Ramon Carpenter, Obstruction, Illinois 2013

A former East St. Louis police officer was sentenced to 30 months in prison for making false statements to federal investigators in a federal civil rights investigation.

Ramon Carpenter, 40, was sentenced on January 31, 2013, in US District Court for the Southern District of Illinois. He was also ordered to pay a $200 special assessment and a $400 fine. Carpenter will serve a two-year term of supervised release following his prison sentence.

The investigation began after a female driver went to the East St. Louis police station on May 8, 2012, to complain that East St. Louis Police Officer Ramon Carpenter had sexually assaulted her. When federal agents interviewed Carpenter, he falsely denied being with the victim in the park and he falsely denied receiving oral sex from her.

Evidence presented at the sentencing hearing established that Carpenter had groped and fondled the victim during a traffic stop and later coerced her into performing oral sex upon him in an isolated area of Jones Park. The victim was not arrested and was allowed to drive her car back to her apartment, where she had left four children alone. Instead of calling the Department of Children and Family Services, Officer Carpenter directed the victim to follow him out of the residence and to get into his car.

The investigation was conducted through the Metro East Public Corruption Task Force by agents from the Internal Revenue Service, the Illinois State Police, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Steven D. Weinhoeft.

The United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, Stephen R. Wigginton, stated, “Ramon Carpenter’s outrageous conduct constituted a gross violation of the civil rights of the victim, and further served to undermine public confidence in an agency that is charged with ensuring the safety of the community.”

Carpenter pled guilty in US District Court on September 26, 2012.

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