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Confessions in Saguaro sex abuse case tossed
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Tom Porras
Two confessions made to police by a former Scottsdale Saguaro High School assistant football coach that he fondled a teenage girl during a massage at his home last spring will not be allowed in court.
Special Report: Tribune looks into sexual misconducts in schools
Saguaro High substitute teacher and coach arrested on suspicion of sexual abuse
In a three-page ruling released Tuesday, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Helene Abrams ruled Friday that Scottsdale police violated Tom Porras’ right to remain silent when he was questioned by detectives in April.
Porras, 49, was arrested on April 26 a day after a 17-year-old student-athlete at the school told police Porras had pulled her bikini bottoms down and inappropriately touched her before performing a sexual act.
Authorities confiscated an exercise ball the girl had been resting on during the massage and a T-shirt from Porras’ house while executing a search warrant, according to county court documents.
Porras, also a substitute teacher at the school, was fired and charged with felony sex abuse and misdemeanor public sexual indecency.
However, what Porras told police during questioning at the high school and later at the police station cannot be used against him because he tried to invoke his right to remain silent at least three times when he was in custody, Abrams stated in her ruling.
“The detectives never ceased questioning Mr. Porras after he requested that they do so,” Abrams stated in the ruling.
Porras’ attorney, Amy Nguyen, had filed a motion to eliminate the confessions in November, and the decision marks a victory for Porras.
“I think it’s the right decision under the law, and that’s why I filed the motion,” Nguyen told the Tribune on Tuesday. “This sends a clear message to law enforcement that his confession can’t be used at the expense of his constitutional rights.”
During a hearing involving the case on Tuesday, assistant Maricopa County prosecutor John Beatty said the prosecutor’s office is considering its options to appeal the judge’s decision.
The next scheduled hearing on the case is Feb. 26.
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