Michael A. Ramos

Michael Anthony "Mike" Ramos (born August 5, 1957) is an American attorney. He was the 35th district attorney of San Bernardino County, California. He was first elected in 2002[1] and is the first Hispanic district attorney elected in San Bernardino County.[2] He was defeated June 2018 by Jason Anderson, a former prosecutor and Ontario, California council member.[3]

Michael A. Ramos
35th San Bernardino County District Attorney
In office
January 4, 2002 – January 3, 2019
Succeeded byJason Anderson
Personal details
Born
Michael Anthony Ramos

(1957-08-05) August 5, 1957
Redlands, California, U.S.
Political partyRepublican
ResidenceRedlands, California
Alma materUniversity of California in Riverside
Citrus Belt Law School
WebsiteGovernment website

Early life and education

The eldest of three children, Ramos was born at Redlands Community Hospital in Redlands, California, in 1957.[4] Ramos attended Redlands High School. After graduating in 1976, Ramos earned his bachelor's degree in sociology from the University of California, Riverside, in 1980 and a Doctorate of Jurisprudence from Citrus Belt Law School in Riverside in 1988. Notably, this law school was unaccredited in the state of California,[5] and has since closed its doors. He was admitted to the California bar in 1989.[6] Ramos' government service began in 1980, when he started as a group counselor with the Probation Department and then later became a probation officer. He started his career with the District Attorney's Office in June 1989, as a deputy district attorney in the Major Crimes Unit.[7]

San Bernardino County District Attorney

Ramos was elected in 2002 and reelected in 2006, 2010 and 2014.[1] He served as president of the California District Attorneys Association and as chair of the Corrections and Reentry Committee for the National District Attorneys Association.[8][9]

Family

Ramos has been married to his wife Gretchen for 30 years. He has two grown children, Michael and Michele, and a grandson, Christian.[7] His grandparents came to the U.S. from Mexico, and his father served in the United States Marine Corps.[10]

Issues

Death penalty

Ramos is in favor of capital punishment.[11] In November 2012, Ramos campaigned heavily against Proposition 34, also known as the SAFE California Act.[12] Proposition 34 sought to replace California's death penalty with a life sentence with no chance of parole as the maximum punishment for murder.[13] The initiative to repeal the death penalty failed by a narrow margin of 52.8% to 47.2%.[14][15] In 2016, Ramos co-chaired the Death Penalty Reform Initiative Committee for Proposition 66 which sought to keep the death penalty in California. On Nov. 9, 2016, the initiative passed with 51.13% of the vote.

Victims' rights

Ramos was appointed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to serve on the Governor's Victim Compensation and Government Claims Board on January 23, 2004.[16] After being elected to his first term, one of the first actions that Ramos took was placing the supervisor in charge of victim services on his executive staff, elevating the position to the role of a chief, and creating the Bureau of Victim Services Unit. In 2013, during Crime Victims' Rights Week, Ramos announced that his office had contracted with One Call, an automated phone system, in an effort to reach crime victims and give them information about their rights and possible compensation.[17] Crime victims who provide law enforcement with a land line phone number will get the recorded message that tells them they have rights under the state's 2008 Victims' Bill of Rights Act, passed by voters as Proposition 9.[18] It is most often referred to as Marsy's Law.[19]

Public corruption

In a stunning rebuke of Ramos, a high-profile criminal case against four men collapsed in September 2017, with one newspaper later calling the prosecution a “boondoggle.”[20]

Ramos and then-Attorney General Jerry Brown had announced in 2011 a corruption prosecution against Paul Biane, a former 2nd District supervisor; Jim Erwin, former chief of staff for 3rd District Supervisor Neil Derry; Mark Kirk, former chief of staff for 4th District Supervisor Gary Ovitt; and Jeff Burum, general partner with Colonies Partners LP.[21]

A jury acquitted three of the defendants, Jeff Burum, Paul Biane and Mark Kirk, and charges against the fourth defendant, Jim Erwin, were dropped after a separate jury deadlocked. Several jurors said they believed key prosecution witnesses had lied and questioned why the case was ever brought in the first place.[22] By early 2018, all of the defendants had filed separate claims against the county and the state of California, citing malicious prosecution and seeking in total more than $100 million for damages.[23]

Human trafficking

In 2009, Ramos created the county's Coalition Against Sexual Exploitation (C.A.S.E.).[24] C.A.S.E. brought together a partnership of county departments including the District Attorney's Office, Sheriff's Department, Probation Department, County Superintendent of Schools, Department of Children and Family Services, Public Defender, and Department of Behavioral Health, to raise awareness and to provide enhanced county and community resources to victims.[25] He campaigned heavily in favor of Proposition 35 which voters overwhelmingly passed in 2012 and which created a Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit.[26][27] In an effort to reduce the demand for victims of human trafficking, Ramos started the Stop the John Project in 2013 and began releasing the names and photographs of those defendants convicted of solicitation in San Bernardino County.[28][29][30] In September 2014 Ramos made a blog post [31] mistaking the popular BDSM web page "The Slave Registry" for a human trafficking / prostitution front.

