EASTON, Pa. — A Northampton County jury on Tuesday convicted a Bethlehem man of sexually abusing a girl for years, six months after his first trial on the same charges ended in a mistrial.
Jose Andres Torres, 32, was found guilty of statutory sexual assault, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, indecent assault, endangering the welfare of a child and corruption of minors, District Attorney Stephen G. Baratta’s office announced Thursday.
Judge Brian J. Panella revoked Torres’ $200,000 bail after the verdict, ending more than a year in which he was free while the case was pending, and Torres was taken to Northampton County Prison. He faces sentencing on charges whose maximum prison terms add up to 61 years, and three of the convictions require lifetime registration as a sex offender.
The district attorney’s announcement does not mention the first trial. Court records show a jury was sworn in the case March 30 and a mistrial was recorded April 1, without a reason given. A second jury was sworn Monday and returned its verdict the next day.
Sentencing is set for 9 a.m. Feb. 24, 2027, before Panella.
According to the district attorney’s office, the girl told a staff member at Liberty High School in March 2025 that she was being abused. School resource officers interviewed her, and she reported multiple instances of sexual abuse by Torres from 2016 to 2025, prosecutors said.
Bethlehem police filed charges Sept. 3, 2025, about six months later, court records show. Detective Martin Soltan investigated. A district judge set bail the next day, and a professional bondsman posted it Sept. 5. Torres waived his preliminary hearing in October, sending the case to county court.
Two of the convictions are first-degree felonies, which carry up to 20 years each under state sentencing law. The other three are third-degree felonies, which carry up to seven years each.
Prosecutors filed a document titled “Notice of Mandatory Sentencing” in March. The docket does not say which sentencing law it cites.
Statutory sexual assault, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and indecent assault of a person younger than 13 are Tier III offenses, the most serious of three tiers in Pennsylvania’s sex offender registration law. Tier III requires registration for life.
Before the retrial, both sides asked Panella to limit what evidence the jury could hear. He granted one of those requests Tuesday, the docket shows, without saying whose.
Senior Deputy District Attorney Christine Murphy prosecuted the case. Torres is represented by David D. Ritter, a Wyomissing lawyer, according to the docket.
A sixth charge, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child, was dropped when prosecutors filed formal charges in county court in November 2025, court records show.