Crime & Safety
Newport Councilor Florez Expected In District Court Wednesday
Councilor John Florez was given a summons for allegedly making a threat over the phone to a 13-year-old boy who was harassing his daughter.
NEWPORT, RI — Councilor John Florez, 46, is due in court to face a judge on Wednesday. He is being charged with Crank or Obscene Calls. Newport police gave him a summons on Monday but did not release the arrest report because detectives were still working on it. Tuesday afternoon, the department released a statement stating police allege Florez threatened a boy, 13, who had been sending sexually explicit and threatening messages to his daughter, who just turned 13.
Earlier, Florez confirmed he did receive a summons.
Meantime, the police sent out this update explaining the basis for the charge.
Find out what's happening in Newportfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
The charge stems from a report filed by a family member on December 4, 2017 in regards to Mr. Florez’ minor child receiving sexually explicit text messages on their phone from another minor. The messages were discovered on December 2, 2017.
The family member indicated that Mr. Florez contacted the minor on December 2, 2017 and advised that he did not want his child contacted any further by this minor. The family member also indicated that the minor then called Mr. Florez repeatedly throughout the course of the night.
The family member indicated they were only filing the police report on the recommendations of a Family Court Judge in an effort to obtain a restraining order against the minor child who was sending the text messages. The family member indicated to Newport Police Detectives that they did not wish to pursue charges; they only wanted the minor to stop sending the messages.
During the course of their investigation, Newport Police Detectives developed probable cause that Mr. Florez had called the minor and made several explicit threats to harm the minor.
The story broke Tuesday morning because Florez went to the daily newspaper with the information about his arrest. Patch asked for a comment, and he sent a statement, saying in part that a young boy had sent his daughter obscene messages over social media and threatened to choke her. He made one call asking to speak to the boy's guardian in an attempt to persuade the boy to stay away.
Find out what's happening in Newportfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Click here for the newspaper's report.
Patch will update this story.
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.
