Seemona Sumasar Case: Ramrattan’s Framing, Trial, and $2M Settlement

The Seemona Sumasar case is one of the more disturbing false-arrest stories in recent New York memory: a Queens businesswoman was raped by her ex-boyfriend Jerry Ramrattan in 2009, and when she refused to drop the charges, he staged a series of armed robberies designed to pin them on her. She spent about seven months in the Nassau County jail before an informant’s tip unraveled the scheme. Ramrattan was later convicted of rape, perjury, and related crimes and sentenced to a maximum of 32 years in prison, and Sumasar settled a federal civil rights lawsuit against Nassau County for $2 million.¹²

Who Jerry Ramrattan Was

Ramrattan ran a private detective agency called Most Wanted Inc. and had worked for years as a paid confidential informant for the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office, testifying before grand juries and helping win at least four convictions there. In a 1997 Brooklyn rape case he received $4,000 for his cooperation, and in 2005 he was paid to work undercover in a strip club under investigation for money laundering and prostitution.³⁴

That proximity to law enforcement was the engine of everything he did next. He carried a gun, badge, bulletproof vest, and handcuffs, and told people he was a detective attached to the Brooklyn DA’s office. Sumasar recalled being taken to the office, where he signed in and met with the head of investigations as if he worked there. About 90 percent of his phone contacts, she said, were police officers.⁵

Sumasar met him in 2006 at the Golden Krust bakery franchise she owned in Queens. She had spent a decade on Wall Street, including as an analyst at Morgan Stanley, and lived in Queens with her daughter Chiara. She ended the relationship in 2008 after discovering he was married with three children.⁶⁷

The Rape and the Pressure That Followed

On March 8, 2009, after a dispute, Ramrattan bound and raped Sumasar. Accounts differ as to whether it happened at her home or in his basement.⁸⁷ She reported the attack, he was arrested, and he was released on bail. In the months that followed, Sumasar said, his associates pressured her to drop the charges, and her restaurant was subjected to anonymous harassing inspections from city health and building inspectors.⁹

How the Framing Scheme Worked

When intimidation failed, Ramrattan built what prosecutors called a “sophisticated scheme” to have Sumasar charged with armed robberies that never happened. The point was to destroy her credibility before she could testify at his rape trial.⁵ He used bribes and threats to recruit three people — Terrell Lovell, Luz Johnson, and Rajive Mohanlal — to pose as robbery victims and identify Sumasar as one of the robbers.¹

Each staged report described the same setup: two people impersonating police officers pulling a driver over and robbing them at gunpoint. Ramrattan coached the fake victims to feed police partial license plate numbers matching cars Sumasar drove, and showed them altered photographs so they could pick her out.¹⁰ The fabricated incidents rolled out across three months in three locations:

September 2009, Queens Village: Ramrattan enlisted Mohanlal to stage a robbery and physically handcuffed him so the scene would look convincing when police arrived. Mohanlal told investigators the robbers matched Sumasar’s description. Ramrattan planted a bullet at the scene and coerced a witness into telling police that Sumasar had racked a handgun, causing it to fall.¹¹¹⁰
March 2, 2010, Inwood, Long Island: Terrell Lovell told police he had been robbed at gunpoint by a man and a woman impersonating officers, and gave a partial plate matching Sumasar’s vehicle.¹²
May 19, 2010, Inwood: Luz Johnson reported a nearly identical robbery, this time with a full plate number, claiming the suspects took mail and a spare car key. Two days later, Johnson called police from New Jersey to report an attempted car theft involving a vehicle linked to Sumasar’s boyfriend, which triggered Sumasar’s arrest.¹²

Grand juries in Queens and Nassau County indicted Sumasar on charges including first-degree robbery, criminal use of a firearm, criminal impersonation, and unlawful wearing of a body vest.¹²

Seven Months in Jail

Sumasar was arrested on May 21, 2010, and held at the Nassau County Correctional Center on $1 million bail she could not post.¹³ She told investigators about the pending rape case, but she said detectives brushed her off. “They acted like I’m just trying to blame somebody else for something I did,” she told CBS News. “I think everybody looked at me as a drama queen.”⁹

Her attorney, Anthony Grandinette, said he repeatedly asked prosecutors to check an alibi placing Sumasar at a Connecticut casino during one of the alleged robberies, and was refused.⁹ Her later civil complaint listed other red flags that went uninvestigated: the planted handcuffs and bullet casing were never dusted for her fingerprints, the false witnesses gave contradictory descriptions of her race and appearance, and one witness described a route of travel that was geographically impossible.¹³

While she sat in jail, her family tried to keep the restaurant open and gave up after three months. The business was ruined, she said, and her home went into foreclosure. Her daughter, then 12, was without her for the entire stretch of the incarceration.⁹⁸

How the Scheme Fell Apart

Weeks before the robbery trial was set to begin in late 2010, an informant contacted the Nassau County District Attorney’s office and said Sumasar had been framed by Ramrattan.¹ Investigators corroborated the tip and learned Lovell and Johnson had been paid to file false reports. Both confessed separately.¹²

