- I'm craig melvin,
And this is "dateline: Secrets uncovered."
- He has turned my life upside down.
He took everything away from me,
Everything that I sacrificed for,
Everything that I worked for.
He even took my daughter away from me.
- Once, they were so good together.
- How did love turn into hate like this?
- Before that night of violence.
- He drags you down to the basement.
- All the way down.
I'm trying to fight him off.
I can't breathe.
- Then, a twist no one expected.
- They've got three witnesses who identified you in a lineup.
Did you understand that? - Yeah.
I do understand that.
- The alleged victim, accused.
- It's just a terrifying, shocking experience.
- Who did what to whom?
- The evidence showed an evil and vindictive schemer.
A diabolical conniver.
- A frame up that nearly fooled everyone.
- This is gonna be hard, to try and figure all this out.
- You couldn't invent a worse nightmare.
- A confounding case of vengeance.
♪♪
- Hello, and welcome to "dateline: Secrets uncovered."
The saying goes that looks can be deceiving.
But love can be, too.
The couple you're about to meet seemed perfect for each other,
At first, but that passion turned into violence.
It set off a chain of events that confounded authorities
Until they discovered a ruthless act of revenge
Rooted in secrets and lies.
Here's lester holt with "vengeance."
♪♪
- There are two sides to every breakup,
And if the end is bitter, and anger spins out of control,
A once perfect romance can become a nightmare.
- This story was a crazy case of he said, she said
With a lot of twists and turns,
And it explodes into a story
You couldn't possibly have imagined.
- Seemona sumasar doesn't have to imagine it.
She lived it.
- How did I keep my sanity? How did it happen?
This all happened to me. Me!
A simple, simple person.
- For seemona and jerry ramrattan,
It was a romance that started with so much promise.
She thought he might be the one.
Describe him. - Charming.
Sweet talker, confident, you know.
He could make things happen.
- The couple lived in seemona's four family house
In queens, new york in the shadow of kennedy airport.
Seemona, a 34-year-old immigrant from guyana,
Worked as an analyst for morgan stanley.
- I got into the finance business
At a great time. - Good money?
- Good money.
- She also owned a golden crust restaurant franchise.
She'd start her day working in manhattan
From 5:00 am until 2:00 in the afternoon,
Then she'd commute back to her restaurant in queens,
Where she'd work late into the night.
- And you slept when? - I don't know.
I look back at it, and I don't know.
A few hours here and there.
- Not long after the golden crust opened,
A handsome, confident man walked in
And introduced himself.
It was jerry, and he quickly became
One of seemona's best customers.
- Literally, I would see him almost every day.
He would stop by, just casual conversations.
Talk about his work, him being a detective.
- The 37-year-old jerry said he had once been a police officer
And still had close ties to law enforcement.
Now he worked in security, although his exact job
Was a bit of a mystery.
- He comes along, and literally, everybody was referring to him
As my bodyguard.
They loved the thought that he was around.
- Were you an investigator? - I was a consultant.
I would consult on anything that-- involving security,
Or investigation matters.
- She described you as the perfect guy.
- I did whatever I could at the time,
Whatever I could do to help her.
We did everything, go out to movies,
Family events, everything.
I kept the house clean. I took care of the garbage.
I did all the repairs in the house.
Everyone thought we were married.
Everyone.
- Seemona, a single mother,
Was raising a 12-year-old daughter.
She took to jerry, too.
The romance blossomed.
There was even talk of marriage,
But a call out of the blue changed everything.
A woman on the other end introduced herself
As jerry ramrattan's wife.
- That was a shocker. I doubted her at first.
You can't be serious.
- It got worse.
Not only was jerry married, he also had three children.
Seemona confronted him.
- At first, he denied it.
Finally, he tells me that it's true,
And-- but it's not what it seems.
The marriage was arranged by family
For a green card.
- So, what did you do with that explanation?
- I-I didn't-- I didn't believe it.
How do I trust anything that you say?
