Police charge teen with filing fake kidnapping report

SAN BENITO — A teenager who claimed she was kidnapped, beaten, burned with cigarettes, thrown into a resaca and left for dead over the weekend, was charged by San Benito Police Thursday with filing a false police report.

Stephanie Torres, 18, was arrested at her home at 10:52 a.m. Thursday by San Benito Police and taken to the city jail, Director of Public Safety Orlando Garcia said.

Following her arrest, Torres told police in an official statement that the original police report she gave on Saturday was fabricated, Garcia said.

“She’s basically a young lady who’s striving for attention,” Garcia said. “It’s unfortunate that she would go to this extreme to get attention from her mom, her dad and her boyfriend.”

Torres received much attention in the days following her report that she’d been attacked.

But police had their doubts, Garcia said.

“There were too many things that indicated that she had never been in the resaca,” Garcia said.

That led police to investigate to determine whether her story was true, Garcia said.

When police found Torres walking on the road, some of the indicators included that Torres was carrying her purse, had her cell phone and was wearing clothes that would have fallen off if she had been in a resaca, Garcia said.

Police Lt. Martin Morales first interviewed Torres Saturday and conducted a second interview Monday, he said.

“I noted to her (Monday) that there were some discrepancies in her statements,” Morales said.Afterward, Torres told Morales that she did not wish to press charges on her alleged kidnappers during the Monday interview, he said.

“I think she began to feel the pressure,” Morales said.

In her original report, Torres told police she could not remember the identities of the women involved in her alleged kidnapping or where they took her, according to the police report.

Torres appeared in court Thursday wearing a padded neck brace and with several cuts, bruises and other injuries visible.

“(The injuries) were either self-inflicted or made by other individuals with (Torres’) consent,” Garcia said.

When asked about the neck brace, Garcia responded that “it’s just for show.”

“Most of her wounds are superficial,” Garcia said.

San Benito police do not plan to charge others in the case because the individuals were cooperating with investigators, Garcia said.

The initial police report was taken Saturday after police received a call that a young woman was bleeding and walking along North Sam Houston Boulevard in San Benito, according to the police report.

Police found the woman in the 1900 block of North Sam Houston Boulevard and noticed she had small cuts on her legs, arms, stomach, face and back area, the report said.

Torres told police she had been kidnapped by four females, the police report said.

“Torres advised she was taken to an unknown house and tied up to a chair,” the police report said.

She said she was cut and stabbed with knives and spanked on her back with a paddle, the police report said.

She said she was then put in a vehicle and left somewhere in the Sam Houston Boulevard area, the report said.

She told police that her kidnappers threw her into a resaca, Garcia said.

She was arraigned at 3:30 p.m. Thursday by Justice of the Peace Julian Sanchez, who set her bond at $15,000. The charge of filing a false police report is a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail.

During the arraignment, Torres said “yes” when Sanchez asked if she wanted a city-appointed attorney.

After Torres’ arrest, her uncle Oscar Medrano said that his niece is “troubled” and needs help to understand why she devised this “hoax.”