Deputy charged with assaulting his 73-year-old mother has faced prior allegations of violence, records show

A Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy accused of assaulting his 73-year-old mother and resisting arrest this week appeared on a 2014 version of a secret list of problem officers after the mother of his two daughters alleged years of abuse at his hands.

Prosecutors allege Deputy Antonio Ramirez attacked his mother at the family home in East Los Angeles on Monday, causing her to fall to the ground. She suffered “visible injuries” as part of the attack, prosecutors said. However, the specific nature of those injuries was not provided.

Deputies initially went to the home after someone called to report that Ramirez was intoxicated and throwing items inside the garage, according to the Sheriff’s Department.

When deputies arrived at the home, Ramirez — who was off duty and allegedly carrying a dagger at the time — resisted arrest, and deputies used force to restrain him, authorities said.

He was taken into custody shortly after 10 p.m. and booked at the East L.A. station. Prosecutors ultimately charged Ramirez with a count of elder abuse, resisting an officer and carrying a dagger — all felonies. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Ramirez’s defense attorney could not be reached for comment. Ramirez is being held at Men’s Central Jail on $225,000 bail. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of five years and four months in state prison, according to prosecutors and jail records.

Booking records related to Ramirez’s arrest show several discrepancies from other public records reviewed by The Times.

Ramirez is listed as being unemployed in booking records. But prosecutors say he is a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy. Ramirez’s date of birth in arrest records lists him as being 45 years old, but other public records state that he is 47.

He was placed on unpaid administrative leave after his arrest this week, according to the Sheriff’s Department.

Ramirez appeared on a 2014 version of the so-called Brady list, a secret Sheriff’s Department list of hundreds of deputies with histories of dishonesty and similar misconduct that could undermine their credibility when testifying in court.

This isn’t the first allegation of violence that has been lodged against Ramirez.

A civil lawsuit against the deputy, filed by the mother of his two daughters, claims he pushed the woman to the ground, hit her in the face with a book, kicked her, twisted her wrist and threatened to kill her during various incidents in 2012.

According to the civil court filing, the woman claimed Ramirez pressured the couple’s then-11-year-old daughter not to report the abuse to anyone, warning her that he could lose his job, which would mean they would no longer have a house or any money. Ramirez denied the claims in court filings.

Prosecutors declined to charge him with domestic abuse or witness intimidation, citing a lack of physical evidence to prove the allegations beyond a reasonable doubt. A sheriff’s sergeant determined there was “mutual combat” between the woman and Ramirez, according to a district attorney’s office memo summarizing the criminal investigation.

But a prosecutor determined that interviews with the daughters corroborated the mother’s claims and that one of the girl’s statements, in particular, was believable, according to the memo.

The girl’s “allegations that her father ordered her not to speak to anyone and that he abused her mother are believable. However, this matter cannot be proven beyond a reasonable doubt,” a prosecutor wrote in the memo.

In 2013, the Sheriff’s Department notified Ramirez he would be suspended 15 days for family violence against the woman who filed the lawsuit. In 2016, a jury in the civil case concluded the deputy had engaged in domestic violence against the woman and awarded her $185,000, according to documents filed in federal court.

Ramirez was on unpaid leave when he was arrested July 12, 2016, according to the Sheriff’s Department. He was charged with a misdemeanor count of battery and accused of injuring a girlfriend in that incident, according to prosecutors.

“Immediately following that arrest, a decision was made by then-Sheriff Jim McDonnell’s administration to place Deputy Ramirez on paid administrative leave,” the Sheriff’s Department wrote in a statement Friday. “Once the most recent arrest was known, a review of the records concluded that Deputy Ramirez was erroneously placed on paid administrative leave back in 2016, resulting in the payment of salary and benefits up to the present time.”

Ramirez pleaded no contest to the charge and was sentenced last year to three years of probation and 52 weeks of domestic violence counseling, court records show.

Times staff writer Maya Lau contributed to this report.