- How did you explain that,
"I have a wife but I'm with you."
- I explained to her that before I met her
I was separated from my wife.
Which was true. My wife was living in brooklyn.
I was living in queens.
She was upset about it,
But she never ended the relationship.
- But it was the beginning of the end.
Seemona banished jerry to the basement,
And then finally told him to leave her house
By February 20, 2009.
But more than two weeks after the deadline,
Jerry was still there.
- He was talking about the relationship
Like it still existed,
And I kept on saying to him,
"jerry, you have to leave. We're not together."
- They started arguing, but this time,
Seemona says it took a dark turn into strange
And ominous territory.
- He got my hands behind me.
Next thing, I'm hearing duct tape unrolled.
- Seemona says jerry jammed his knee into her back,
Pushed her face down onto her bed,
And quickly taped her wrists together.
But she says jerry was strangely calm.
He let her sit up in bed and acted like
It was just another lazy Sunday at home.
He watched tv, ordered chinese food,
And incredibly, tried to win her back.
- You have me right now duct taped,
And you're having a conversation with me? Are you--
Have you lost your mind?
I just let him have it.
And I called him every named I could possibly call him.
- For a moment, jerry seemed to lose it.
Seemona says he started crying,
Pulled a gun out of his waistband,
And put the barrel against his own head.
- I said, "listen, if you want to kill yourself,
"don't do it in my house.
"don't do it in my house."
And, in no time, he was back to normal again.
- The bizarre scene played out for hours.
Seemona said she thought it was jerry's dramatic parting shot,
But when she tried to get up from the bed,
She says he snapped.
- Just when he-- just grabbed me with one arm and just--
Just pulled me right-- right down the stairs.
- How big a man is he?
- He's 6'4", more than 200 pounds.
- And forgive me, but how big are you?
- 110 pounds, 5-- 5'1".
And I was duct taped, so I couldn't control
What was going on, really, much.
- He drags you down to the basement.
- All the way down.
- Seemona says she was lying on the basement floor
When jerry wrapped duct tape around her legs.
- He didn't utter a word.
He just took all his clothes off,
Untied my robe.
Took off my underwear, and that was that.
- He rapes you. - Yes.
- And...
You're powerless to resist it?
- Yeah.
And I'm trying to fight him off,
But I can't.
I can't breathe, and, um...
I really felt like I was gonna pass out.
He started to cry again,
And apologized, that he didn't mean
To do this, and he hopes that, you know,
I don't-- I don't report it.
The last thing I think I said to him was,
"you should have just used the gun.
"why didn't you?"
- Jerry didn't answer.
He simply grabbed his things and left.
Seemona called 911.
Jerry ramrattan was arrested and charged with rape.
He emphatically denied every detail
Of seemona's accusation.
She said she had been bound,
Dragged downstairs, and raped.
Not just any rape, hours of-of emotional torture
And forcibly penetrated.
- I never touched someone. - You did have sex that night.
- Yes. - In the bedroom?
- Yes. - Not downstairs?
- No.
- Consensual sex? - Sure.
We were having sex all the time.
It was never rape.
- And with that, a bitter he said, she said case
Was unleashed, one that would land both jerry
And seemona on the wrong side of the law.
Coming up...
- I was-- I was--
- A disturbing 911 call, a string of armed robberies,
And an astonishing twist.
- I was asked to step out of the car,
Handcuffs was placed on me...
- Was jerry's accuser the real criminal?
When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
- More than a year had passed since seemona sumasar
Had accused her ex boyfriend jerry ramrattan of rape.
Jerry was out on bail.
In a desperate phone call, he tried to plead his case
To her one last time.
- He said "please, please, please, I'm begging you."
"don't do this. Don't do this.
"don't go through with it.
"think about my kids."
And I said, "don't ever call me again
"or try to contact me."
- Seemona wanted to see jerry behind bars,
But on the night of may 21, 2010,
Her case and her life exploded into chaos.
