Alarming Videos Found On Orange County Deputy's Phone, Prosecutors Say

MISSION VIEJO, CA — An Orange County judge will reconsider in a hearing Friday whether or not to grant a diversion program for a former Orange County sheriff's deputy accused of showing teens an obscene video at Trabuco Hills High School in Mission Viejo.

Former Deputy Justin Ramirez was initially charged with distributing or exhibiting pornography to a minor, court records show. He was accused of showing a graphic video to a high school student while he had a position as a school resource officer on Sept. 2, 2022.

RELATED: Former OC Deputy Showed 'Pornographic' Videos To South OC Teens: OCDA

On Friday, Orange County Superior Judge Richard Pacheco will review new evidence that prosecutors called "extremely concerning."

According to prosecutors, the evidence included "several other photos and videos a reasonable person would consider to be inappropriate. These included two photos of deceased persons: a man who died in 2021 in his Santa Ana home named Timothy Felske and a woman named Claire Rogers who died in the street as a result of a vehicle on pedestrian hit-and-run collision in 2020," according to the motion.

Prosecutors said the photos were "extremely concerning for two reasons: first, the defendant retained photos of deceased people on his personal device for years after the incidents occurred, and second, because he potentially showed one or more of these photos to the high school students in this case. One high school student told investigators she saw photos of `dead people' on the defendant's phone on Sept. 2. Though it was originally assumed this is in reference to the video of a man and woman getting stabbed while having sex, it is plausible the defendant also showed the above described photos to one or more students as well."

Prosecutors said they also found "other questionable material," including "one 50-second video, the defendant records himself unzipping his sheriff uniform pants and exposing his erect penis to the camera. The defendant pulls his pants back up after several seconds."

Prosecutors alleged the video was taken in an office space for deputies in Villa Park City Hall. They said the video was sent via text message to his wife's phone.

RELATED: Mom Files Claim Against OC Deputy Who Showed Teens 'Obscene' Videos

Prosecutors also said there was another video of a couple engaging in sex in a residence in Anaheim in 2019 and appeared to be "recorded through the window looking into a room inside the home," according to the motion.

Ramirez was not assigned to Trabuco Hills High School, but was in his patrol vehicle in the school's parking lot near the lunch tables when he was showing teens "pornography that depicted sexual and violent acts including one of the sexual participants being stabbed to death," according to the claim.

Two other students asked the alleged victim and two other girls if they wanted to see some "bad videos a cop was showing in his car," according to the claim. The teen was "shocked and horrified at what she saw," according to the claim.

When the girl, who was 14 at the time, got home she told her mother, who "was struck with fear, anger and extreme emotional distress," according to the claim.

The mother called authorities and asked that the deputy not respond to the call, according to the claim. But Ramirez was sent along Sept. 5 with another deputy to respond to the complaint, according to the claim.

The woman "reported the incident to Ramirez and relayed to Ramirez all the details of her personal life, including the fact that she and (her daughter) lived alone in their home," according to the claim.

"On Sept. 13, 2022, an Orange County sheriff's captain and an assistant sheriff came to (the woman's) home and told her that Ramirez was not only the deputy who came to her home, but he was also the same deputy who had shown the explicit pornography to (the teen) and the other minors," according to the claim. "Later that same day, Sheriff (Don) Barnes personally called (the mother) and apologized to her for what happened. Sheriff Barnes assured her that Ramirez was not on active duty."

The mother was informed that Ramirez's gun and badge had been taken from him, according to the claim.

The mother became more frightened when she learned Ramirez was a defendant in a federal lawsuit that was settled that alleged he was involved in a violent struggle with a suspect who died, according to the claim.

"This pervert is targeting minors and showing them pornography that is both sexual and violent in nature," the victim's mother said in a statement released by Guisti.

"I want him off the street," she added. "He was in a position of trust so that he could protect people in Orange County. But he abused his power and authority in the worst possible way. No child should ever see what this sheriff's deputy showed my daughter."

Ramirez was a defendant in a federal wrongful death lawsuit stemming from the in-custody death of Chong Tok "Richard" Rha in La Mirada in August 2019. A $1.5 million settlement with the man's family was approved by the Orange County Board of Supervisors in October 2021.

Prosecutors cleared Ramirez and Deputy Laurie Schwartz of any criminal conduct in the arrest of Rha. The two were in a violent struggle with Rha as they tried to take him into custody on July 15, 2019.

An autopsy showed Rha had amphetamine, methamphetamine and marijuana in his system. The cause of death was considered accidental and "consistent with cardiac arrhythmia associated with a physical altercation," according to a report from the Orange County District Attorney's Office.

The doctor who performed the autopsy "concluded that Rha's cause of death was acute exacerbation of chronic methamphetamine use, and noted as other conditions the struggle with law enforcement and the use of Taser, as well as eosinophilic pneumonia," according to prosecutors.

City News Service contributed to this report.