Yesterday
Jerry Ramrattan, the private investigator who framed
his ex-girlfriend, Seemona Sumasar, for a series of imaginary armed
robberies after she accused him of rape, was
sentenced to 32 years in prison by a State Supreme Court judge
in Queens. Imposing the maximum sentence allowed by law, Justice
Richard Buchter called Ramrattan, who was convicted of rape as well
as charges stemming from the scheme that resulted in Sumasar’s
arrest, “a diabolical conniver and sinister manipulator” who
“shamelessly exploited the criminal justice system.” But Buchter
also suggested that the system—which put Sumasar behind bars for
seven months while she awaited trial, during which time she was
separated from her 12-year-old daughter and lost her restaurant and
her home—was easier to exploit than it should have been:

The Queens district attorney’s office and the Nassau County
district attorney’s office had insisted on Ms. Sumasar’s guilt up
until she was freed just weeks before her own robbery trial was set
to begin. Ms. Sumasar filed a civil suit in December against the
New York City Police Department and the Nassau County Police
Department for negligence leading to her wrongful imprisonment.

Justice Buchter railed against the Nassau County police, who had
wrongly imprisoned Ms. Sumasar, saying that it did not take “a
Sherlock Holmes” to deduce that a 5-foot-2 former Wall Street
analyst with no criminal record would not have held people up at
gunpoint.

He chastised the police for their egregious handling of the
case, saying detectives had “turned a blind eye” to Ms. Sumasar’s
protestations that she was innocent and had too easily been taken
in by Mr. Ramrattan.

“The police were duped by liars by whom they had a right to be
suspicious, and as a result a rape victim was framed by her
rapist,” the judge said. “She was victimized by the rapist and then
again by the criminal justice system.”

The Daily News has
more:

Buchter questioned how detectives could have bought the tale
that Ramrattan made up for his accomplices, especially while the
rape charges were pending.

All investigators had to do was look at the website Ramrattan
kept for his business Most Wanted Inc. where he promised that he
could “fix anything, any time,” the judge noted.

“Is it really surprising that he would try to fix his own case?”
Buchter wondered. “You didn’t have to be Sherlock
Holmes to wonder if something was fishy.”

Sumasar, who had a strong alibi for one of the alleged
robberies, repeatedly told the authorities that Ramrattan had set
her up, but they did not believe her. In the end, she was released
only because an informer told police about Ramrattan’s scheme and
gave them his cell phone number. They found he had made multiple
calls to people who claimed Sumasar had robbed them, and at that
point the “witnesses” recanted. The New York Times,
which put the
story of Sumasar’s ordeal on its front page last July,
reports that “legal experts said the case was a cautionary tale
that illustrated the ease with which the justice system can be
manipulated by someone who understands police procedure and is
adept at telling lies.” And how did Ramrattan gain the arcane
knowledge he used to dupe law enforcement officials in Nassau
County and New York City?  “Partly from watching crime dramas
like ‘C.S.I.'”