A 28-year-old man is facing a felony charge and an $80,000 bond after Harris County Precinct 4 investigators say he traveled to an undisclosed location in North Harris County believing he was about to meet a child for sex. Instead, Maximiano Torres found undercover constable investigators waiting for him, and now he also has an immigration detainer attached to his case.
According to Harris County Constable Precinct 4, Torres communicated online with a person he believed to be a juvenile before traveling on August 18 to meet that person for sexual activity. The person he was messaging was actually an undercover constable investigator, part of a broader undercover online chat operation run by Constable Mark Herman's Criminal Investigations Division targeting adults who seek to meet children for sex. Investigators say they used social media while posing as juveniles to identify individuals willing to travel to meet a child, then arrested Torres in North Harris County and booked him into the Harris County Jail. Click2Houston reports that Torres is 28 years old.
The Harris County District Attorney's Office accepted a charge of Online Solicitation of a Minor against Torres, who was born September 5, 1997. A judge in the 176th District Court set his bond at $80,000. Constable Herman said his office maintains a firm stance against persons who prey on children, adding that his office will continue to provide resources to detectives working to identify, locate, and apprehend people who victimize vulnerable citizens.
Statutory Penalties Under Texas Law
Online Solicitation of a Minor under Texas Penal Code § 33.021 is classified as a third-degree felony, carrying two to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000, according to FindLaw. The charge escalates to a second-degree felony, punishable by two to 20 years in prison, if the intended victim is believed to be under 14 years old. A conviction also carries mandatory lifetime registration as a sex offender, per an explainer from Broden, Mickelsen LLP.
Harris County Constable Precinct 4 emphasized that all persons are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. It's not yet clear from available records whether prosecutors are pursuing the case as a third- or second-degree felony.
An ICE Detainer Adds Another Layer
Beyond the state charge, ICE has placed a detainer on Torres, meaning federal immigration authorities have flagged him for potential deportation proceedings once his criminal case concludes. Under Texas Senate Bill 4, enacted in 2017, all Texas law enforcement agencies and county jails are required by state law to comply with federal immigration detainer requests, according to the Center for Immigration Studies. That mandate explains why the hold applies at the Harris County Jail regardless of the outcome of the state solicitation case.
The Harris County Jail isn't unfamiliar with this kind of federal overlap. A May analysis from The Texas Tribune found the jail leads all county detention facilities in the country for federal ICE detainers, recording more than 9,500 holds between late 2023 and mid-2025.
A Pattern of Undercover Stings in North Harris County
Precinct 4 is the largest constable agency in the nation, employing more than 670 sworn personnel across 520 square miles and serving over 1.1 million residents in North Harris County. Its Criminal Investigations Division includes a dedicated High Tech Crimes Unit that specializes in digital forensics, social media monitoring, and undercover chat operations aimed at catching people who solicit minors online. Precinct 4 also pushes real-time alerts about arrests and other public safety news to residents through its free C4 NOW mobile app, launched in January 2021.
Torres's arrest follows a string of similar cases in the region. Hoodline previously reported that Precinct 4 deputies arrested a 28-year-old on child porn counts in June following a separate digital forensics probe. That volume tracks with a national trend: the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children reported that Texas law enforcement received more than 234,000 CyberTipline referrals in 2025, making the state one of the busiest jurisdictions in the country for digital child exploitation leads.
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