A Revenge Plot So Intricate, the Prosecutors Were Pawns
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07...were-pawns.html?_r=1
Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times
Seemona Sumasar spent seven months in jail, accused of robberies that Queens prosecutors say were invented by an ex-boyfriend she had accused of rape, Jerry Ramrattan
*
o Permalink
Soon after Seemona Sumasar started dating Jerry Ramrattan, she had an inkling that something might be wrong.
Mr. Ramrattan in Queens Criminal Court last week. He is set to go on trial in October on charges of rape and conspiracy. His lawyer and supporters say he is innocent.
Readers’ Comments
* Post a Comment »
* Read All Comments (190) »
He said he was a police detective, but never seemed to go to work. He seemed obsessed with “C.S.I.,” “Law & Order” and other television police dramas.
About a year after he moved into her house in Queens, their relationship soured. One day, he cornered her, taped her mouth and raped her, she said. Mr. Ramrattan was arrested.
But he soon took his revenge, the authorities said. Drawing on his knowledge of police procedure, gleaned from his time as an informer for law enforcement, he accomplished what prosecutors in New York called one of the most elaborate framing plots that they had ever seen.
One night, Ms. Sumasar was pulled over by the police. Before she could speak, detectives slapped handcuffs on her. “You know you did it,” she said one later shouted at her. “Just admit it.”
Ms. Sumasar, a former Morgan Stanley analyst who was running a restaurant, said she had no idea what that meant. Yet suddenly, she was being treated like a brazen criminal. She was charged with carrying out a series of armed robberies, based on what the police said was a wealth of evidence, including credible witness statements and proof that her car was the getaway vehicle.
In her first extensive interview about her ordeal, she recalled sitting in jail, consumed by one thought: “Jerry is behind this.”
But when she insisted to the authorities that he had set her up, they belittled her claims.
Now, though, they concede that Ms. Sumasar was right — an astonishing turn of events that has transformed her case into one of the most bizarre in the city’s recent history.
They released her from jail last December after seven months, acknowledging that the entire case against her had been concocted by Mr. Ramrattan, officials said.
“We prosecute tens of thousands of cases each year, but in the collective memory, no one has ever seen anything like this before,” said Richard A. Brown, the Queens district attorney.
“Few people have the capacity to pull off a master plot of this magnitude to exact revenge,” Mr. Brown said.
Mr. Ramrattan framed Ms. Sumasar because she would not drop the rape charge, prosecutors said.
And so even as Mr. Ramrattan remained free on bail in the rape case, Ms. Sumasar, who had no prior criminal record, was facing up to 25 years in prison.
Despondent, Ms. Sumasar passed her days behind bars scouring the indictments against her for clues that could help prove her innocence, even as news of lurid crimes that she had not committed were splashed in newspapers.
“From the beginning, I said he made it up,” Ms. Sumasar said. “I never thought my life would become a cop film.”
Ms. Sumasar, 36, is bubbly and petite. She never finished college but used her analytical skills to land six-figure jobs on Wall Street. Yet she acknowledged she can be too trusting.
After her arrest, she lost her restaurant franchise and her house in Far Rockaway went into foreclosure. She was separated from her daughter, Chiara, 12.
Ms. Sumasar is now planning lawsuits against the Police Departments in New York City and in Nassau County, the location of one of her purported robberies, over her arrest. Neither agency would comment.
Mr. Ramrattan never worked as a law enforcement officer, prosecutors say, but he often presented himself as a private investigator.
Mr. Ramrattan, who is being held at Rikers Island, appeared this month in a Queens court, where a judge refused a request for bail and set his trial date on the rape and conspiracy charges for Oct. 3. He has pleaded not guilty to both. He and his supporters are now voicing their own theory of the case: Ms. Sumasar framed him.
“My son is innocent, he was set up,” said Shirley Ramrattan, Mr. Ramrattan’s mother.
Mr. Ramrattan’s lawyer, Frank Kelly, said, “Everything about Ms. Sumasar and her associates will come out.”
Some legal experts say Ms. Sumasar’s story shows how the American justice system can be easily manipulated, with the principle of innocent until proven guilty turned on its head.
Prosecutors countered that the web of false evidence presented by Mr. Ramrattan was so detailed they had little reason to doubt it.
But Anthony Grandinette, Ms. Sumasar’s former lawyer, said law enforcement was negligent.
“Why would a tiny woman with no criminal record, who worked 10 years on Wall Street, randomly hold up people at gunpoint at night dressed as a policewoman?” Mr. Grandinette asked.
Ms. Sumasar, the daughter of an Indian taxi company owner from the South American nation of Guyana, was the embodiment of immigrant success.
When Mr. Ramrattan, dressed in a suit and tie, first entered her restaurant in 2006 and introduced himself as a police detective, Ms. Sumasar, a single mother, recalled being impressed.
The two began dating, and Mr. Ramrattan eventually moved into Ms. Sumasar’s house. At first, he seemed attentive, but she grew suspicious of him. He lied constantly, she said.
“I said to Jerry, ‘You tell so many lies, I think you actually believe what you are saying,’ ” Ms. Sumasar said.
Throughout 2008, she said she begged him to leave but he refused.
