Local law enforcement is seeking more possible victims of Santa Ana security guard who is accused of posing as a police officer, raping a 19-year-old prostitute and recording their encounter on a GoPro camera.
Raul Antonio Ramos, 27, of Westminster, could go away to state prison for 50 years to life if he is convicted of felony forcible rape, rape by threat to arrest, forcible oral copulation, oral copulation under the color of authority, and impersonating an officer, with a sentencing enhancement allegation for committing the sexual assault during the commission of a burglary.
Ramos works as a security guard with an undisclosed Santa Ana company. On Friday night, he allegedly contacted the teen, whom he did not know, for commercial sex in her room at the Ramada Inn in Anaheim. But once inside, he claimed to be a police officer, showed her his security-guard badge and threatened her with arrest if she did not have sex with him, according to the Orange County District Attorney's office (OCDA).
He went on to forcibly rape the woman, using a GoPro video camera to record the entire incident, the OCDA claims. When Ramos tried to get the teen, who by then was wrapped in a towel, to orally copulate him, she grabbed his keys and camera and ran out of the hotel room and down the street to a Joe's Italian Ice shop to report the rape.
Officers from the Anaheim Police Department met the alleged victim and went to the Ramada Inn, where Ramos was found and arrested. He is currently in jail in lieu of $1 million bail. He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Tuesday and is due back in court at the North Justice Center in Fullerton on Jan. 13.
In the meantime, the joint OCDA/Anaheim Police investigation continues. No booking photo is being released at this time just in case someone comes forward with new allegations and must identify the defendant in a lineup. Anyone with more information or who believes they have been a victim is encouraged to contact Supervising District Attorney Investigator Mark Gutierrez at 714.347.8794 or Orange County Crime Stoppers, even anonymously, at 855.847.6227 (855-TIP-OCCS), via occrimestoppers.org or by texting to 274637 (C-R-I-M-E-S) from a cell phone. (All text messages should begin with the letters “OCCS”.)
Ramos is not the only Orange Countian currently accused of posing as a police officer to get his rocks off. Joseph Christoph Moore, 39, of Anaheim, is facing charges of impersonating a cop and fondling two women in separate late November incidents in the Hollywood
area.
According to the Los Angeles District Attorney's office, Moore approached a woman searching for her keys, whipped out a badge and identification, told her to get against a wall, fondled her breasts and buttocks while “searching” her, pulled a handgun out of his waistband and warned her he would shoot her if she screamed.
In the second incident, he is accused of pressing a badge against a woman's driver-side window, telling her she had expired tags, had her open her trunk to search for weapons, ordered her against a wall for a pat down and fondled her buttocks and inner thighs several times. That alleged victim told police she thought he had a gun in a holster.
Moore, who was being held in lieu of $1 million bail, could get life in prison if he is convicted of felony counts of assault with intent to commit a felony, criminal threats and false imprisonment by violence, along with two misdemeanor counts of unlawful use of a badge and a misdemeanor count of sexual battery.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.