BATAVIA, N.Y. - There are questions related to that Amber Alert Thursday and why the suspect at the center of investigation was released from custody several days ago, shortly after being charged with several sex crimes, including rape.
2 On Your Side went to the Genesee County District Attorney's Office to find out how Guillermo Torres-Acevedo, the man who police say triggered Thursday's Amber Alert, was released shortly after being arraigned on charges, accusing him of having sex with a minor. The Genesee County DA says the Batavia town court set bail at $5,000.
"We have a scoring instrument that has been used for many years in this county a bail instrument where they look at a number of factors regarding an individual to determine how much of a flight risk they think the person is," said Genesee County DA Lawrence Friedman.
He says those factors include where a defendant lives, whether they have a job or go to school and their criminal history.
"It's my understanding that he's been a resident of this area for a period of time that he had a job as I recall lacked a criminal history no other indications of prior problems as being in court," Friedman said.
So, Torres-Acevedo was ordered to stay away from the alleged victim and the DA's office says he was put under supervision.
"There's an agency here called Genesee Justice, it's a division of the Genesee County Sheriff's Office that performs a number of functions including doing those bail evaluations and then supervising the people that are released," Friedman said.
But, instead of that happening, police say Torres-Acevedo violated that order of protection by having contact with the minor and traveling into northern Pennsylvania, where police found them.
"Of course hindsight is always 20/20 and now you can look back and say well, maybe this person shouldn't have been released," Friedman said.
The Town of Batavia court says Torres-Acevedo's arraignment on Monday was recorded.
2 On Your Side requested a copy of the recording, but the judge who heard the case says it will not be released now. Torres-Acevedo was arraigned early Friday afternoon in a Pennsylvania court in Tioga County, PA. He's being held in the county jail on no bail.
Police say at some point he'll have an extradition hearing and that will determine where this case goes from here.
He has a preliminary hearing set for Dec. 10.