* 1
* 2
Next Page »
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07...were-pawns.html?_r=1
A version of this article appeared in print on July 26, 2011, on page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: A Revenge Plot So Intricate, The Prosecutors Were Pawns.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07...were-pawns.html?_r=1
Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times
Seemona Sumasar spent seven months in jail, accused of robberies that Queens prosecutors say were invented by an ex-boyfriend she had accused of rape, Jerry Ramrattan
*
o Permalink
Soon after Seemona Sumasar started dating Jerry Ramrattan, she had an inkling that something might be wrong.
Mr. Ramrattan in Queens Criminal Court last week. He is set to go on trial in October on charges of rape and conspiracy. His lawyer and supporters say he is innocent.
Readers’ Comments
* Post a Comment »
* Read All Comments (190) »
He said he was a police detective, but never seemed to go to work. He seemed obsessed with “C.S.I.,” “Law & Order” and other television police dramas.
About a year after he moved into her house in Queens, their relationship soured. One day, he cornered her, taped her mouth and raped her, she said. Mr. Ramrattan was arrested.
But he soon took his revenge, the authorities said. Drawing on his knowledge of police procedure, gleaned from his time as an informer for law enforcement, he accomplished what prosecutors in New York called one of the most elaborate framing plots that they had ever seen.
One night, Ms. Sumasar was pulled over by the police. Before she could speak, detectives slapped handcuffs on her. “You know you did it,” she said one later shouted at her. “Just admit it.”
Ms. Sumasar, a former Morgan Stanley analyst who was running a restaurant, said she had no idea what that meant. Yet suddenly, she was being treated like a brazen criminal. She was charged with carrying out a series of armed robberies, based on what the police said was a wealth of evidence, including credible witness statements and proof that her car was the getaway vehicle.
In her first extensive interview about her ordeal, she recalled sitting in jail, consumed by one thought: “Jerry is behind this.”
But when she insisted to the authorities that he had set her up, they belittled her claims.
Now, though, they concede that Ms. Sumasar was right — an astonishing turn of events that has transformed her case into one of the most bizarre in the city’s recent history.
They released her from jail last December after seven months, acknowledging that the entire case against her had been concocted by Mr. Ramrattan, officials said.
“We prosecute tens of thousands of cases each year, but in the collective memory, no one has ever seen anything like this before,” said Richard A. Brown, the Queens district attorney.
“Few people have the capacity to pull off a master plot of this magnitude to exact revenge,” Mr. Brown said.
Mr. Ramrattan framed Ms. Sumasar because she would not drop the rape charge, prosecutors said.
And so even as Mr. Ramrattan remained free on bail in the rape case, Ms. Sumasar, who had no prior criminal record, was facing up to 25 years in prison.
Despondent, Ms. Sumasar passed her days behind bars scouring the indictments against her for clues that could help prove her innocence, even as news of lurid crimes that she had not committed were splashed in newspapers.
“From the beginning, I said he made it up,” Ms. Sumasar said. “I never thought my life would become a cop film.”
Ms. Sumasar, 36, is bubbly and petite. She never finished college but used her analytical skills to land six-figure jobs on Wall Street. Yet she acknowledged she can be too trusting.
After her arrest, she lost her restaurant franchise and her house in Far Rockaway went into foreclosure. She was separated from her daughter, Chiara, 12.
Ms. Sumasar is now planning lawsuits against the Police Departments in New York City and in Nassau County, the location of one of her purported robberies, over her arrest. Neither agency would comment.
Mr. Ramrattan never worked as a law enforcement officer, prosecutors say, but he often presented himself as a private investigator.
Mr. Ramrattan, who is being held at Rikers Island, appeared this month in a Queens court, where a judge refused a request for bail and set his trial date on the rape and conspiracy charges for Oct. 3. He has pleaded not guilty to both. He and his supporters are now voicing their own theory of the case: Ms. Sumasar framed him.
“My son is innocent, he was set up,” said Shirley Ramrattan, Mr. Ramrattan’s mother.
Mr. Ramrattan’s lawyer, Frank Kelly, said, “Everything about Ms. Sumasar and her associates will come out.”
Some legal experts say Ms. Sumasar’s story shows how the American justice system can be easily manipulated, with the principle of innocent until proven guilty turned on its head.
Prosecutors countered that the web of false evidence presented by Mr. Ramrattan was so detailed they had little reason to doubt it.
But Anthony Grandinette, Ms. Sumasar’s former lawyer, said law enforcement was negligent.
“Why would a tiny woman with no criminal record, who worked 10 years on Wall Street, randomly hold up people at gunpoint at night dressed as a policewoman?” Mr. Grandinette asked.
Ms. Sumasar, the daughter of an Indian taxi company owner from the South American nation of Guyana, was the embodiment of immigrant success.
When Mr. Ramrattan, dressed in a suit and tie, first entered her restaurant in 2006 and introduced himself as a police detective, Ms. Sumasar, a single mother, recalled being impressed.
The two began dating, and Mr. Ramrattan eventually moved into Ms. Sumasar’s house. At first, he seemed attentive, but she grew suspicious of him. He lied constantly, she said.
“I said to Jerry, ‘You tell so many lies, I think you actually believe what you are saying,’ ” Ms. Sumasar said.
Throughout 2008, she said she begged him to leave but he refused.
* 1
* 2
Next Page »
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07...were-pawns.html?_r=1
A version of this article appeared in print on July 26, 2011, on page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: A Revenge Plot So Intricate, The Prosecutors Were Pawns.
....
