Medina ex-officer accused of coercing sex

King County prosecutors have charged a former Medina police officer with official misconduct, accusing him of coercing a woman into having sex with him in exchange for dismissing two tickets he'd written her during an earlier traffic stop.

The officer, Ismael Ramirez, resigned from his job Oct. 17, said Medina Police Chief Jeff Chen.

Chen declined to comment further on the case. Ramirez, 30, is to be arraigned Nov. 12 in King County Superior Court, said Dan Donohoe, a spokesman for King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg. Ramirez, who is out of custody on personal recognizance, is not considered a flight risk and prosecutors don't intend to ask a judge to set bail, Donohoe said.

Ramirez's attorney, Jeff Cohen, said his client — who has served two tours in Iraq and may return to the military — is "a man of unquestioned integrity" who will fight the charge at trial.

Cohen said Ramirez was essentially forced to resign: "His reputation was so besmirched by the allegation" that Ramirez wouldn't be able to testify in court against any future suspects he might arrest, making it impossible for him to do his job.

Ramirez was on patrol Nov. 23, 2008, when just after 10 p.m., he spotted a car in the 2800 block of Hunts Point Road and ran the license plate, according to charging documents. The check revealed that the registered owner's license had been suspended because of an unpaid parking ticket, the documents say.

He pulled the car over on the shoulder of westbound Highway 520 and arrested the driver, a now-28-year-old woman identified in court documents as "A.P." She told Ramirez that she didn't know her license had been suspended, the charging papers say.

Ramirez then searched the woman's vehicle and found a small amount of marijuana, the papers say.

Back in the patrol car, A.P. attempted to talk her way out of the tickets and began flirting with Ramirez after noticing his apparent interest in her, charging papers say.

"He reciprocated. There was sexual banter between the two of them. He told her she was an 'incredibly sexy woman,' " the papers say.

Ramirez said he was sympathetic but had to write her the tickets because he'd already called them in. He promised "he would take care of everything and the charges would 'go away,' " the papers say.

They later made a date to meet at an Issaquah pub, the papers say. Ramirez filed the citations in Kirkland Municipal Court and later e-mailed a Kirkland city prosecutor, asking that the charges be dismissed.

On Dec. 5, Ramirez and the woman met at the Joker Pub and then went back to the officer's home, the papers say. The woman expected Ramirez to give her a letter to take to court, but he didn't, according to charging documents.

She told Ramirez she didn't want to have sex "but he pushed her down on the bed and proceeded anyway," the papers say. "She felt she had no choice and acquiesced because she thought she had a lot to lose."

The charges against the woman were ultimately dismissed in February.

Phone records indicate that Ramirez and the woman exchanged 38 text messages and made 10 phone calls to each other between November and February, court documents say. The woman reported the incident to police in March.

After completing the investigation and conducting additional witness interviews, Donohoe said, there was "no evidence of a physically forced sexual assault. "The state is alleging the officer coerced the victim into sex in exchange for the tickets being dismissed — quid pro quo," he said.

Sara Jean Green: 206-515-5654 or sgreen@seattletimes.com