Plea Bargain in Sex Case : Man Sentenced in Attack on Niece

A 41-year-old Pacoima man Wednesday was sentenced to 16 months in state prison and ordered to pay a $100 fine for the statutory rape of his 16-year-old niece at a North Hollywood motel after he allegedly drugged her.

Antonio I. Ramos, described in court documents as an undocumented Mexican alien, pleaded guilty in San Fernando Municipal Court last month to one count of statutory rape in the Jan. 11 incident. He was sentenced by San Fernando Superior Court Commissioner Donald W. Pike.

Additional charges of rape by narcotic, oral copulation on a child under 18 and sexual battery were dropped as part of a plea-bargain arrangement “to spare the victim further suffering,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Kenneth Loveman said.

Pill Called Vitamin

According to a probation report, the victim told investigators that Ramos made her take a pill that he said was a vitamin and then took her to a pornographic movie. After the movie, Ramos drove the victim to a discount store, where he bought a brassiere and panties for her, and then took her to the motel, where he raped her, the report said.

Ramos was arrested several weeks after the incident when the girl ran away from home and left a note for her parents telling what had happened. The victim’s elder sister, now 21, told probation officers that Ramos also had sexually abused her when she was 12.

Although Ramos pleaded guilty to the reduced charge, “he denies that there was anything forceful involved,” said Ramos’ defense attorney, Barry Hammond. “Apparently the girl cooperated,” he added.

But a probation officer concluded in the report that Ramos has a “perverted nature . . . and used his position as the victim’s uncle to entice and coerce her to satisfy his craven sexual needs.”