The 43-year-old East Longmeadow man accused of using his cell phone to film an underage girl while she used a dressing room is out on a $50,000 bond.
Felix Ramirez, a lieutenant with the Connecticut Department of Correction, waived his right to an extradition hearing in Palmer District Court before being brought to the Enfield Police Department on Friday, according to Enfield police Lt. Keith Parent. East Longmeadow police arrested Ramirez on March 10 on voyeurism and disorderly conduct charges stemming from an incident at Plato’s Closet in Enfield, Conn., based on an arrest warrant issued out of Enfield.
Police were called to the clothing outlet at 10 Hazard Avenue on March 5 after a man — later identified as Ramirez — allegedly stuck his phone under the divider of a dressing room to film a partially dressed underage girl, according to the arrest warrant.
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The juvenile yelled for her boyfriend when she saw the phone, which she later told police she identified as an iPhone that had a red light and numbers ticking on the screen. She realized the phone was filming her and she screamed at the person on the other side of the divider. She confronted the man outside the dressing room, who she described to police as a white man with blue eyes and wearing a red zip-up sweatshirt. They briefly spoke before he left the store, got into his car and left — but the person who called the police had taken down his Massachusetts license plate number, according to the arrest warrant.
Later that same day, two Enfield police officers and one from East Longmeadow arrived at Ramirez’s house after they reviewed surveillance footage from Plato’s Closet. Ramirez admitted to police he visited the store earlier that day and police noted that he wore a red zip-up sweater, according to the arrest warrant.
Ramirez reportedly denied using his cell phone in the changing room, but police wrote they noticed an iPhone in his hand while speaking with officers. They asked to see Ramirez’s recent photos, and he disappeared into the house and came back with a different phone. Police wrote that Ramirez “manipulated the phone for over a minute” before showing the phone to the officers. There were less than 10 remaining photos on the device and the observing officer wrote he believed the photos were outdated due to a change in Ramirez’s appearance.
Police asked Ramirez about the iPhone, but he allegedly responded that it was his son’s tablet, and he allegedly refused to let police look at it. He then said he wanted to contact an attorney before going back inside, according to the arrest warrant. Four days later Enfield police issued a warrant for his arrest.
Ramirez is scheduled to appear in state Superior Court in Hartford on March 28.
Ramirez is a lieutenant assigned to the Carl Robinson Correctional Institute in Enfield and began working for the state’s Department of Correction in September 2002, according to department spokesperson Andrius Banevicius. The spokesperson added there is an internal investigation into Ramirez along with the pending legal case against him.
The Enfield Police Department asked in a press release, “anyone who has experienced a similar incident is encouraged to report this to the police department where it occurred.”
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