She was driving near her restaurant
When she was pulled over by police.
- These were detectives.
These weren't regular patrol officers.
- Detectives, plain clothing.
You know, and I explained who I was.
They didn't seem to care.
I was asked to step out of the car,
Handcuffs was placed on me.
- Seemona was bewildered.
She'd never been in trouble with police before.
More puzzling, the detectives were from suburban long island.
They drove seemona to a precinct house
In nassau county, where she was questioned
About her car, her driving routines,
And her whereabouts on several dates.
- We were having a conversation about all of these things,
And nothing was making any sense to me.
These people obviously think I did something.
The detectives acted as though seemona
Was hiding something, and kept pressing her.
Her attorney, nick brustin.
- Seemona's arrest was a nightmare.
She's not given any information
About why she's being arrested,
Has no idea what's happening.
It's just a terrifying, shocking experience.
Seemona says she was even more shocked
When she finally learned why she was there.
A frantic 911 call had made her the suspect
In an armed robbery.
The caller was a woman named luz johnson,
Who had been driving in a quiet long island neighborhood
Just over the border from queens.
- She was pulled over by this male
And female police officer in a two-tone jeep cherokee
With a red flashing light.
- Reporter shari einhorn covered the story
For news 12 long island.
- They're wearing bulletproof vests with badges
Or shields hanging from their necks.
They have black semiautomatic handguns.
- But it turned out these were not police officers.
Johnson says they were bandits who robbed her at gunpoint,
Walking off with her rent money,
$1,400 in cash.
[indistinct chatter]
- The mo struck a chord with nassau county police.
It sounded almost exactly like two other armed robberies,
Recorded nearby over the previous six months.
- Each of the incidents happened in the wee morning hours.
Each of the incidents seemed to be a routine traffic stop,
And in each of the incidents, the female is often described
As either spanish or indian.
- The first victim, rajive mohanlal,
A burly man in his 20's,
Described a harrowing confrontation with
A petite woman posing as a cop.
Mohanlal tells police that she handcuffed him,
And police find him wearing handcuffs.
And mohanlal also tells police that
The female officer cocked her gun near his head
And a bullet popped out, and police do,
In fact, find a bullet on the ground.
- That case went unsolved.
Five months later, the same thing happened
To an optician named terrell lovell.
- He's able to describe a little more detail
Of the car that pulled him over.
A jeep cherokee,
Gray, with partial gold rims,
With a flashing red light.
- Still not enough to crack the case,
Until the night luz johnson became victim number three.
[crying]
- Johnson was inconsolable,
So shaken she could barely put a sentence together.
But she was clear-headed enough to remember the license plate
Of the jeep cherokee.
Police traced it to a house in queens.
It was seemona sumasar's house,
The very same house where police had come
One year earlier when she had said she was raped,
But this time, they were coming for her as the suspect
In a string of brazen robberies.
All police needed now was a positive id.
Each of the three victims is able to pick out
Seemona sumasar from a photo pack.
- To prosecutors in nassau county,
It looked like a mountain of evidence.
They charged seemona with armed robbery,
Possession of a firearm,
And impersonating a police officer.
When frank degaetano,
The prosecutor in seemona's rape case,
First heard about her arrest,
He had to ask himself what kind of person
His star witness really was.
I've prosecuted priests. I've prosecuted doctors,
Lawyers, boy scout leaders, people that you wouldn't think
Would be engaging in criminal activity,
But yet were.
- When you heard robbery and seemona,
What was your first thought?
- I thought, "wow. I can't believe it."
I didn't think she was like that.
- So did you think this must be some horrible mistake?
- Well, I believe that-that, you know, there's four sides
To the story. - Four sides?
- Yeah, the if, the truth, the maybe, and whatever else.
- And in the case of seemona and jerry,
All sides were about to collide,
Exposing how far some people will go
To exact revenge.
Coming up...
- Seemona's rage.
- There was no doubt that I had it in for him.
I'm not gonna deny that.
