WAS KING COUNTY POLICY OF REFUSING TO COOPERATE WITH ICE RESPONSIBLE FOR ATTACK ON WHEELCHAIR-BOUND WOMAN?

'I thought I was going to die,' woman blames prosecutors after rapist attacks her

by Jennifer Sullivan

KOMO News
June 19, 2019

WHITE CENTER, Wash. — Federal immigration agents have joined the manhunt for a White Center man accused of attacking the woman he raped last fall.

Francisco Carranza-Ramirez, 35, went missing after the King County Sheriff’s Office said he attacked the 32-year-old woman near her White Center home on Sunday.

The woman told KOMO Wednesday she first saw Ramirez outside her home on Saturday. She said Ramirez, who was court-ordered to stay away from her, stared at her from about 50 feet away. She dialed 911, but by the time deputies arrived he was gone.

The following night, deputies said they returned to the neighborhood after a 911 call. They found the woman on the ground, her wheelchair knocked over, according to a sheriff’s office report.

“He dumped me backwards out of my chair, and was choking me and, like, I couldn’t scream, I couldn’t breathe, I thought I was going to die in front of my kid,” the woman told KOMO.

The woman, who is not being named, suffered cuts, bruises, head swelling and a seizure, according to the sheriff’s office. She said her three-year-old son watched the attack.

“He was saying ‘my mama, my mama, don’t hurt my mama.’ Whining, kind of crying,” she told KOMO.

Again, the sheriff’s office said, Ramirez was nowhere to be found.

The King County Prosecutor’s Office has charged Ramirez with second-degree assault, felony harassment, intimidating a witness and felony violation of a sexual assault protection order.

The victim blames prosecutors for what happened to her.

She said the prosecutors failed to file stiff enough criminal charges after the rape. She said she wrote prosecutors and the judge repeatedly, begging for them to take the case more seriously.

Ramirez was charged with third-degree rape and later entered an Alford Plea, which acknowledges jurors would likely find him guilty if his case went to trial.

“I said the charge isn’t enough. I said they needed to do something more,” she said. “The response I got is ‘nothing they could do,’ because they rely on a conservative filing policy. They charge lower basically in hopes the defendant will plead guilty so they won’t have to do the expensive trial and all that.”

In September, Ramirez followed the woman into her apartment and raped her on two separate occasions, according to court charging papers. The second time the woman managed to dial 911 during the attack and deputies were dispatched to her apartment where they arrested Ramirez, charges said.

Ramirez was sentenced on June 13 to a year in jail, but was released by the judge that same day with credit for time served. The woman told KOMO she begged the judge to hand down a longer sentence.

Ramirez’s lawyers asked that he not be put on probation, instead they promised he would leave the U.S. and live in Mexico, the woman said.

Senior Deputy Prosecutor Charles Sergis, in the most recent assault charges, said the state “strongly objected to this request” by the defense.

“The Court ordered the defendant to board a plane on Monday, June 17, to California. He was then supposed to cross the border by land,” Sergis wrote. “Less than 72 hours later, the defendant violated this order, hit [the victim] in the face with an object, knocked her out of her wheelchair, strangled her and threatened to kill her.”

Immigrations and Customs Enforcement said they only recently learned about the rape and recent assault.

Bryan Wilcox, Acting Field Office Director for Seattle Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), told KOMO Ramirez was born in Mexico “and has committed a crime that would make him eligible for removal from the United States.”

He said his officers are looking for him now.

Wilcox believes the attack last weekend could have been prevented had it not been for King County’s rigid policies when it comes to ICE.

Last year, the Metropolitan King County Council adopted what they called “guidelines for immigrant and refugee assistance that make King County a "National Model.” This includes:

• The King County Jail will continue its policy of not honoring ICE requests for notification or detention unless accompanied by a judicial warrant

• Jail staff will explain to all people in jail who face the possibility of ICE interviews their right to remain silent as well as their ability to decline an interview. Unlike police, ICE agents are not required to inform individuals of their “Miranda Rights” nor do they have automatic access to an attorney, because immigration enforcement is civil, not criminal in nature

“I think this was largely preventable,” Wilcox said. “It’s regrettable that we didn’t have the opportunity to properly engage this person while he was detained by King County and perhaps take him into custody of our own.”

Speaking at a park not far from her former White Center home the victim said she has gone into hiding with her son. She said she can’t sleep, spends her days at the doctor’s office and between the rape and the most recent assault she can’t work. She said she just lost her job. She said she feels like she’s caught in the middle of a national political battle over border security.

“It’s such a broken system,” she said. “It’s definitely really politically charged. This case is being used as the ‘see we told you’ on both sides of the fence and it’s really pretty simple, he is eligible for deportation.”