Vengeance

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Speaker 3 He has turned my life upside down. He took everything away from me.
Everything that I sacrificed for. Everything that I work for.
He even took my daughter away from me.

Speaker 2 Once, they were so good together.

Speaker 4 How did love turn into hate like this?

Speaker 2 Before that night of violence, he drags you down to the basement.

Speaker 5 All the way down.

Speaker 3 I'm trying to fight him off. I can't breathe.

Speaker 2 Then, a twist no one expected.

Speaker 5 They've got three witnesses who identified you in a lineup. Did you understand that?

Speaker 3 Yeah, I do understand that.

Speaker 6 The alleged victim, accused, is just a terrifying, shocking experience.

Speaker 2 Who did what to whom?

Speaker 7 The evidence showed an evil and vindictive schemer, a diabolical conniver, a frame-up that fooled nearly everyone.

Speaker 3 This is going to be hard to try to figure all this out.

Speaker 6 You couldn't invent a worse nightmare.

Speaker 2 A confounding case of vengeance.

Speaker 2 Welcome to Dateline, everyone. I'm Lester Holt.
They were a couple who seemed made for each other: smart, good-looking, and in love.

Speaker 2 But when things started going wrong, that passion turned into sudden violence and an elaborate plot to get revenge so clever and twisted, prosecutors had never seen anything like it.

Speaker 2 It almost succeeded.

Speaker 2 There are two sides to every breakup. And if the end is bitter and anger spins out of control, a once-perfect romance can become a nightmare.

Speaker 8 This story was a crazy case of he said, she said with a lot of twists and turns, and it explodes into a story you couldn't possibly have imagined.

Speaker 2 Simona Sumasar doesn't have to imagine it. She lived it.

Speaker 3 Well, how did I keep my sanity? How did it it happen? This all happened to me, me,

Speaker 3 a simple, simple person.

Speaker 2 For Simona and Jerry Ramertan, it was a romance that started with so much promise. She thought he might be the one.

Speaker 5 Describe him.

Speaker 3 Charming, sweet talker, confident, you know, he could make things happen.

Speaker 2 The couple lived in Simona's four-family house in Queens, New York, in the shadow of Kennedy Airport. Simona, a 34-year-old immigrant from Guyana, worked as an analyst for Morgan Stanley.

Speaker 3 I got into the finance business at a great time. Good money? Good money.

Speaker 2 She also owned a Golden Crust restaurant franchise. She'd start her day working in Manhattan from 5 a.m.
until 2 in the afternoon.

Speaker 2 Then she'd commute back to her restaurant in Queens, where she'd work late into the night.

Speaker 5 And you slept when?

Speaker 3 I don't know. I look back at it and I don't know, a few hours here and there.

Speaker 2 Not long after the Golden Crust opened, a handsome, confident man walked in and introduced himself. It was Jerry, and he quickly became one of Simona's best customers.

Speaker 3 Literally, I would see him almost every day. He would stop by, just casual conversations, talk about his work, him being a detective.

Speaker 2 The 37-year-old Jerry said he had once been a police officer and still had close ties to law enforcement. Now he worked in security, although his exact job was a bit of a mystery.

Speaker 3 He comes along and literally everybody was referring to him as my bodyguard. They loved the thought that he was around.

Speaker 5 Were you an investigator?

Speaker 4 I was a consultant. I would consult on anything that involved in security or investigation matters.

Speaker 5 She described you as the perfect guy.

Speaker 4 I did whatever I could at the time, whatever I could do to help her. We did everything, go out to movies, family events, everything.

Speaker 4 I kept the house clean. I took care of garbage.
I did all the repairs in the house.

Speaker 9 Everyone thought we were married. Everyone.

Speaker 2 Simona, a single mother, was raising a 12-year-old daughter. She took to Jerry, too.
The romance blossomed. There was even talk of marriage.
But a call out of the blue changed everything.

Speaker 2 A woman, on the other end, introduced herself as Jerry Ramertan's wife.

Speaker 3 That was a shocker. I doubted her at first, but you can be serious.

Speaker 2 It got worse. Not only was Jerry married, he also had three children.
Simona confronted him.

Speaker 3 At first, he denied it. Finally, he tells me that it's true,

Speaker 3 but it's not what it seemed. The marriage was arranged by family for a green card.

Speaker 5 So what did you do with that explanation?

Speaker 3 I didn't believe it. How do I trust anything that you say?

Speaker 5 How did you explain that I have a a wife, but I'm with you?

Speaker 4 I explained to her that before I met her, I was separated from my wife,

Speaker 4 which was true. My wife is living in Brooklyn.
I was living in Queens. She was upset about it, but she never ended the relationship.

Speaker 2 But it was the beginning of the end. Simona banished Jerry to the basement and then finally told him to leave her house by February 20th, 2009.

