It's impossible to know when Jerry Ramrattan is lying and when he's telling the truth, but if even a fraction of what he says is real about his role as a confidential source for law enforcement for years. Defense attorneys in those cases may be running back to court to try to get convictions overturned.
"You're called a schemer, a diabolical liar, a rapist," Wallace said.
"Not true," Ramrattan said.In a jailhouse interview with Wallace on Rikers Island, Jerry Ramrattan vehemently denied concocting a brazen scheme to frame his ex-girlfriend, Seemona Sumasar, for armed robbery because she had accused him of rape.
"They portrayed me to be such an animal and none of this is true," Ramrattan said.
But a Queens jury believed that Ramrattan, bent on revenge, tried to set up Sumasar, and very nearly succeeded, she spent seven months in jail before Ramrattan's plan unraveled. Earlier this month, he was sentenced to up to 32 years in prison for convictions on Rape and perjury.
"If I'm a schemer and a liar, why did they allow me to do all those cases then," Ramrattan said.
He's talking about his longtime secret role as a confidential source for law enforcement. Eyewitness News has confirmed he indeed worked for various law enforcement agencies, sometimes paid, sometimes not.
"You've been paid by the NYPD, by the Brooklyn DA, by the Queens DA," Wallace said.
"Correct. They can't do no damage control for what they've done, because the minute they put it out there that I'm a liar, who is to say what I lied on, correct? Even if I told the truth, who is to believe me," Ramrattan said.
Eyewitness News obtained where the Brooklyn and Bronx District Attorney's offices noted that Ramrattan's testimony before grand juries helped win convictions.
"How many cases would you say you testified in before a grand jury?" Wallace asked.
"Hundreds," Ramrattan answered.
"You worked as a paid informant for how long?" Wallace asked.
"Paid source," Ramrattan clarified.
"Paid source, informant, whatever. How long?" Wallace asked.
"For years," Ramrattan answered.
He was continually evasive on specifics, but Eyewitness News obtained this document as part of an appeal in a Brooklyn 1997 rape case where Ramrattan testified. It indicates he received $4,000. In another Brooklyn case, that of the infamous Sweet Cherry Strip Club in 2005, a source confirms Ramrattan's claim that he worked as a paid undercover operative.
"I was able to go inside and infiltrate the group where they were was laundering money and promoting prostitution," Ramrattan said.
The Brooklyn DA refused comment about Ramrattan's work as a source saying only: "If these claims raise a legal issue, they will be looked into." Other DA offices declined to discuss Ramrattan publicly. But Attorney Ron Kuby, who's followed this case closely, thinks anyone who's used Ramrattan as a source.
"Given the sophistication of what he was doing and given the extensive nature involving other people of what he was doing, every case needs to be re-investigated. Doesn't mean that everybody he helped convict is an innocent person, but it's a huge warning sign, danger, danger, you have to go back to the very beginning," Kuby said.
A number of legal experts we spoke with believe the Attorney General should consider appointing a special prosecutor to coordinate any re-investigation by district attorneys.
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