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
- Seemona sumasar was getting to know the justice system
From both ends.
First, in queens, as the accuser
And star witness in a rape case against
Her former boyfriend, jerry ramrattan.
And now, in a long island jail cell,
Charged with armed robbery
And impersonating a police officer.
The prosecutor of her rape case found
The charges hard to believe, but he knew
Long island prosecutors had discovered a motive.
- She was in arrears on her taxes.
They eventually came to believe that her restaurant
Was failing, and that she was
In desperate financial straits.
- I understand she had some money issues.
- A lot of money issues.
There was a lot of stuff going on.
- When they first started dating,
Jerry was at the restaurant all the time,
Greeting customers, driving employees home,
Handling deliveries.
He was so involved, some people thought
He was the boss.
- What did you do at the restaurant, initially?
- At first, I came in and I started assisting her
Because she was having problems. She had violations,
Several thousands of dollars in violations.
They were coming after her for taxes.
She had an sba loan, small business loan,
And she defaulted on the loan.
It was a lot of stuff going on.
- Was she a good business woman?
- She tried.
She tried.
- Jerry says seemona's financial situation got so bad,
He took charge of day-to-day operations.
Then, when seemona formed a new corporation
To run the restaurant, she named jerry an officer.
She even created a new bank account
To handle expenses and put it in jerry's name.
And finally, when money became too tight,
He says seemona took the ultimate step.
You say that seemona ended up selling the restaurant to you.
- Correct. And they gave me a notarized letter
Stating that it was sold to me.
And they also transferred the light, the gas,
All the utilities in my name.
- Seemona said she did not sell the restaurant,
And it was never in dire straits.
She says her problem was with jerry.
Once she discovered he was a married man,
She just didn't trust him anymore.
- I had no clue who he really was,
If anything that he said was true at all.
And I said, you know what, I can't take this anymore.
- And that's when seemona says she told jerry to leave.
She also wrote an email to his wife.
Things were getting ugly.
In the email, it says, "revenge is sweet.
"he deserves what he gets.
"you were never gonna put him in his place.
"someone needed to."
- There is no doubt that I had it in for him.
I'm not gonna deny that.
I explained to her that I am trying to get him
Out of my life.
It's not an easy thing to do.
- I mean, was this related to the fact that
You had set this deadline, and--
- Yes, and I wanted him out.
- It was just one month later that seemona
Accused jerry of rape.
Why would she make this up?
- Well, her whole problem was she wanted the store back.
After all the stuff I've done for her.
Do you know how preposterous that sounds,
After all this time?
You're gonna accuse me of rape?
It was like a nightmare.
- But now, the prosecutor, getting ready to bring
Jerry to trial for rape, had his own nightmare.
His star witness had lost her most important credential,
Her credibility.
- We were presenting her as thoughtful,
Gentle, a private woman, and essentially, you know,
The defense would have been able to paint her as ma barker.
- And that's exactly how it played out
In front of a grand jury.
All three victims testified that seemona was the woman
Who disguised herself as a police officer
And robbed them at gunpoint.
Seemona was indicted, and her bail was set
At $1 million.
She couldn't come up with the money,
And remained in jail.
- They've got three witnesses that identified you
In a lineup, identified your car.
They had what, to them, seemed like a pretty good case.
Did you understand that? - Yeah.
I do understand that.
- But what seemona didn't understand
Was why nassau county police and prosecutors
Were ignoring evidence she felt certain
Would clear her.
Most significant, she claims she had an airtight alibi
For the night of the third robbery.
- Seemona's attorney says police didn't take
Her alibi seriously
Because they had already made up their minds.
- It was very clear that it's seemona in the picture.
Um, the cellphone records support it.
With that kind of evidence,
A full investigation should be conducted
Into what she's claiming.
- But nassau county police didn't budge.
They felt the evidence against seemona was overwhelming.
And as she languished in jail for months,
One thing kept eating at her,
Something that happened
The night she was taken into custody.