Speaker 2 But more than two weeks after the deadline, Jerry was still there.

Speaker 3 He was talking about a relationship like it still existed.

Speaker 3 And I kept on saying to him, Jerry, you have to leave. We're not together.

Speaker 2 They started arguing. But this time, Simona says it took a dark turn into strange and ominous territory.
He

Speaker 3 got my hands behind me. Next thing I'm hearing, duct tape unrolled.

Speaker 2 Simona says Jerry jammed his knee into her back, pushed her face down onto her bed, and quickly taped her wrists together. But she says Jerry was strangely calm.

Speaker 2 He let her sit up in bed and acted like it was just another lazy Sunday at home. He watched TV, ordered Chinese food, and incredibly tried to win her back.

Speaker 3 You have me right now, Ductape, and you're having a conversation with me.

Speaker 3 Have you lost your mind? I just let him have it. I'm going to call him every name I could possibly call him.

Speaker 2 For a moment, Jerry seemed to lose it. Simona says he started crying, pulled a gun out of his waistband, and put the barrel against his own head.

Speaker 3 Maya said, listen, if you want to kill yourself, don't do it in my house. Don't do it in my house.

Speaker 3 And

Speaker 3 in no time, he was back to normal again.

Speaker 2 The bizarre scene played out for hours. Simona says she thought it was Jerry's dramatic parting shot.
But when she tried to get up from the bed, she says he snapped.

Speaker 3 Just when he just

Speaker 3 grabbed me with one arm and just pulled me right down the stairs.

Speaker 5 How big a man is he?

Speaker 3 He's 6'4,

Speaker 3 more than 200 pounds.

Speaker 5 Forgive me, but how big are you?

Speaker 3 110 pounds, 5'5'1.

Speaker 3 And I was duct tape, so I couldn't control what was going on really much.

Speaker 5 He drags you down to the basement. All the way down.

Speaker 2 Simona says she was lying on the basement floor when Jerry wrapped duct tape around her legs.

Speaker 3 He didn't utter a word.

Speaker 3 He just took all his clothes off, untied my robe,

Speaker 3 took off my underwear, and that was that.

Speaker 5 He rapes you? Yes.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 5 you're powerless to resist him? Yeah.

Speaker 3 And

Speaker 3 I'm trying to fight him off, but I can't. I can't breathe.
And

Speaker 3 I really felt like I was going to pass up. He started to cry again

Speaker 3 and apologized

Speaker 3 that

Speaker 3 he didn't mean to do this and he hopes that, you know, I don't.

Speaker 3 I don't

Speaker 3 report it. The last thing I think I said to him was,

Speaker 3 you should have just used the gun. Why didn't you?

Speaker 2 Jerry didn't answer. He simply grabbed his things and left.
Simona called 911.

Speaker 1 What's your name, ma'am?

Speaker 4 Simona. What's the emergency?

Speaker 2 I was assaulted by my ex-boyfriend, and I need to make a report. He just left.
Jerry Ramertan was arrested and charged with rape. He emphatically denied every detail of Simona's accusation.

Speaker 5 She said she had been bound, dragged downstairs, raped. Not just any rape, hours of emotional torture and forcibly penetrated.

Speaker 4 I never touched Simone.

Speaker 5 You did have sex that night? Yes.

Speaker 9 In the bedroom?

Speaker 5 Yes. Not downstairs? No.

Speaker 5 Consensual sex? Sure.

Speaker 9 We were having sex all the time.

Speaker 11 There was never a rape.

Speaker 2 And with that, a bitter he said, she said said case was unleashed. One that would land both Jerry and Simona on the wrong side of the law.

Speaker 2 Coming up.

Speaker 2 A disturbing 911 call. A string of armed robberies.
An astonishing twist.

Speaker 3 I was asked to step out of the car. Handcuffs was placed on me.

Speaker 2 Was Jerry's accuser the real criminal? When vengeance continues.

Speaker 2 more than a year had passed since Simona Sumasar had accused her ex-boyfriend Jerry Ramratan of rape. Jerry was out on bail.
In a desperate phone call, he tried to plead his case to her one last time.

Speaker 3 He said, please, please, please, I'm begging you, don't do this. Don't do this.
Don't go go through with it. Think about my kids.
And I said, don't ever call me again or try to contact me.

Speaker 2 Simona wanted to see Jerry behind bars. But on the night of May 21st, 2010, her case and her life exploded into chaos.
She was driving near her restaurant when she was pulled over by police.

Speaker 5 These were detectives. These weren't regular patrol officers.

Speaker 3 Detectives. Plain clothing.
You know, and I explained who I was. They didn't seem to care.
I was asked to step out of the car. Handcuffs was placed on me.

