have information that’s helpful, to come forward. If you’ve been a victim in another location, perhaps in San Pedro, we want you to come forward to law enforcement, so that you can get assistance that you need, and it may help us in this particular case, as well.”

If you or someone you know is a victim of sexual assault, here are many ways to get help. If you’re a Cal Poly student, you can get help and find resources through Cal Poly Safer at safer.calpoly.edu. All San Luis Obispo County residents can reach out to RISE SLO at riseslo.org or 805-226-5400. National organizations that support sexual assault victims include the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) hotline at 1-800-656-4673 or rainn.org, the Anti-Violence Project hotline at 212-714-1141 and the Safe Horizon hotline at 1-800-621-4673.

This story was originally published April 15, 2021 at 10:00 AM with the headline "‘There may be additional victims.’ DA wants information on potential Paul Flores sex assaults."

Lindsey Holden

The Tribune

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Lindsey Holden writes about housing, San Luis Obispo County government and everything in between for The Tribune in San Luis Obispo. She became a staff writer in 2016 after working for the Rockford Register Star in Illinois. Lindsey is a native Californian raised in the Midwest and earned degrees from DePaul and Northwestern universities.