- At one point, during the interrogation,
I noticed that there is a folder, like manila folder,
This high, and on top of it,
Is his picture.
- Who's picture? - Jerry's.
They have a folder on him.
So I spilled my guts about the rape,
Everything I know about jerry, and what's goin' on.
And the detective casually just says to me,
Well, this is not about him.
I'm thinking to myself, how could this not
Have anything to do with him?
- The mystery starts to unravel,
And surprises are about to be uncovered.
- Coming up...
A new witness comes forward, and upends the entire case.
- She decided to go to the nassau d.A.'s office
And come clean.
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
- Welcome back to "dateline: Secrets uncovered".
I'm craig melvin.
Seemona sumasar had accused her ex-boyfriend of rape.
But in a bizarre twist, found herself behind bars.
She was convinced he had something to do with her arrest,
But had no way to prove it
From the darkness of a prison cell.
Now, someone with a secret was about to shine a light
That just might set her free.
Back to lester holt with "vengeance".
- Seemona sumasar was in jail,
About to be tried for armed robbery
And impersonating a police officer.
For a woman who had been a success on wall street,
And owned her own restaurant,
It seemed to defy all logic.
Is it hard to believe that that's you?
- Yeah, I-I-I say it everyday, it's not my life.
This couldn't have happened to me.
It-it's-it's like a bad dream.
- Seemona said she was innocent,
And thought she had given police an airtight alibi
For the night of one of the robberies.
She racked her brain, trying to come up
With an explanation.
She could only think of one.
This had to be the work of jerry ramrattan.
- There was no doubt that, at that time,
That this has to do with jerry.
- Seemona felt certain the man charged with raping her
Must be connected to the charges against her now.
But how?
She says she pleaded with police and prosecutors
To try to find out.
But they didn't seem interested.
Seemona's lawyer says they didn't do their jobs.
- Police have blinders.
They get a piece of evidence they think is credible,
And they follow it to the exclusion of all else.
And they were looking for ways
To prove that she committed this crime.
They were convinced she did.
They weren't looking for ways to prove that she didn't.
- As the months dragged on,
Seemona felt like she'd been assaulted twice.
First by her ex-boyfriend,
And now, by the justice system.
- It became difficult.
You know, all the negative, like, because of...
My arrest. A lot of embarrassing things
That my family had to, you know, go through.
A lot of shame, a lot of guilt.
Like, how to explain what's going on,
What's being said about me.
- Then, just before christmas, a gift.
A woman arrived at the nassau county da's office
With evidence of a plot against seemona.
How did she know?
She said her boyfriend was behind it.
- She was trying to extricate herself, uh,
From, uh-- from that relationship.
He'd show up at her house, she'd refuse to let him in,
And she came to realize that, uh, the only way
To get rid of him, uh, was to expose his conspiracy.
So she decided to go to nassau d.A.'s office
And to come clean.
- The informant said not only was seemona not involved
In any robberies, but there were no robberies.
The dramatic 911 calls, testimony, the evidence,
All of it was faked to frame her.
- I couldn't say anything else, but, "wait a minute,
"are you kidding me? Isn't this what I was saying
"from day one?"
- The informant provided cell phone records
Linking the three robbery victims
To the mastermind of an elaborate plot.
It was not only the informant's boyfriend,
But the man seemona had suspected all along,
Jerry ramrattan.
- He resolved to do whatever he could
To discredit her, and in jerry's world,
Uh, that was bringing false charges against her.
And he did it in a very, very clever and--
And, uh, really masterful way, uh, to pin these crimes on her.
- All three so-called victims confessed
That the entire thing was a hoax,
And said jerry was behind it.
They all pleaded guilty to perjury and went to jail.
Nassau county prosecutors had to admit they were wrong
About seemona. They dropped the charges
And released her. - It was just...
A moment. Unbelievable.
I had to pinch myself, like, I'm really, literally out.
- Seemona was finally free. But she had paid a heavy price.
She'd been separated from her young daughter
For seven long months.
How often did you get to see your daughter?
- I had refused to. Having her come there,
I got arrested in may, the whole summer went by,
Never seen her.
And just before the week of school in September,
Is when I asked her dad to bring her.
And I tried to explain everything to her in an hour.
About how she shouldn't worry about anything.
- What was that like? [sighing]
- That was the worst.
- Now, everything circled back to jerry ramrattan.
He was arrested again, and charged with conspiracy.
This time, he went to jail to stay, and most significant,
All the charges against him were combined,
So that he would be tried for both conspiracy and rape
In front of one jury.
- Jerry, see why this looks really bad?
You're accused of rape by seemona,
Seemona suddenly ends up in jail
Accused of armed robbery.
So three people that claim she did it
All were related to you. - They're not all related to me.
And I trust the justice system,
Even though I was done injustice,
I guarantee you, the truth will come out.
- Jerry maintained his innocence.
The case for the defense?
Those witnesses were lying.
- They lied about everything,
But it just takes any one juror to say
"I don't believe these people."
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
- The love between seemona sumasar
And jerry ramrattan had long since been replaced
By bitterness. Was she in love with you?
- I-- I believe so.
So how did love turn into hate like this?
Money's a dangerous commodity.
- He is a sociopath.
I don't believe he would stop at anything
To get what he wants.
- In November of 2011, the most intimate secrets
And grievances of the relationship
Played out in court at jerry's trial
For rape and conspiracy. The prosecution set the tone,
Calling jerry a liar and manipulator,
Used to getting his way until seemona forced him
Out of her business, her house, and her heart.
- This time, he was gonna have to leave with his tail
Between his legs, uh-- that was something that,
You know, he just could not allow to happen.
I think he became extraordinarily angry,
And-and that's when he decided he was going to rape her.
- Seemona took the stand and described the events
Of March 8th, 2009:
Hours of captivity in her own bedroom
Followed by a brutal rape.
That must have been hard. - It was.
I went in there not knowing what to expect.
I also reminded myself
That I didn't have anything to worry about,
Because I didn't need to lie about anything.
- She relived the relationship with jerry
On that witness stand,
And she relived her ordeal with jerry
On that witness stand,
And I thought every moment of her examination
Rang true and was very powerful.
- The prosecution told the jury
That seemona's body was a crime scene.
Semen recovered during her sexual assault exam
Contained jerry's dna.
And there was evidence of a gential laceration.
- Most women who are raped, there are no injuries.
If there is injury, um, that is indicative
Of a forcible act.
- The report included pictures of seemona's face and arms.
- There are duct tape marks consistent with
Duct tape having been placed around her wrists.
- Prosecutor degaetano also had evidence
That jerry's fingerprint was on a roll of duct tape
Recovered from the house.
- Collectively, you know, the evidence was overwhelming
And really supported her account.
- Next, the jury heard about a fake robbery plot
As intricate as an episode of "csi" or "law & order,"
Jerry's favorite crime dramas.
The prosecution said it was brilliantly conceived,
Not by a real cop as jerry claimed he once was,
But by a detective wannabe, who it turns out
Had once been convicted for robbery himself.
- I did know early on that he was not a police officer.
He had a felony record,
So he could not have been a police officer.
- The prosecution called the three so-called victims
Who had accused seemona of armed robbery.
[indistinct voice on phone]
- Even luz johnson, whose dramatic 9-1-1 call
Seemed so real,
Now said she was simply reciting a script
Elaborately written by jerry.
- He knew police procedure.
He knew how these investigations were conducted.
And he made use of it, and he was very detailed
In the scrip that he gave to each of the three victims.
- The prosecution had painted
An ugly picture of jerry ramrattan,
A rapist and schemer without conscience.
- I was shocked. I can't believe
That someone would sit there and create a story like this.
Look at the sloppy police work that was done on my case,
The evidence that they produced at trial.