Speaker 2 Simona was bewildered. She'd never been in trouble with police before.
More puzzling, the detectives were from suburban Long Island.

Speaker 2 They drove Simona to a precinct house in Nassau County, where she was questioned about her car, her driving routines, and her whereabouts on several dates.

Speaker 3 We're having a conversation about all of these things, and

Speaker 3 nothing is making any sense to me. These people obviously think I did something.

Speaker 2 The detectives acted as though Simona was hiding something and kept pressing her. Her attorney, Nick Brustin.

Speaker 6 Simona's arrest was a nightmare. She's not given any information about why she's being arrested, has no idea what's happening.
It's just a terrifying, shocking experience.

Speaker 2 Simona says she was even more shocked when she finally learned why she was there.

Speaker 2 A frantic 911 call had made her the suspect in an armed robbery.

Speaker 10 This is 911.

Speaker 10 What incident happened?

Speaker 10 I was Los Angeles.

Speaker 2 The caller was a woman named Luz Johnson, who had been driving in a quiet Long Island neighborhood just over the border from Queens.

Speaker 10 Ma'am,

Speaker 10 when they pulled you over, did they say that they were officers?

Speaker 10 Yes, she said that it was two males, brown complexion, one female, either Indian or Hispanic.

Speaker 8 She was pulled over by this male and female police officer in a two-tone Jeep Cherokee with a red flashing light.

Speaker 2 Reporter Sherry Einhorn covered the story for News 12 Long Island.

Speaker 8 They're wearing bulletproof vests with badges or shields hanging from their necks. They have black semi-automatic handguns.

Speaker 2 But it turned out these were not police officers. Johnson says they were bandits who robbed her at gunpoint, walking off with her rent money, $1,400 in cash.

Speaker 2 The M.O. struck a chord with Nassau County Police.
It sounded almost exactly like two other armed robberies reported nearby over the previous six months.

Speaker 8 Each of the incidents happened in the wee morning hours. Each of the incidents seemed to be a routine traffic stop.

Speaker 8 And in each of the incidents, the female is often described as either Spanish or Indian.

Speaker 2 The first victim, Rajiv Manhanlal, a burly man in his 20s, described a harrowing confrontation with the petite woman posing as a cop.

Speaker 8 Mohan Lal tells police that she handcuffed him and police find him wearing handcuffs. And Mohan Lal also tells the police that the female officer cocked her gun near his head and a bullet popped out.

Speaker 8 And police do, in fact, find a bullet on the ground.

Speaker 2 That case went unsolved. Five months later, the same thing happened to an optician named Terrell Lavelle.

Speaker 10 They had like badges and I was off the light and they pulled me pull over, pull over. Did they state that they were police? Yeah, they said they, yeah, they said they were police.

Speaker 10 It was a woman and a guy. Okay, female white? No, no, she was like Indian looking.

Speaker 8 He's able to describe a little more detail of the car that pulled him over. A Jeep Cherokee, gray with partial gold rims with a flashing red light.

Speaker 2 Still not enough to crack the case until the night Luz Johnson became victim number three.

Speaker 2 Johnson was inconsolable, so shaken she could barely put a sentence together. But she was clear-headed enough to remember the license plate of the Jeep Cherokee.
Police traced it to a house in Queens.

Speaker 2 It was Simona Sumasar's house, the very same house where police had come one year earlier when she had said she was raped.

Speaker 2 But this time, they were coming for her as the suspect in a string of brazen robberies. All police needed now was a positive ID.

Speaker 8 Each of the three victims is able to pick out Simona Sumasar from a photopack.

Speaker 2 To prosecutors in Nassau County, it looked like a mountain of evidence. They charged Simona with armed robbery, possession of a firearm, and impersonating a police officer.

Speaker 2 When Frank DiGaetano, the prosecutor in Simona's rape case, first heard about her arrest, he had to ask himself what kind of person his star witness really was.

Speaker 12 I've prosecuted priests, I've prosecuted doctors, lawyers, Boy Scout leaders, people that you wouldn't think would be engaging in criminal activity, but yet were.

Speaker 5 When you heard robbery and Simona, what was your first thought?

Speaker 4 I thought, wow, I can't believe it. I didn't think she was like that.

Speaker 5 So did you think this must be some horrible mistake?

Speaker 4 Well, I believe that, you know, there's... Four sides to the story.

Speaker 5 Four sides.

Speaker 4 Yeah, the if, the truth, the maybe,

Speaker 9 and whatever else.

Speaker 2 And in the case of Simona and Jerry, all sides were about to collide, exposing how far some people will go to exact revenge.

Speaker 2 Coming up, Simona's rage.

Speaker 5 In the email, it says, revenge is sweet.

Speaker 3 There is no doubt that I had it in for him. I'm not going to deny that.

Speaker 2 But does she have an alibi in the robbery case? When dateline continues.

