See the update on the rape conviction of “spiritual cleanser” Alberto Flores Ramirez.
ORIGINAL POST, APRIL 17, 7:03 A.M.: On the opening day of the trial of Alberto Flores Ramirez on Wednesday, jurors were told by attorneys for both sides that the supposed “spiritual cleanser” rubbed raw eggs on desperate women before having sex with them.
The question is was it consensual or rape.
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Alberto Flores Ramirez, Raw Egg “Spiritual Cleanser,” Faces Second Woman's Rape Claims
Ramirez, 39, of San Clemente, met a 33-year-old married woman through the Badoo social networking website and arranged a face-to-face April 3, 2012, at a Santa Ana McDonald's, where he allegedly promised he could help her bringing her children to California from Mexico through his egg wash.
This so-called “spiritual cleansing ritual” would “get rid of bad vibes” that were preventing the mother from being reunited with her two children Ramirez told her, according to Deputy District Attorney Whitney Bokosky's opening statement to jurors that was covered by City News Service's Paul Anderson.
After going to a 99-cent store to pick up eggs and other items to be used in the ritual and dining at a McDonald's, they drove to Santa Ana's Aloha Motel, where Ramirez rubbed eggs on the woman and used photos of the daughters in the ritual.
When he told her it was not working, he had her strip down to her underwear, began fondling her and, over the threat that “something really bad will happen” if she did not capitulate, raped her, alleged Bokosky, who claimed Ramirez later apologized and said he was “overcome by her beauty.”
Ramirez gave the woman gas money to get home, and she called the cops. Publicity from the case reached Las Vegas, which prompted a second woman to come forward claiming she was raped by Ramirez during another supposed spiritual ritual with eggs in the same motel, according to Bokosky. That victim said she met Ramirez through Facebook, where after confessing she had bad luck with men, he offered to perform the ritual free.
Ramirez's attorney, Angela Kung of the Orange County Public Defender's Office, said many facts of the case are not in dispute, but there are “no witnesses” and “no physical evidence” to prove the rape claims.
The woman who met Ramirez through the Badoo site displayed no physical signs of having been raped, Kung told jurors, and the second woman's account was informed by what she heard on television in Vegas from the first woman's story.
“After you hear all the evidence, I think you're going to have some doubts,” Kung said.
The forcible rape, forcible oral copulation, sexual penetration with a foreign object by force and attempted forcible oral copulation counts along with a sentence-enhancing allegation of committing sex crimes against multiple victims could send Ramirez to state prison for up to 75 years to life with a conviction.
UPDATE, APRIL 22, 5:24 P.M.: Alberto Flores Ramirez was convicted today of raping two women on separate occasions in a Santa Ana motel where he conducted “spiritual
cleansing” rituals.
His sentencing is set for June 13.
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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.