Kristin Smart case: Flores attorneys want to disqualify DA’s Office for wearing purple ties
The defense team for the man accused of murdering Cal Poly student Kristin Smart on Wednesday moved to recuse the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office from prosecuting the case — because of the color of their clothes.
The defense motion came after prosecutor Christopher Peuvrelle and others were spotted wearing purple ties and articles of clothing in San Luis Obispo Superior Court during a preliminary hearing for Paul and Ruben Flores in what defense attorney Robert Sanger called a show of support for Smart’s family.
Prosecutors allege Smart was murdered by Paul Flores during a rape attempt in his residence hall room more than 25 years ago.
Paul Flores, 44, is the last person known to have seen the 19-year-old freshman alive after walking her back from the party toward the Cal Poly campus residence halls on May 24, 1996.
Smart’s body has never been found but investigators believe her remains were buried at the Arroyo Grande home of 80-year-old Ruben Flores, and recently moved.
Paul Flores, a San Pedro resident, is charged with one count of murder. Ruben Flores, who lives in Arroyo Grande, is charged with felony accessory after the fact.
In a motion filed on Wednesday, the defense claimed the prosecution, District Attorney’s Office representatives and some witnesses were wearing purple during the preliminary hearing “as a result of a Facebook request on the site ‘Justice for Kristin Smart.’”
Posts on the Facebook page asked for people to wear purple — Smart’s favorite color — during a Memorial Day celebration, according to the motion.
In the motion, Sanger said the decision to wear purple showed a “stunning lack of objectivity” and argued it was grounds to recuse the District Attorney’s Office from the case.
At the conclusion of the preliminary hearing, which is likely to proceed through August, Superior Court Judge Craig van Rooyen will rule whether prosecutors established probable cause — a lesser standard of proof than guilt beyond a reasonable doubt — to proceed the case toward trial.
Witnesses, prosecution wear favorite color of missing Cal Poly student
Before the beginning of testimony Tuesday, Sanger asked San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office Det. Clint Cole, the lead investigator in the Smart case, to explain why he was wearing a purple tie, as Cole has every day of the preliminary hearing.
Sanger asked whether the purple tie — Peuvrelle, the deputy district attorney prosecuting the case, has also been wearing ties containing purple — was meant to show solidarity with the Smart family.
“It’s more for Kristin Smart,” Cole said. “I believe it was her favorite color.”
Some members of the Smart family have also worn purple shirts and several have been wearing pinkish purple face masks in the audience throughout the hearing.
But Cole denied that the color coordination was the part of some larger effort.
Van Rooyen noted that he happened to be wearing a purple tie Tuesday morning.
Later in the morning session, Sanger made an oral motion to recuse the county District Attorney’s Office from continuing to prosecute the case, arguing it was “absolutely inappropriate” for investigators and prosecutors to side with the Smart family in that way given they’re supposed to be independent fact-finders.
“I can’t believe that they’d do that in this case,” Sanger said, noting that “this kind of prejudice (against Paul Flores) is what brought us here.”
“This is just what we’re not supposed to have ... (prosecutors) on a mission to convict somebody,” Sanger said.
Citing a recent case involving Black Lives Matter protesters in which the District Attorney’s Office was disqualified from prosecuting, Sanger said the biased conduct by prosecutors against his client is similar.
On Wednesday, Sanger requested a hearing on the recusal motion for Aug. 25.
He said in court that the California Attorney General’s Office, which would supposedly take over the case should San Luis Obispo County prosecutors be disqualified, was being served with legal papers in Los Angeles.
In response, Peuvrelle noted for the record that his tie on Tuesday contained red, not purple. Neither Peuvrelle nor Cole wore ties containing purple in Superior Court on Wednesday.
This story was originally published August 11, 2021 at 12:55 PM.
