NYC Cop Sentenced to 15 Years for Child Porn Ring

PHILADELPHIA – In a shocking case of corruption and depravity, former New York City corrections officer Celeste Ramirez, 44, of Brooklyn, New York, was sentenced to 180 months’ imprisonment, 10 years of supervised release, and $38,000 in restitution for distributing child pornography.

According to court filings, Ramirez, who was employed by the New York Department of Corrections in February 2022, distributed six videos depicting child pornography via Telegram, an online messaging application, to Person 1, while Person 1 was located in Easton, Pennsylvania.

This disturbing case came to light during an investigation into child exploitation crimes committed by Person 1. In 2022, Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) had received a Cybertip indicating that Person 1, of Easton, Pa., had used their Snapchat account to distribute child pornography. Person 1 confessed to receiving child pornography over the internet, and specifically from a corrections officer in New York City known as “CeCe,” identified through investigation as the defendant Celeste Ramirez.

Further investigation revealed that Ramirez had communicated with numerous others online for the purpose of distributing and receiving child pornography. One of those users, Cleveland Dewayne Chambers, charged elsewhere, told Ramirez that another woman he was chatting with online had offered to produce sexually explicit images of an infant. That woman was later identified by police as Raven Pointer, also charged elsewhere.

Ramirez and Chambers discussed how the child should be sexually abused and reflected on the images produced. Ramirez then repeatedly directed Cleveland to have Pointer film herself engaged in specific sex acts with the infant. Chambers responded by sharing additional sexually explicit images and videos produced by Pointer with defendant Ramirez.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims.