U.S. Attorney’s Office February 01, 2013 • Southern
District of Illinois (618) 628-3700
A former East St. Louis Police cop was sentenced in U.S.
District Court on January 31, 2013, for making false statements to federal
investigators, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of
Illinois, Stephen R. Wigginton, announced today. Ramon Carpenter, 40, was
sentenced to 30 months’ imprisonment, was ordered to pay a $200 special
assessment and a $400 fine, and was ordered to serve a two-year term of
supervised release following service of his prison sentence. Carpenter pled
guilty in U.S. District Court on September 26, 2012.
Evidence presented at the sentencing hearing established
that on May 8, 2012, a female driver was stopped by two East St. Louis Police
cops while driving home from purchasing liquor at approximately 2:45 a.m. At
the time of the stop, the driver was driving uninsured on a suspended license
while she was under the influence of alcohol and in possession of an open
container of alcohol. The driver believed that she was going to be arrested.
She was asked to get out of the car, at which time East St. Louis Police Cop
Ramon Carpenter purported to conduct a “frisk,” but he actually groped and
fondled her in a sexually inappropriate way. She was not arrested. Rather, the
cops allowed her to drive her car back to her apartment. The cops followed her,
and all three entered her home where the cops discovered that she had left four
children, ages 10, 9, 8, and 1, alone in the apartment while she went out to
buy liquor. She feared that the Department of Children and Family Services was
going to be called. Instead, Cop Carpenter directed the victim to follow him
out of the residence and to get into his car. She complied. The cop drove her
to an isolated area in Jones Park where he coerced her into performing oral sex
upon him. After the sex act was completed, the driver was returned home with no
charges.
A federal criminal investigation began the next morning when
the driver went to the police station to complain. When federal agents
interviewed Carpenter, he falsely denied being with the victim in the park, and
he falsely denied receiving oral sex from her.
“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,” United States Attorney Wigginton said.
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