Prevention and intervention

Through the Juvenile Justice Crime Prevention Act (JJCPA), the DA office implemented the "Let's End Truancy" (L.E.T.) Project, which works to improve school attendance for previously truant students, discourage future truancy and helps to make education a priority for at-risk youth.[32] One step that Ramos took to address the problem of truancy was arresting parents for failure to address the issue.[33][34]

Ramos also has various other programs such as Camp Good Grief and the Gang Resistance Intervention Partnership (GRIP). Camp Good Grief is a three-day grief camp for children and teens whose lives have been shattered due to an act of murder or suicide.[35] The San Bernardino County District Attorney's Office, in partnership with Loma Linda University Children's Hospital, offer the camp.

Animal cruelty

In 2011, in conjunction with the Humane Society of the United States and Fontana Animal Services, Ramos released a short film to increase awareness about the dangers of cockfighting.[36][37] To better focus on animal abuse, in 2012 Ramos created the San Bernardino County Illegal Animal Fighting and Abuse Task Force, a multi-disciplinary collaboration designed to promote community awareness, education and prosecution of animal fighting and abuse in San Bernardino County.[38]

References
  1. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-01-16. Retrieved 2013-05-24.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  2. San Bernardino County district attorney asks Congress to make DNA collection part of immigration reform - LA Daily News Archived 2013-06-01 at the Wayback Machine
  3. Joe Nelson (June 6, 2019). "First new San Bernardino County D.A. in 16 years arrives with big plans". The San Bernardino Sun. Retrieved August 16, 2019.
  4. Coffee w District Attorney Mike Ramos: Redlands Native Talks Past and Present - Police & Fire - Redlands-Loma Linda, CA Patch
  5. "The State Bar of California". www.calbar.ca.gov. Retrieved 2018-07-09.
  6. State Bar of CA: Michael Anthony Ramos
  7. Mike Ramos | San Bernardino County District Attorney
  8. Victim Compensation Connection Newsletter, July 2010
  9. http://www.ndaa.org/pdf/San%20Diego%20committeeboard.pdf
  10. Saunders, Doug (July 2, 2015). "San Bernardino County District Attorney blasts Trump over ethnic remarks". San Bernardino Sun. Retrieved November 17, 2016.
  11. Californians asked to end death penalty - to save money - Page 2 - Chicago Tribune
  12. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-05-15. Retrieved 2013-05-24.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  13. Proposition 34 | Official Voter Information Guide | California Secretary of State Archived 2012-11-04 at the Wayback Machine
  14. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-04-15. Retrieved 2014-04-21.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  15. Prop 34 fails but signals the imminent demise of California's death penalty | David A Love | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
  16. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-11-03. Retrieved 2013-05-24.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  17. Crime victims in SB County to be notified of rights by phone | notified, phone, rights - Victorville Daily Press
  18. Vigil for crime victims offers hope, advocacy in San Bernardino - San Bernardino County Sun
  19. Victims' Bill of Rights Act of 2008: Marsy's Law | State of California - Department of Justice - Kamala D. Harris Attorney General
  20. "How did Colonies case go so wrong?". Daily Bulletin. 2017-09-29. Retrieved 2018-05-04.
  21. Grand jury indicts four in $102 million SBC bribery scheme | bernardino, million, bribery - Victorville Daily Press
  22. "'A lot of their evidence relied on a liar,' Colonies jurors say". Daily Bulletin. 2017-08-29. Retrieved 2018-05-04.
  23. "Last of vindicated Colonies corruption case defendants, Paul Biane, files claims against county and state". Daily Bulletin. 2018-02-27. Retrieved 2018-05-04.
  24. Interview with CASE: Coalition Against Sexual Exploitation | Washington Times Communities
  25. Activist says human trafficking a local problem « Tony Rocha Official Blog
  26. Proposition 35 would help stop sexual trafficking, says San Bernardino County District Attorney Mike Ramos, survivors - San Bernardino County Sun
  27. "Here's more of the plan to combat human trafficking in S.B. County". Archived from the original on 2014-01-16. Retrieved 2013-05-24.
  28. DA to post prostitution solicitor photos online | solicitor, online, photos - Victorville Daily Press
  29. 'Stop The John' Project To ID Defendants Convicted Of Solicitation « CBS Los Angeles
  30. DA's Stop-the-John program to shame sex-solicitors - DailyBulletin.com
  31. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2015-07-11. Retrieved 2015-07-10.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  32. DA makes case for state support of anti-truancy programs - DailyBulletin.com
  33. Three Fontana school district parents arrested for failure to address truancy - DailyBulletin.com
  34. Fontana school parents arrested over kids' truancy | UTSanDiego.com
  35. "DA's Office Holds 6th Annual "Camp Good Grief" – Special Victims' Program (SVP) - Inland Valley News". Archived from the original on 2013-06-19. Retrieved 2013-05-24.
  36. San Bernardino County targets cockfighting - San Bernardino County Sun
  37. Cockfighting In San Bernardino County on YouTube
  38. San Bernardino County task force to focus on animal abuse - DailyBulletin.com
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