Lawsuit: Elk Grove police officer coerced woman into sex after she filed theft report

An Elk Grove police officer and the department are being sued by a 41-year-old single mother who claims she was coerced into having sex with Sgt. Gabriel Ramos after calling 911 to report a theft in progress last April.

The woman is identified only as “Jane Doe” in the lawsuit filed in federal court Friday by Sacramento civil rights attorney Mark Merin.

The lawsuit claims that after officers responded to her call for help because someone was trying to steal the catalytic converter off her car, Ramos approached her “and told her he needed to speak with her husband about some details of the incident.”

After she responded that she was single, Ramos began calling her number several times a day and later threatened to harm her son to coerce her into buying black lingerie and high heels and meeting him at a hotel room for sex, the lawsuit claims.

Ramos could not be reached for comment Friday. Police declined to comment on the pending litigation and cited personnel confidentiality in declining to say whether Ramos was still employed.

The department previously refused to release any information regarding Ramos in response to a May 2021 public records request from The Bee, citing “confidential personnel matters.”

The lawsuit says Ramos still works for the department, but the online database Transparent California last lists him as an employee in 2019, when he was earning $116,446 as a sergeant.

The lawsuit says Ramos responded to the woman’s theft report along with other officers, then stayed on scene until most others had left and obtained her phone number “under the pretext that he may need it for further investigation of the theft incident.”

Later that day, Ramos called the woman from a phone with a blocked number and asked how she was feeling, the lawsuit says.

“Thereafter, almost every day and at times multiple times during the day, (Ramos) called Plaintiff Jane Doe and asked increasingly personal questions, including what kind and color of underwear she wore,” the lawsuit says, adding that Ramos told her “he wanted to have sex with her.”

When the woman objected to “what were clearly improper questions and statements,” Ramos replied that her son would be in danger if she did not “cooperate with him,” the lawsuit says.

Last May, Ramos “used threats of harm to her son to coerce Plaintiff Jane Doe into renting a room at the Sacramento Marriott Rancho Cordova,” the suit says, and told her to buy and wear black lingerie and high-heeled black shoes and to wear perfume.

The suit says Ramos told her to meet him at the hotel the morning of May 3 and that he would reimburse her for the clothes and hotel room. Once there, Ramos coerced her into having sex, the lawsuit says.

Afterward, Ramos “showered, dressed and, before leaving, told (her) to remain at the hotel because he was going to return later that day for more sex,” the suit says, adding that he left $230 in cash at the room to cover the cost of the room rental and her clothing.

After Ramos left, the woman called Rancho Cordova police, and while she was waiting for them Ramos called to say he was not returning because “something had come up,” the lawsuit says.

Once officers arrived, they took a police report and took her clothing, the cash and her cellphone, and had her taken to a clinic for a rape kit examination, the lawsuit says.

The woman “has been violated and traumatized” and is undergoing mental health counseling, the suit says, adding that she and her family “are terrified” of retaliation for reporting Ramos.

The suit seeks damages of more than $1 million for claims of “unwanted sexual harassment and sexual contact,” assault and battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligence.

This story was originally published December 10, 2021 at 2:12 PM.