Court Hearing Continued: Former Newport Councilor Florez

NEWPORT, RI—The hearing for John Florez, the former Newport city councilor facing a crank calls charge, has been continued to Valentine's Day. Florez, 46, had a pretrial conference in district court Tuesday. Earlier, he pleaded innocent.

Newport police allege he threatened a boy, 13, who had been sending sexually explicit and threatening messages to his daughter, who just turned 13. Last month, police released this statement.

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 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.

Police later added the state Attorney General's office opted not to press charges against the minor and a juvenile friend for allegedly making repeated calls to Florez.

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