Racketeering Charges Against L.A. Grocer Dismissed

LOS ANGELES — Racketeering charges against the owner of an 11-store grocery chain here have been dismissed less than two months after George Torres was convicted of those charges and facing a life sentence.

A U.S. District Court judge threw out the conviction and ordered Torres to be released from jail Tuesday after prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney's office turned over tape-recorded conversations containing information that was potentially beneficial to Torres' defense regarding at least one key informant who testified against him — tapes of conversations that took place before Torres' trial but were not discovered until afterward, Thom Mrozak, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office here, said.

Mrozak said Torres' lawyers are trying to get the court to dismiss other charges for which he was convicted, including payments to illegal immigrants without withholding any taxes and mail fraud — a process that could take up to two months. Torres is the owner of Numero Uno, a chain of grocery stores serving low-income sections of the city.

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