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Speaker 2 Simona Sumasar was getting to know the justice system from both ends. First, in Queens, as the accuser and star witness in a rape case against her former boyfriend, Jerry Ramertan.

Speaker 2 And now in a Long Island jail cell, charged with armed robbery and impersonating a police officer, the prosecutor of her rape case found the charges hard to believe, but he knew Long Island prosecutors had discovered a motive.

Speaker 12 She was in arrears on her taxes. They eventually came to believe that her restaurant was failing and that she was in desperate financial straits.

Speaker 5 I understand she had some money issues.

Speaker 4 A lot of money issues. There's a lot of stuff going on.

Speaker 2 When they first started dating, Jerry was at the restaurant all the time, greeting customers, driving employees home, handling deliveries. He was so involved, some people thought he was the boss.

Speaker 5 What did you do at the restaurant initially?

Speaker 4 At first, I came there and I started assisting her because she was having problems. She had violations, several thousands of dollars in violations.
They were coming after her for taxes.

Speaker 4 She had an SBA loan, small business loan, and she defaulted on the loan. There was a lot of stuff going on.

Speaker 5 Was she a good businesswoman?

Speaker 4 She tried.

Speaker 5 She tried.

Speaker 2 Jerry says Simona's financial situation got so bad, he took charge of day-to-day operations. Then when Simona formed a new corporation to run the restaurant, she named Jerry an officer.

Speaker 2 She even created a new bank account to handle expenses and put it in Jerry's name. And finally, when money became too tight, he says Simona took the ultimate step.

Speaker 5 You say that Simona ended up selling the restaurant to you. Correct.

Speaker 4 And they gave me notarized notarized letters stating that it was sold to me. And they also transferred the light, the gas, all the utilities in my name.

Speaker 2 Simona says she did not sell the restaurant, and it was never in dire straits. She says her problem was with Jerry.
Once she discovered he was a married man, she just didn't trust him anymore.

Speaker 3 I had no clue who he really was, if anything that he said.

Speaker 3 was true at all. And I said, you know what? I can't take this anymore.

Speaker 2 And that's when Simona says she told Jerry to leave. She also wrote an email to his wife.
Things were getting ugly.

Speaker 5 In the email, it says, revenge is sweet. He deserves what he gets.
You were never going to put him in this place.

Speaker 2 Someone needed to.

Speaker 3 There is no doubt that I had it in for him. I'm not going to deny that.
I explained to her that I am trying to get him out of my life. It's not an easy thing to do.

Speaker 5 I mean, was this related to the fact that you had set this deadline?

Speaker 3 Yes, and I wanted him out.

Speaker 2 it was just one month later that simona accused jerry of rape why would she make that sound

Speaker 4 well her whole problem was she wanted a store back after all the stuff i've done for her do you know how preposterous that that sounds after all this time you're gonna accuse me of rape

Speaker 4 It was like a nightmare.

Speaker 2 But now the prosecutor, getting ready to bring Jerry to trial for rape, had his own nightmare. His star witness had lost her most important credential, her credibility.

Speaker 12 We were presenting her as a thoughtful, gentle, private woman, and essentially, you know, the defense would have been able to paint her as Ma Barker.

Speaker 2 And that's exactly how it played out in front of a grand jury. All three victims testified that Simona was the woman who disguised herself as a police officer and robbed them at gunpoint.

Speaker 2 Simona was indicted, and her bail was set at $1 million.

Speaker 2 She couldn't come up with the money and remained in jail.

Speaker 5 They've got three witnesses who identified you in a lineup, identified your car. They had what to them seemed like a pretty good case.
Did you understand that?

Speaker 3 Yeah, I do understand that.

Speaker 2 But what Simona didn't understand was why Nassau County police and prosecutors were ignoring evidence she felt certain would clear her.

Speaker 2 Most significant, she claimed she had an airtight alibi for the night of the third robbery. Ma'am,

Speaker 10 when they pulled you over, did they say that they were officers?

Speaker 2 Robbery victim Luz Johnson's 911 call was made on the night of May 19th, 2010 at 1 a.m. from Inwood, a small town on Long Island.

Speaker 2 But at that very moment, Simona told police she was gambling at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Connecticut, 120 miles away.

Speaker 3 Can I prove where I was on May 19? I'm not sure, but I know that I went to Mohegan Son.

Speaker 3 And I said, you probably don't believe me because, you know, I'm sure everybody's saying that they're innocent but you could confirm with my family my nephew was with me.

Speaker 2 Simona said she not only had a witness she had concrete evidence. Police were given security camera images of a woman resembling Simona at the casino's gaming tables.

Speaker 2 And records show that calls made from Simona's phone pinged off cell towers near the casino at the same time the robbery was reported in New York.

