NYC Cop Cops to Child Porn Distribution for 15 Years

A former New York City corrections officer, Celeste Ramirez, 44, of Brooklyn, New York, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for distributing child pornography.

United States Attorney David Metcalf announced the sentence, which includes 10 years of supervised release and $38,000 in restitution, handed down by United States District Judge Jeffrey L. Schmehl. Ramirez will also have to register under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA), as required by federal and state law.

Ramirez was charged with distribution of child pornography by indictment in March 2023 and pleaded guilty in March of this year. The defendant’s conduct came to light during an investigation into child exploitation crimes committed by Person 1, who received the child pornography via Telegram in February 2022.

Person 1, of Easton, Pa., confessed to receiving child pornography over the internet, specifically from a corrections officer in New York City known as ‘CeCe,’ identified through investigation as Ramirez. In November 2022, federal agents executed a search warrant at Ramirez’s residence and found hundreds of videos of child pornography on her phone.

Along with Person 1, 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, Raven Pointer, had offered to produce sexually explicit images of an infant. Chambers shared images with Ramirez, who directed him to have Pointer film herself engaged in specific sex acts with the infant.

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.

The case was investigated by the Pennsylvania State Police and Homeland Security Investigations and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Priya De Souza. The sentence is a significant blow to those involved in the distribution and creation of child pornography, and a victory for those fighting to protect children from exploitation.