Sumasar was released on December 2, 2010, and all charges against her were dismissed. Ramrattan, Lovell, and Johnson were arrested that same week.¹² Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice called the scheme a “tangled web of deception and manipulation” that “created a nightmare scenario for this innocent woman.”¹⁴

Conviction and Sentence

Ramrattan pleaded not guilty and went to trial in Queens Supreme Court. On November 23, 2011, a jury convicted him of first-degree rape, unlawful imprisonment, three counts of first-degree perjury, two counts of conspiracy, tampering with a witness, and three counts of falsely reporting an incident, among other charges.¹⁵

On January 4, 2012, Supreme Court Justice Richard Buchter sentenced him to a maximum of 32 years in prison. The judge pointed to Ramrattan’s Most Wanted Inc. website, where he had advertised that he could “fix anything, any time,” and said it was no surprise Ramrattan had tried to fix his own case.¹⁶ The Appellate Division, Second Department, affirmed the conviction on March 25, 2015.¹⁵

The three co-conspirators each pleaded guilty to perjury. Lovell, Johnson, and Mohanlal received six months in jail and four years of probation apiece.⁷ At trial, Mohanlal testified that Ramrattan had threatened him at Rikers Island, telling him, “Sooner or later, I’m going to get you,” and adding that “it’s a shame your parents might have an accident one day.”¹¹

The $2 Million Civil Settlement

On December 1, 2011, Sumasar and her daughter Chiara McDonald filed a federal civil rights lawsuit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against the City of New York, Nassau County, and several individual officers and detectives. The case, Sumasar v. The City of New York, No. 2:11-cv-05867 (E.D.N.Y.), alleged civil rights violations, intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress, fabrication of evidence, and refusal to investigate her defense.¹⁷

The City of New York and two of its detectives settled first, with a settlement agreement and stipulation of dismissal filed on April 5, 2013. Those terms were not publicly reported.¹⁷²

Sumasar Wasn’t the First Person He Framed

Investigators later learned that Ramrattan had used his knowledge of police procedure to frame people going back years. In 1993, he accused a Queens businessman, Richard Persaud, of shooting him through the sunroof of a car; Persaud spent six months in prison before pleading guilty to a reduced charge of second-degree assault, which he said his attorney advised him to accept to spare his immigrant family financial ruin. In 2007, Ramrattan framed a Long Island man, Deochan Singh, for a hit-and-run after Singh’s wife hired him to investigate her husband. In 2009, he framed a Willets Point man for a fabricated robbery over a debt owed to one of Ramrattan’s friends; the man was released only after producing evidence he had been at a trade show.¹⁸

After Ramrattan’s conviction, attorney Ron Kuby said the “sophistication” and “extensive nature” of his activities meant “every case needs to be re-investigated,” and some observers suggested the Attorney General appoint a special prosecutor to coordinate a review.⁴ The Brooklyn DA’s office said only that “if the claims raise any legal issues, they’ll be looked into.”³ No public report of a formal internal review or procedural change by either the Brooklyn or Nassau County district attorney’s offices has surfaced in the available record.

Where Things Stand Now

Ramrattan, now 52, is incarcerated at the Eastern New York Correctional Facility. He is eligible for parole in December 2031, with an earliest release date of April 24, 2032, and a maximum sentence expiration of November 22, 2040.⁷

In 2024, Sumasar and her family appeared in the Blumhouse-produced Netflix docuseries Worst Ex Ever, in an episode titled “Betrayed by the Badge.” Sumasar, her aunt Vijay Itwaru, and her niece Melanie Sumasar told the story of the rape and the framing on camera.⁷

1
Reuters. New York Private Detective Sentenced for Rape, Framing
2
Newsday. Nassau Lawmakers OK Nearly $3 Million to Settle 2 Lawsuits
3
ABC7 Eyewitness News. Letters Reveal Ramrattan’s Work as Confidential Informant
4
ABC7 Eyewitness News. Documents Reveal Ramrattan’s Work With Brooklyn DA
5
ABC7 Eyewitness News. Ramrattan Convicted of Rape and Perjury
6
The New York Times. A Revenge Plot So Intricate, the Prosecutors Were Pawns
7
Today.com. Worst Ex Ever: Jerry Ramrattan Now
8
CNN. New York Man Sentenced for Rape and Framing
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CBS News. NY Woman Seemona Sumasar Says Ex-Boyfriend Raped Her, Then Framed Her
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CNN. New York Ramrattan Trial
11
New York Daily News. Witness: Accused Rapist Jerry Ramrattan Threatened Me at Rikers Island
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ABC7 Eyewitness News. Queens Woman Cleared After Being Framed by Ex-Boyfriend
13
QNS.com. Far Rock Mom Sues City Over False Arrest
14
ABC News. Woman Framed by Boyfriend for Armed Robbery
15
NY Courts. People v Ramrattan, 2015 NY Slip Op 02506
16
New York Daily News. Judge Rips Man Who Set Up Ex-Girlfriend as ‘Diabolical,’ Sends Him to Jail for 32 Years
17
CourtListener. Sumasar v. The City of New York
18
The New York Times. Claims Emerge Against Man Accused of Framing Ex-Girlfriend