Speaker 3 And I thought that was it. That's all I needed to get me out.
I'm thinking that, okay, I'm safe now.

Speaker 2 But prosecutors weren't convinced.

Speaker 5 I think look at that picture in the Mohican Sun.

Speaker 2 It looks hurry. It's a little grainy.
Right.

Speaker 3 A little grainy, I admit. But how does my phone making

Speaker 3 phone calls from Connecticut at the same exact time of the robbery in New York, hours away?

Speaker 3 The only thing that I thought that could have saved me didn't.

Speaker 2 Simona's attorney says police didn't take her alibi seriously because they had already made up their minds.

Speaker 6 It was very clear that it's Simona in the picture.

Speaker 6 The cell phone records support it. With that kind of evidence, a full investigation should be conducted into what she's claiming.

Speaker 2 But Nassau County police didn't budge. They felt the evidence against Simona was overwhelming.
And as she languished in jail for months, one thing kept eating at her.

Speaker 2 Something that happened the night she was taken into custody.

Speaker 3 At one point during the interrogation, I noticed that there is a folder, like Manila folder, this high, and on top of it is his picture.

Speaker 5 Whose picture? Jerry's.

Speaker 3 They have a folder on him. So I spill my guts about the rape, everything I know about Jerry, and what's going on.

Speaker 3 And

Speaker 3 the detective casually just says to me, well, this is not about him. I'm thinking to myself, how could this not have anything to do with him?

Speaker 2 Coming up.

Speaker 3 It was just unbelievable. I had to pinch myself.

Speaker 2 A new witness comes forward and upends the entire case.

Speaker 12 She decided to go to the National Adier's office and come clean.

Speaker 2 When Dateline continues.

Speaker 2 Simona Sumasar was in jail, about to be tried for armed robbery and impersonating a police officer.

Speaker 2 for a woman who had been a success on wall street and owned her own restaurant it seemed to defy all logic is it hard to believe that

Speaker 2 that's you yeah i i say it every day it's not my life this couldn't have happened to me it's it's like a bad dream simona said she was innocent and thought she had given police an airtight alibi for the night of one of the robberies She racked her brain trying to come up with an explanation.

Speaker 2 She could only think of one. This had to be the work of Jerry Ramertan.

Speaker 3 There was no doubt that at that time that this has to do with Jerry.

Speaker 2 Simona felt certain the man charged with raping her must be connected to the charges against her now.

Speaker 2 But how?

Speaker 2 She says she pleaded with police and prosecutors to try to find out, but they didn't seem interested. Simona's lawyer says they didn't do their jobs.

Speaker 6 Police have blinders. They get a piece of evidence they think is credible, and they follow it to the exclusion of all else.
And they were looking for ways to prove that she committed this crime.

Speaker 6 They were convinced she did. They weren't looking for ways to prove that she didn't.

Speaker 2 As the months dragged on, Simona felt like she'd been assaulted twice, first by her ex-boyfriend and now by the justice system.

Speaker 3 It became difficult, you know, all the negative light because of my arrest. A lot of embarrassing things that my family had to, you know, go through.
A lot of shame, a lot of guilt.

Speaker 3 Like, how to explain what's going on, what's been said about me.

Speaker 2 Then, just before Christmas, a gift, a woman arrived at the Nassau County DA's office with evidence of a plot against Simona. How did she know? She said her boyfriend was behind him.

Speaker 12 She was trying to extricate herself from that relationship.

Speaker 12 He'd show up at her house, she'd refused to let him in, and she came to realize that the only way to get rid of him was to expose his conspiracy.

Speaker 12 So she decided to go to the National IDA's office and to come clean.

Speaker 2 The informant said not only was Simona not involved in any robberies, but there were no robberies.

Speaker 10 I thought it was the police. They had fastened.

Speaker 2 The dramatic 911 calls, the testimony, the evidence, all of it was faked to frame her.

Speaker 3 I couldn't say anything else, but, wait a minute, are you kidding me? Isn't this what I I was saying from day one?

Speaker 2 The informant provided cell phone records linking the three robbery victims to the mastermind of an elaborate plot.

Speaker 2 It was not only the informant's boyfriend, but the man Simona had suspected all along, Jerry Ramratan.

Speaker 12 He resolved to do whatever he could to discredit her. And in Jerry's world, that was bringing false charges against her.
And he did it in a very, very clever and

Speaker 12 really masterful way to pin these crimes on her.

Speaker 2 All three so-called victims confessed that the entire thing was a hoax and said Jerry was behind it. They all pleaded guilty to perjury and went to jail.

Speaker 2 Nassau County prosecutors had to admit they were wrong about Simona. They dropped the charges and released her.

Speaker 3 It was just a moment. Unbelievable.
I had to pinch myself like I'm really, literally out.

