O.C. Sheriff Arrested
A former Orange County sheriff’s deputy faces a criminal charge after prosecutors accused him of showing four teenage girls graphic videos while working as a school-resource officer in Mission Viejo.
Justin Raymond Ramirez, 34, has been charged with a misdemeanor count of distributing harmful material to a minor, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
Ramirez, an Anaheim resident, has voluntarily resigned from the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, prosecutors said.
While assigned as a school-resource officer at Trabuco Hills High School on Sept. 2, 2022, prosecutors say, Ramirez showed two girls who walked up to his patrol vehicle during lunch a “pornographic video that included a woman being stabbed to death” as well as “a video that included graphic drug use.”
Prosecutors say the girls called two other girls over, at which point Ramirez showed all four the graphic videos. The four were 15 or 16 years old, the DA’s Office said.
One girl told her mother about the videos, prosecutors said, and the mother contacted the Sheriff’s Department.
“School-resource officers are in our children’s schools to ensure a safe learning environment and help build trust between law enforcement and our community,” Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a statement. “Ramirez had no business being in a position of trust around children — and he abused that position of trust in a truly disgusting way.”
If convicted as charged, Ramirez faces up to 364 days in county jail.
