Sex offender had job at fair

Marisa O’Neil

Orange County Fair officials are double-checking employees’

backgrounds after a ticket taker, who is a registered sex offender,

was arrested this week on suspicion that he violated his probation.

Probation officers on Tuesday arrested Steven Henry Torres, 44, of

Anaheim at the fairgrounds just before he started his shift, fair

chief executive Becky Bailey-Findley said. Torres was allegedly

violating terms of his probation by working at the fair, Orange

County Probation Department spokeswoman Vicki Mathews said.

“In his court order, he was not to be employed at a place where

children gather,” Mathews said.

He had also not notified his probation officer of his new job,

another requirement, she said.

Torres had been hired by an employment agency the carnival uses to

find local staff, Bailey-Findley said.

He had worked one six-hour shift as a ride ticket taker and was

about to start his second, Bailey-Findley said.

The fairgrounds and Ray Cammack Shows, which operates the carnival

rides and games, do background checks on all employees, Baily-Findley

said. Those include a search of the Megan’s Law database, which lists

registered sex offenders.

Fair officials are now requiring any outside agencies that supply

workers to also check the database, she said.

The carnival operators and fair officials are now rechecking their

employees, Bailey-Findley said.

Officers found Torres while they were conducting a check of the

area, Mathews said.

“Our caseloads are such that probation officers can get up and go

out in public,” Mathews said. “They went there on Tuesday because sex

predators may go to someplace like the fair where there’s lots of

children.”

Torres’ probation officer was at the fair Tuesday and recognized

Torres, who was wearing a fair worker’s uniform.

He was arrested without incident and is being held at the Orange

County Jail without bail.

Torres was previously convicted of performing lewd or lascivious

acts with children under 14, according to the Megan’s Law website.

Additional information about his conviction was not available.