Speaker 2 Simona was finally free, but she had paid a heavy price. She'd been separated from her young daughter for seven long months.

Speaker 5 How often did you get to see your daughter?

Speaker 3 I had refused to having her come there. I got arrested in May.
The whole summer went by, never seen her. And

Speaker 3 just before the week of school in September is when I asked her dad

Speaker 3 to bring her.

Speaker 3 And I tried to explain everything everything to her in an hour.

Speaker 3 About how she shouldn't worry about anything.

Speaker 2 What was that like?

Speaker 3 That was the worst.

Speaker 2 Now, everything circled back to Jerry Ramertan. He was arrested again and charged with conspiracy.
This time, he went to jail to stay.

Speaker 2 And most significant, all the charges against him were combined so that he would be tried for both conspiracy and rape. in front of one jury.
Jerry, you see why this looks really bad?

Speaker 5 You're accused of rape by Simona. Simona suddenly ends up in jail, accused of armed robberies.
The three people that claimed she did it all were related to you.

Speaker 4 Then that also all related to me and I trust the justice system even though I was done injustice. I guarantee you the truth will come out.

Speaker 2 Coming up, the case for the defense. The witnesses were lying.

Speaker 11 They lied about everything, but it just takes any one juror to say, I don't believe these people.

Speaker 2 When dateline continues.

Speaker 14 A Mochi moment from Tara, who writes, For years, all my doctor said was eat less and move more, which never worked. But you know what does? The simple eating tips from my nutritionist at Mochi.

Speaker 14 And after losing over 30 pounds, I can say, you're not just another GLP1 source. You're a life source.
Thanks, Tara. I'm Myra Amit, founder of Mochi Health.

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Speaker 15 Mochi members have access to licensed physicians and nutritionists and are compensated for their stories. Results may vary.

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Speaker 3 I turned off news altogether.

Speaker 3 I hate to say it, but I don't trust much of anything.

Speaker 5 It's the rage bait.

Speaker 3 It feels like it's trying to divide people.

Speaker 18 We got clear facts. Maybe we can calm down a little.

Speaker 2 NBC News brings you clear reporting. let's meet at the facts let's move forward from there NBC News reporting for America

Speaker 2 the love between Simona Sumasar and Jerry Ramratan had long since been replaced by bitterness Was she in love with you? I believe so.

Speaker 4 So how did love turn into hate like this?

Speaker 4 Money's a dangerous commodity.

Speaker 3 He is a sociopath. I don't believe that he would stop at anything to get what he wants.

Speaker 2 In November 2011, the most intimate secrets and grievances of their relationship played out in court at Jerry's trial for rape and conspiracy.

Speaker 2 The prosecution set the tone, calling Jerry a liar and manipulator, used to getting his way until Simona forced him out of her business, her house, and her heart.

Speaker 12 This time he was going to have to leave with his tail between his legs. That was something that, you know, he just could not allow it to happen.

Speaker 12 I think he became extraordinarily angry, and that's when he decided he was going to rape her.

Speaker 2 Simona took the stand and described the events of March 8th, 2009. Hours of captivity in her own bedroom, followed by a brutal rape.

Speaker 5 That must have been hard.

Speaker 3 It was. I went in there not knowing what to expect.
I also reminded myself that I didn't have anything to worry about because I didn't need to lie about anything.

Speaker 12 She relived her relationship with Jerry on that witness stand, and she relived her ordeal with Jerry on that witness stand.

Speaker 12 And I thought every moment of her examination rang true and was very powerful.

Speaker 2 The prosecution told the jury that Simona's body was a crime scene. Seaman recovered during her sexual assault exam contained Jerry's DNA, and there was evidence of a genital laceration.

Speaker 12 Most women who are raped, there are no injuries. You know, if there is injury,

Speaker 12 that is indicative of a forcible act.

Speaker 2 The report included pictures of Simona's face and arms.

Speaker 12 There are duct tape marks consistent with duct tape having been placed around her wrists.

Speaker 2 Prosecutor DiGatano also had evidence that Jerry's fingerprint was on a roll of duct tape recovered from the house.

Speaker 12 Collectively, you know, the evidence was overwhelming and really supported her account. Queen's diezo.

Speaker 2 Next, the jury heard about a fake robbery plot, as intricate as an episode of CSI or Law and Order, Jerry's favorite crime dramas.

Speaker 2 The prosecution said it was brilliantly conceived, not by a real cop, as Jerry claimed he once was, but by a detective wannabe, who it turns out had once been convicted for robbery himself.

Speaker 12 I did know early on that he was not a police officer. I mean, he had a felony record, so he could not have been a police officer.

Speaker 2 The prosecution called the three so-called victims who had accused Simona of armed robbery.

Speaker 10 And they got lost that was just they rule me over.

Speaker 2 Even Luz Johnson, whose dramatic 911 call seemed so real, now said she was simply reciting a script elaborately written by Jerry.

Speaker 12 He knew police procedure. He knew how these investigations were conducted, and he made use of it.
And he was very detailed in the script that he gave to each of of the three victims.

Speaker 2 The prosecution had painted an ugly picture of Jerry Ramratan, a rapist and schemer without conscience.

Speaker 3 I was shocked.

Speaker 4 I can't believe that someone would sit there and create a story like this. Look at the sloppy police work that was done on my case.
The evidence that they produced at that trial.

Speaker 11 Even during that time.

Speaker 2 Now, it was the defense's turn. Jerry's lawyer, Frank Kelly, challenged Simona and her story of being held captive for hours before being raped.

Speaker 11 I thought it was just ridiculous that my client would be there for hours and hours ordering Chinese food and repeating the same thing over and over. Can I stay? Can I stay?

Speaker 11 And please don't tell the police after I leave.

Speaker 19 It was just ridiculous.

Speaker 2 Kelly ripped into the fingerprint evidence, arguing that the one print found was on a roll of duct tape, not on the pieces allegedly used to bind and gag Simona.

Speaker 11 There was no proof that any of those pieces of duct tape came from that particular roll. Of course, his fingerprint was going to be on the outside of one.
He had placed it there on the bureau.

Speaker 2 Kelly argued that the medical evidence was flimsy too, including the medical technician's report of the genital laceration.

Speaker 11 And he took a photograph of it.

Speaker 19 You couldn't see it.

Speaker 11 And he did admit that even on consensual sex, you can get such a laceration.

Speaker 11 The only thing I ever saw on any photograph was one line across one of her forearms, but I couldn't tell you that was from duct tape.

Speaker 2 Kelly dismissed the conspiracy charge, telling the jury that part of the case was built entirely on the testimony of confessed liars.

Speaker 6 These are lowlifes.

Speaker 11 They lied about everything. But it just takes any one juror to say, I don't believe these people, they are convicted perjuries.

Speaker 11 I don't believe Simona Sumasar because she was in financial difficulties and she won't even admit that.

Speaker 2 In the end, the defense asserted the case was really all about Simona.

Speaker 2 a woman in deep financial trouble who turned against a man who loved and supported her, framing him in a desperate effort to get her restaurant back.

Speaker 2 In a dramatic moment, Kelly presented a bill of sale in court showing Simona had sold the golden crust to Jerry for $120,000.

Speaker 3 When I actually

Speaker 3 saw that document,

Speaker 3 I thought he really lost his mind.

Speaker 2 It's your signature there.

Speaker 5 And it says you sold the restaurant for $120,000.

Speaker 3 I have to tell you that that signature looks exactly like my signature. But I never signed that and I never sold my business.
And he doesn't have $120, much as $120,000 to give me.

Speaker 2 Jerry did not take the stand, and the defense called no witnesses.

Speaker 11 There was nothing to gain out of that. They didn't prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt.
I thought the juries would come back with a not guilty verdict.

Speaker 2 After a three-week trial, it was over. Jerry's future and Simona's too were now in the hands of a jury.

Speaker 2 Coming up, a tough task for jurors.

Speaker 12 Once a case gets into the hands of the jury, you never know what's going to happen.

Speaker 2 When vengeance continues.

Speaker 2 For Simona Sumisar, it had been an exhausting and emotional three weeks. The trial of her ex-boyfriend, Jerry Ramratan, had taken her back to the worst days of her life.

Speaker 3 I can't believe that it's my life. It's something that should really be in a lifetime movie.
Even that's a little bit too much.

Speaker 2 And now that the case was in the hands of the jury, Simona and prosecutor Frank DeGatano were on edge.

Speaker 12 I'm never confident. Once the case gets into the hands of the jury, you never know what's going to happen.

Speaker 2 When deliberations got underway, the jury was divided.

Speaker 5 Tell me what the deliberations were like.

Speaker 4 Well, at first,

Speaker 18 you know, it seemed like it was going to be more like a hung jury.

Speaker 2 We spoke to five of the jurors. So how many holdouts were there?

Speaker 12 I'd say we probably started with three.

Speaker 2 Three people leaning towards acquittal. Right.

Speaker 5 What about Simona? What were your thoughts as you looked out at her?

Speaker 3 Strong woman.

Speaker 3 I was going to say that exactly. She is a strong woman.
You could see the emotion when she spoke, the tendons and everything

Speaker 3 when she was reliving it in that moment. This is going to be hard to try to figure all this out because there was so many different things and so many contradictions.

Speaker 2 People murdered Jerry Ramitan. The jurors struggled for 10 long hours before reaching a verdict.

Speaker 20 Madam Floor Person, as to count one, rape in the first degree, what is your verdict?

