CVS guard charged in sick sextortion case
A SECURITY GUARD at a Brooklyn CVS ordered a suspected shoplifter to strip off her pants and allow him to take photographs of her private parts before sexually assaulting her, police said.
Before letting the 28-year-old woman leave the pharmacy in Ditmas Park, the guard made her sign a bizarre agreement — noting the police would be notified of the alleged theft if she told them about the sexual abuse.
Police collared Jose Ramos, 29, on Monday and he confessed to the March 15 crime, authorities said. Detectives from the Special Victims Squad found similar notes from three other women in Ramos’ backpack. Those potential cases are under investigation.
Ramos was charged with coercion, harassment, forcible touching and sexual abuse — all misdemeanors — for the March assault at the store on Ditmas Ave. near E. Fourth St. He has no prior arrests in the city.
Prosecutors at his Tuesday arraignment wanted Ramos held on $5,000 bail, but Judge Rachel Freier ordered him released without bail under Mayor de Blasio’s supervised release program. Under the terms of the program, which was expanded last year, court personnel will call or text Ramos to encourage him to make his next court date.
“Don’t think for one second that this is not a very serious matter,” Freier said during the brief court appearance. “This is not to be taken lightly.”
The program is designed to reduce the reliance on bail, especially for lower-risk defendants who can’t afford to pay.
Ramos said nothing as he walked out of Brooklyn Criminal Court sporting a black hoodie with the words “Beyond the Limit” written across the front.
A spokesman for CVS’ corporate office said the company is “in the process of terminating his employment.”
The suspect’s attorney, Sharon Weintraub Dashow, said Ramos denied the allegations, adding that he has worked at the CVS without incident for three years.
The suspected shoplifter said Ramos caught her stealing oatmeal and several bottles of Mike’s Hard Lemonade on March 15.
When Ramos, a married father of three, took her aside for questioning, he allegedly demanded she allow him to take photos of her private parts. If she didn’t, he would call the police.
The woman reluctantly agreed and was taken to a bathroom, where she took off her pants and allowed him to photograph her, she told cops. Ramos molested the woman during the freaky photo session, during which he took six pictures, prosecutors said.
But the security guard was not finished there, cops said.
He wouldn’t let the woman leave the store until she agreed to “sign a form disclosing that she won’t tell police what happened,” Brooklyn prosecutors said at the arraignment.
He allegedly admitted taking photos of the victim, but said he erased the images from his phone.
Not all of the women the guard allegedly accosted were connected to Ditmas Park CVS, officials said.