A Borough Park man was sentenced to four years in prison in Brooklyn Supreme Court on June 26, after he pleaded guilty to using a child in a sexual performance and forcible touching.
Jose Ramos forced four people — including three teenage girls — to take nude photos to avoid being arrested after he caught them allegedly shoplifting on separate occasions at two drugstores in Bensonhurst and Kensington, where he worked as a security guard.
District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said that Ramos, who pleaded guilty two months ago, would pay the price for his exploitative actions by going to prison.
“This defendant abused his authority as a security guard to intimidate, terrorize, and violate the young victims physically and emotionally,” Gonzalez said. “With today’s sentence, he has been held accountable for his abhorrent and predatory behavior.”
Ramos began his crime spree in November 2016, when he detained two 16-year-old girls who were allegedly shoplifting at a CVS on Bay Parkway at West 10th Street, and told them he would not call the police if they took nude photos. They agreed, and afterwards, Ramos made them sign a non-disclosure agreement not to report him to police before he would allow them to leave the store, according to the district attorney’s office.
Three months later, in the bathroom of the same store, Ramos groped and took photos of a 15-year-old girl who was also allegedly shoplifting, and also forced her to sign an agreement promising that she would not report him before he allowed her to leave.
A month later, in March 2017, Ramos brought an adult woman to the bathroom of a CVS on Ditmas Avenue at East Fifth Street, removed her pants, took photos, and groped her, the district attorney’s office said.
Ramos also made her sign a non-disclosure agreement, but the woman did report him to police. Officers arrested him on April 24, and identified the other victims during their subsequent investigation.