Speaker 3 Guilty.

Speaker 2 Jerry Ramratan, guilty of rape. Guilty.
And guilty of the conspiracy that landed Simone in jail.

Speaker 20 As to count 11, falsely reporting an incident in the third degree, what is your verdict?

Speaker 3 Guilty.

Speaker 2 The jury convicted him on 11 counts in all.

Speaker 3 I only heard the rape charge because in my mind, ultimately, that's all they needed to convict him for.

Speaker 5 Can you step outside this far enough to say that if I'm on the jury and I'm hearing what this jury heard, this was a pretty easy slam-dunk conviction.

Speaker 4 No.

Speaker 5 It wasn't.

Speaker 4 The sloppy police work,

Speaker 4 her story, they went on emotions more than actual physical evidence.

Speaker 2 In the end, it was still a case of he said, she said,

Speaker 2 and the jury had little trouble deciding who to believe.

Speaker 5 What do you think about Jerry now?

Speaker 16 In many respects, I just felt really sad and sorry for him because

Speaker 16 he was a flawed individual.

Speaker 3 He did nothing but smirk. and make faces and mouth words and very exaggerated facial gestures.

Speaker 3 Very smug, big turn off.

Speaker 18 He is that bee that has honey in his mouth, but he has a sting in his tail.

Speaker 2 And that sting nearly destroyed Simona Sumasar's life. Simona Sumasar? At the sentencing, Simona was given a chance to address the court.

Speaker 2 But instead, she spoke straight to Jerry.

Speaker 3 You made sure that I was left with nothing when you were done. Because you're evil.

Speaker 3 You're just, I don't even have words for you. I don't.
But I know that you're pro-evil and you're a sociopath and you need help. And I hope that you take

Speaker 3 and use your time wisely to get the help you need.

Speaker 2 When Jerry got his turn, he refused to take responsibility for his crimes.

Speaker 4 It's fine. You know, whatever has to happen today has to happen.
But it's nowhere done and over.

Speaker 4 I maintain my innocence and there's more to come.

Speaker 2 It's not done.

Speaker 2 As he delivered the sentence, Judge Richard Buckter said Jerry deserved no mercy.

Speaker 7 The evidence showed him to be a violent rapist,

Speaker 7 an evil and vindictive schemer,

Speaker 7 a sinister manipulator, a diabolical conniver, a man who coldheartedly endeavored to destroy an innocent victim who he himself had abused and raped.

Speaker 2 The judge sentenced Jerry Ramratan to 33 years in prison. From behind bars, Jerry still insists he's an innocent man and puts the blame on Simona and his three co-conspirators.

Speaker 5 We spoke to some of the jurors and they said they really believed Simona's.

Speaker 5 She was lying in your view.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 3 I was shocked.

Speaker 5 Did you ask any of these three people to concoct a story of Simona robbing them?

Speaker 9 No.

Speaker 5 They're bold-faced liars.

Speaker 4 Oh yeah, and I'm sure in due time a lot more stuff is going to come out about all of them.

Speaker 5 Everyone's lying. You're the only one telling the truth here.

Speaker 2 Well,

Speaker 4 it doesn't matter what I say because I'm the fall guy right now.

Speaker 3 I still think that he believes in half of the lies that he told

Speaker 3 and he looks at me

Speaker 3 as the person that did this to him and not that he did this to himself.

Speaker 2 Simona Sumisar was a victim of two crimes, but it didn't end there.

Speaker 2 During the seven months she was in jail she lost her home, her business, and was separated from her daughter.

Speaker 2 And now she has to build her life yet again.

Speaker 5 The wheels of justice eventually turn in the right direction but it must be hard to look at yourself as a winner.

Speaker 3 It is. It is.
He has turned my life upside down. He has took everything away from me.
Everything that I sacrificed for, everything that I work for.

Speaker 3 He even took my daughter away from me.

Speaker 3 Turn her life upside down.

Speaker 2 Simona sued New York City and two of its detectives. She also sued Nassau County and one of its detectives.
The city defendants settled for an undisclosed amount.

Speaker 2 After a federal court dismissed her claims for false arrest, the county defendants settled the remaining claims for $2 million.

Speaker 6 It's literally Kafka-squeezed. She couldn't have imagined this having happened to her.
So, you know, in terms of how this affected her life, I mean, you couldn't invent

Speaker 6 a worse nightmare for her.

Speaker 5 Sometimes the word victim implies someone weak.

Speaker 5 How do you wrestle with the term victim? How do you see yourself?

Speaker 3 I don't want to play the victim role. I'm stronger than that.
I'm better than that.

Speaker 3 So you just have to let it go and say what's done is done and just leave it alone.

Speaker 2 That's all for now. I'm Lester Holt.
Thanks for joining us.