Ruben Flores moved Kristin Smart’s body after 2020 search, Smart family lawsuit says
The family of Kristin Smart filed a civil lawsuit against the father of her alleged killer Thursday, alleging the man hid and recently moved the missing student’s remains from his Arroyo Grande property.
Arroyo Grande attorney Jim Murphy, who has long represented the Smart family, also says Ruben Flores had the help of Susan Flores and her boyfriend Mike McConville, who “under cover of darkness” dispersed her remains at one or more other locations.
The lawsuit filed in San Luis Obispo Superior Court Wednesday accuses Ruben Flores of intentionally inflicting emotional distress on the Smart family by hiding the Cal Poly freshman’s body for nearly 25 years.
Murphy announced last week that he was preparing the complaint against Ruben Flores, the 80-year-old father of San Pedro resident Paul Flores, who the District Attorney’s Office says murdered Smart during the commission of rape or attempted rape.
When he announced charges against Paul and Ruben Flores at a news conference last week, San Luis Obispo County District Attorney Dan Dow said evidence shows that Ruben Flores helped cover up Smart’s murder.
County probation reports obtained by The Tribune earlier this week also quote the lead prosecutor in the criminal case, Chris Peuvrelle, as saying there is “damning evidence that a body had been buried (at Ruben Flores’ property) and then recently moved.”
Court records do not yet list a civil attorney for Ruben Flores. His criminal defense attorney, Harold Mesick, said he could not comment Thursday afternoon.
A gag order in the criminal case issued by Superior Court Judge Craig van Rooyen bars all parties from publicly commenting outside the courtroom.
“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 told The Tribune last week. “When people do horrible things to other people, the civil justice system is the appropriate remedy.
Attorney has represented the Smarts since 1997
Paul Flores, 44, was the last person seen with Smart as he walked the freshman to her dorm room following a late-night party on May 25, 1996, two days before her roommate reported her missing to police.
Both men have pleaded not guilty in the criminal case, and their attorneys in verbal arguments during an arraignment Monday minimized the prosecution’s alleged evidence.
Paul Flores is being held in County Jail without bail. Ruben Flores, whose bail was lowered Wednesday from $250,000 to $50,000, was released from County Jail Wednesday night.
Before lowering the bail amount, van Rooyen on Wednesday explained that he was bound by state law to do so after finding that Ruben Flores does not pose a flight risk or a risk to public safety, and that less restrictive means other than pre-trial detention were available to ensure he continues to appear for court.
Ruben Flores must remain in SLO County and submit to electronic monitoring for the duration of the criminal case.
Murphy’s office — which has a well-known sign seeking information about Smart’s disappearance outside its Arroyo Grande office — has represented the Smarts since 1997, when he 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 tells 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.
Lawsuit says Ruben Flores had help moving Smart’s remains
The action filed Wednesday specifically targets Ruben Flores’ conduct as alleged by the District Attorney’s Office, Murphy previously said.
In the complaint, Murphy writes that on Feb. 5, 2020, San Luis Obispo County sheriff’s deputies served a search warrant at Ruben Flores’ home at 710 White Court in Arroyo Grande. Susan Flores’ home and an unspecified property in Washington were also searched that day.
On or about Feb. 9, 2020, the complaint says, Ruben Flores “removed the remains of Kristin Smart” from “inside the lattice enclosure below the deck” of the house.
Ruben Flores did this with the help of “two additional individuals, who will be later named as defendants in this action,” the document reads.
“Ruben Flores and Doe defendants 1 and 2 worked through the night, under cover of darkness, to remove the remains of Kristin Smart to avoid having those remains at 710 White Court in the event of an additional search of the property,” the lawsuit says.
Murphy alleges those remains were “taken to another location in San Luis Obispo County for later disbursement.”
Murphy clarified to The Tribune that the two people are Susan Flores and McConville, and that a confidential witness known to law enforcement saw the remains being removed.
About a year later, another law enforcement search was carried out at the property, and investigators “focused on an area in the enclosed lattice area under the deck of the residence of defendant Ruben Flores where dirt had been removed from a hole,” the document says.
Murphy wrote that in removing Kristin Smart’s remains, Ruben Flores and the two others “committed acts of such viciousness, depravity and cruelty as to, by their very definition, cause severe emotional distress to plaintiffs, the natural mother and father of Kristin Smart.”
The lawsuit seeks an unspecified amount of damages exceeding $25,000. A case management conference is scheduled in August.
Susan Flores and McConville could not immediately be reached for comment. The gag order in the criminal case prevents the Sheriff’s Office from commenting.
This story was originally published April 22, 2021 at 5:09 PM with the headline "Ruben Flores moved Kristin Smart’s body after 2020 search, Smart family lawsuit says."
