Say Teacher Sent Explicit Messages
E-mailed Homemade Porn To Student
An English teacher at a middle school in Ozone Park has been charged with sending sexual videos and electronics messages to three of his 12-year-old female students, it was announced.
Umesh Ramjattan, 22, of 115th Street in Richmond Hill, a first year teacher at M.S. 137, was arrested on Thursday, Oct. 25 on charges of disseminating indecent material to minors in the first degree and endangering the welfare of a child. If convicted, he faces up to seven years in prison.
According to Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown, Ramjattan allegedly provided his students with an e-mail address in order to contact him with questions only to use his students’ e-mail addresses to send sexually-suggestive messages and pictures to them.
“This case should serve as a clear and unmistakable warning that law enforcement is prepared to apprehend and prosecute sexual predators who betray and defile youngsters,” Brown said in a statement.
According to the charges, one of Ramjattan’s female seventh-grade students sent an e-mail on Sept. 29 to the e-mail address the defendant provided to the class, mrramjattan@gmail.com, to ask him a question about school work.
Soon thereafter, it is alleged, Ramjattan began instant messaging her from his screen name, mrramjattan1@aol.com, with questions that were both sexually suggestive and of a personal nature. On Oct. 3, Brown stated, the suspect sent from another e-mail account, umeshr85@yahoo.com, a video of him and his girlfriend having sexual intercourse.
It is further charged that a second female student who e-mailed the defendant about her homework began receiving instan messages from him through his AOL account on Sept. 29 which contained questions of a personal nature. Sometime in early October, the district attorney stated, the victim received a picture of the defendant where he was not wearing a shirt.
Finally, it is alleged, a third female student who e-mailed Ramjattan for help with her homework began receiving instant messages from the defendant through his AOL account that were both personal and sexual in nature.
District Attorney Brown said that the investigation began when the parents of one of the students notified school officials that Ramjattan allegedly e-mailed a sexual video to their daughter and the school, in turn, notified police.
Following his arrest, it was noted, Ramjattan allegedly made statements to police admitting to having inappropriate instant message conversations with the three young victims and sending the video and images of himself, but that he only did so after school.
The investigation was conducted by Detectives Donna Garrison and Owen Soba of the NYPD’s Computer Crimes Squad under the supervision of Lt. Dennis Lane and the overal supervision of Chief Jeremiah Quinlan.
Senior Assistant District Attorney Kateri A. Gasper is prosecuting the case under the supervision of Robert D. Alexander, Chief of the District Attorney’s Computer Crimes Unit, and Anthony M. Communiello, bureau chief of the District Attorney’s Special Proceedings Bureau, and Oscar W. Ruiz, deputy bureau chief, and the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Investigations Peter A. Crusco and Deputy Executive Assistant District Attorney for Investigations Linda M. Cantoni.
It was noted that a criminal complaint is merely an accusation and that a defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
