Change of venue denied for San Antonio lawyer facing more sex accusations

San Antonio lawyer Mark Benavides, facing new charges this week accusing him of having sex with a minor while still awaiting trial on charges of compelling prostitution from female clients, was denied a request Friday to have the trial moved to another city.

Benavides, 47, dressed in a dark suit and accompanied in the courtroom by his parents, sat somberly by his attorney, Monica Guerrero, as she tried to persuade state District Judge Dick Alcala that news coverage of his arrest last April would make it difficult to receive a fair trial here.

Prosecutor Meredith Chacon countered that the coverage has hardly been “pervasive, inflammatory or inherently prejudicial” and that an informal poll of about 10 jurors in the courthouse some months ago found no one familiar with the Benavides case. A trial is set for January and he must still wear a GPS monitor while free on bail.

Benavides declined comment Friday. He had turned himself in just before 6 p.m. Thursday after his indictment on the new charges and was released on bond, reset at $250,000.

The four-count indictment accused Benavides of having sex with a child under 17 and inducing a child under 18 to engage in a sexual performance, on or about Jan. 19, 2011. He was also accused of possing a mini DVD last year — labeled “137 of 276” — that contained images of a person under 18 engaged in sex acts.

It was unclear if the alleged incidents involved the same victim, and if the complainant or complainants were among the nine victims involved in the 35 counts of second-degree felony sexual assault and compelling prostitution listed in an indictment against Benavides last April. Guerrero said she didn’t know enough about the latest charges to comment on them. A message left with District Attorney Nico LaHood was not returned.

In an arrest warrant affidavit filed before the first indictment, a San Antonio Police detective said he spoke with three women who said Benavides had sex with them from 2009 to 2012 while he was their attorney in prostitution cases. The sexual encounters allegedly occurred at Benavides' law office, at motels, in his car and at the Bexar County Courthouse in a meeting room adjacent to a courtroom.

The women said Benavides influenced them to have sex by suggesting that he could lessen their legal problems or get their cases dismissed if they agreed to it, the affidavit said. One woman told police Benavides paid her amounts of $100 and $200 for sex and that she was introduced to the lawyer by her pimp, the affidavit states.

The detective said all the women believed they were financially and emotionally attached to Benavides because he was their attorney on their criminal cases. Benavides used that position “to exploit their emotions and compel them into sexual encounters,” the affidavit states.

All three women said Benavides has a tattoo on his back: the scales of justice.

bselcraig@express-news.net