NEW YORK, Nov. 24 (UPI) -- A private detective in New York was convicted of raping his ex-girlfriend, then attempting to frame her for armed robberies that never happened.
A jury in State Supreme Court in Queens found Jerry Ramrattan, 39, guilty of more than 10 charges, including rape, perjury and conspiracy, The New York Times reported. He faces more than 25 years in prison.
His ex-girlfriend, Seemona Sumasar, 36, a former restaurant owner and analyst with Morgan Stanley, had been jailed for seven months, held on $1 million bail and separated from her daughter as a result of Ramrattan's scheme.
"Now that this is over, I can start my life again," she said in an interview. "Last year, I spent Thanksgiving inside a jail cell. Jerry told so many lies, and I was imprisoned because authorities had decided to believe him. But I am not bitter. The truth won out in the end."
Prosecutors told jurors Ramrattan devised the scheme after Sumasar refused to drop rape charges against him and that he intimidated and coaxed false witnesses into telling authorities she had dressed as a police officer and robbed them at gunpoint, the Times said.
Ramrattan had applied some of what he learned from TV crime dramas such as "C.S.I."
Sumasar, who was jailed until December, lost her restaurant, and her Queens home went into foreclosure.
Ramrattan had gone free until an informer exposed his scheme.
"Jerry Ramrattan created a complex web to ensnare Seemona," Frank DeGaetano, an assistant district attorney and the prosecutor in Ramrattan's case, told jurors. "He is unique: Who goes to such extremes to destroy a person?"
Ramrattan's lawyer, Frank Kelly, said he would appeal. He accused prosecutors of relying on "a bunch of liars, thieves and manipulators."
