Sex offender faces four felonies

A Coeur d’Alene man who police say is a noncompliant sex offender is in jail after being accused of attempting to undress an 8-year-old child.

Sean M. Torneo, 41, who is charged with sexual battery, sexual abuse of a child and two counts of failing to comply with sex offender registration is being held on $50,000 bail.

Torneo, who works as a cook, lived at an east Sherman Avenue motel when he allegedly tried to undress a child in his Toyota Highlander last year.

Torneo is also accused in another case of allegedly touching a child by sneaking into her bedroom during a 2018 bonfire party in Post Falls.

Police arrested Torneo without incident on a warrant Tuesday for twice failing to provide authorities with his address, which is a requirement of sex offender registration.

Police said Torneo has a history of sexual contact with children, usually girls between the ages of 8 years old and 13 years old.

A Kootenai County no-contact order was in place until August for Torneo and the child he allegedly tried to undress, according to court records.

Detectives said Torneo’s criminal history goes back to 1998 in Escambia County, Alabama — 20 miles northeast of Mobile — where Torneo was charged with fondling an 11-year-old girl. In 2002 Torneo allegedly fondled another 11-year-old child. In 2004 in Alabama, Torneo allegedly raped a 13-year-old, and sexually fondled a 9-year-old according to a police report.

He was twice sentenced in Kootenai County for failing to register and served less than a year in a prison rehabilitation program, and placed on probation.

Torneo will get a chance to contest the latest charges within 21 days if he remains in jail, at a preliminary hearing in Coeur d’Alene’s First District Court.