Kristin Smart family attorney plans to file lawsuit against Ruben Flores. This is why

The Arroyo Grande attorney who has long represented the family of Cal Poly student Kristin Smart says he plans to file a civil lawsuit against the father of Smart’s alleged killer for inflicting emotional distress over the nearly quarter-century since Smart’s disappearance..

Jim Murphy said Friday that he is preparing the complaint against Arroyo Grande resident Ruben Flores, the 80-year-old father of San Pedro resident Paul Flores, who is accused of murdering Smart during the commission of rape. The complaint is expected to be filed by late next week.

When he announced charges against Paul and Ruben Flores at a news conference Wednesday, San Luis Obispo County District Attorney Dan Dow said evidence shows that Ruben Flores helped cover up Smart’s murder.

Murphy said he intends to file a civil complaint alleging Ruben Flores “inflicted severe emotional distress” on the Smart family when he not only hid, but also likely moved, Smart’s body.

“When you subject a family like the Smarts to 25 years of agony, because you’re complicit in hiding their dead daughter and then you move the body, it’s so egregious I’m absolutely confident that any jury in America would find him responsible,” Murphy said Friday. “When people do horrible things to other people, the civil justice system is the appropriate remedy.

Paul Flores, 44, was the last person seen with Smart as he walked the freshman to her dorm room following a late-night party May 25, 1996, two days before her roommate reported her missing to police.

Both men remained in San Luis Obispo County Jail on Friday — Paul Flores is being held without bail — after a scheduled arraignment before Superior Court Judge Craig van Rooyen on Thursday was continued with no pleas yet entered.

The hearing has been continued to Monday, when lead prosecutor Chris Peuvrelle is expected to argue for an increase in Ruben Flores’ bail, currently set at $250,000.

Murphy and wife Garin Sinclair’s law firm — which has a well-known sign seeking information about Smart’s disappearance outside its Arroyo Grande office — has represented the Smarts since 1997, when they filed a still-open but suspended wrongful death lawsuit against Paul Flores.

Subpoenas filed by Murphy at the time requested the entire San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office investigative report, including interviews with witnesses and Flores, physical evidence, all internal memos concerning the Smart case, and forensic reports.

Those records are part of the criminal investigation, and thus must stay confidential, essentially freezing the civil lawsuit.

Every year, a representative from the county will tell the judge at an in-chambers hearing that the criminal case remains ongoing, and records requested by the family must remain confidential, and another hearing is set for a year out. Murphy said the hope is that that lawsuit will eventually proceed.

But Murphy says his new lawsuit will be directly focused on Ruben Flores’ conduct as alleged by the District Attorney’s Office’s criminal complaint.

Ruben Flores has in the past filed for bankruptcy, Murphy said, and the attorney is currently consulting with local bankruptcy attorneys for guidance on his upcoming lawsuit.

“I’m not even sure that that bankruptcy order would prevent me for going after him,” Murphy said. “I’m going to take his assets from him, and what happens to those assets will be up to my clients.”

Asked what financial resources Ruben Flores has, Murphy cited Flores’ Arroyo Grande house, which has been the target of repeated searches.

“I’m positive he has money. He has resources,” Murphy said. “The second I file that suit, he is prohibited by law from transferring any of his assets. If he does so, I can sue him for fraudulent conveyance.”

Murphy said that he and his family have been honored to advocate for the Smart family over the decades, investing their own time and resources to the cause.

“My strategy as the family’s attorney was to keep the pressure on these people until we got ‘em,” he said. “We are so happy to be where we are right now because there is at least some small measure of peace provided to the family.”

Murphy credits county Sheriff Ian Parkinson for turning the investigation into Smart’s disappearance around after what the attorney described as more than a decade of incompetence — even resistance — from previous administrations.

With the District Attorney’s Office’s statement that Flores is suspected in past sexual assaults on women in the Los Angeles area, Murphy said that incompetence and lack of commitment by previous sheriffs may have allowed other crimes to be perpetrated.

“Paul Flores is a very, very bad guy — a serial rapist and a murderer, and for the first time in 24 years and 11 months he’s in jail and can’t hurt anyone,” Murphy said. “He’s a monster and he was out roaming the streets. And now he’s not.”

This story was originally published April 16, 2021 at 5:19 PM.

Matt Fountain

The Tribune

(805) 781-7909

Matt Fountain is The San Luis Obispo Tribune’s courts and investigations reporter. A San Diego native, Fountain graduated from Cal Poly’s journalism department in 2009 and cut his teeth at the San Luis Obispo New Times before joining The Tribune as a crime and breaking news reporter in 2014.