- Now it was the defense's turn.
Jerry's lawyer, frank kelly, challenged seemona
And her story of being held captive for hours
Before being raped.
- I thought it was just ridiculous that--
That my client would be there for hours and hours,
Ordering chinese food, and, uh,
Repeating the same thing over and over,
"can I stay? Can I stay?
"please don't tell the police after I leave."
And it was just ridiculous.
- Kelly ripped into the fingerprint evidence,
Arguing that the one print found
Was on a roll of duct tape,
Not on the pieces allegedly used to bind and gag simona.
- There was no proof that any of those pieces of duct tape
Came from that particular roll.
Of course his fingerprint was gonna be on
The outside of one, um, he had placed it there
On the bureau. - Kelly argued
That the medical evidence was flimsy, too,
Including the medical technician's report
Of the genital laceration.
- When he took a photograph of it,
You couldn't see it. And he did admit
That even on consensual sex, you can get such a-
A laceration. The only thing
I ever saw on any photograph
Was one line across one of her, uh, forearms,
But I couldn't tell you that was from duct tape.
- Kelly dismissed the conspiracy charge,
Telling the jury that part of the case
Was built entirely on the testimony
Of confessed liars. - These are lowlifes.
They lied about everything,
But it just takes any one juror to say
"I don't believe these people, they are convicted perjurors,
"I don't believe seemona sumasar because
"she was in financial difficulties,
"and she won't even admit that."
- In the end, the defense asserted
The case was really all about seemona,
A woman in deep financial trouble
Who turned against a man who loved and supported her,
Framing him in a desperate effort
To get her restaurant back. In a dramatic moment,
Kelly presented a bill of sale in court,
Showing seemona had sold the golden crust to jerry
For $120,000.
- When I actually saw that document,
I-I thought he really lost his mind.
- That's your signature there.
- And-- - and it says you sold
The restaurant for $120,000.
- Um, I have to tell you that that signature
Looks exactly like my signature.
But I never signed that. And I never sold my business.
And he doesn't have $120, much less $120,000 to give me.
- Jerry did not take the stand,
And the defense called no witnesses.
- There's nothing to gain out of that.
They didn't prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt.
I thought the juries would come back
With a "not guilty" verdict.
- After a three-week trial, it was over.
Jerry's future-- and seemona's too--
Were now in the hands of a jury.
- A tough task for jurors.
- Once a case gets into the hands of the jury,
You never know what's going to happen.
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
- For seemona sumasar, it had been an exhausting
And emotional three weeks.
The trial of her ex-boyfriend, jerry ramrattan,
Had taken her back to the worst days of her life.
- I can't believe that it's my life.
It's something that should really be in a lifetime movie.
Even that's a little- little bit too much.
- And now that the case was in the hands of the jury,
Seemona and prosecutor frank degaetano
Were on edge. - I'm never confident.
Once the case gets into the hands of the jury,
You never know what's going to happen.
- When deliberations got underway,
The jury was divided.
Tell me what the deliberations were like.
- I mean, at first, um,
You know, it seemed like it was gonna be
More like a hung jury. - We spoke to five
Of the jurors.
So how many holdouts were there?
- I'd say we probably started with three.
- Three people leaning towards acquittal.
- Right. - What about seemona?
What were your thoughts as you looked out at her?
- Strong woman. - That's-that's--
I was gonna say that, exactly.
She is a strong woman.
- You could see the emotion when she spoke,
The tendons and everything,
When she was reliving it in that moment.
- This is gonna be hard to try to figure all this out,
Because there was so many different things
And so many contradictions.
- The people versus jerry ramrattan...
- The jurors struggled for ten long hours
Before reaching a verdict.
- Madame foreperson,
As to count one, rape in the first degree,
What is your verdict? - Guilty.
- Jerry ramrattan, guilty of rape.
- Guilty. - And guilty of a conspiracy
That landed seemona in jail.
- As to count eleven,
Falsely reporting an incident in the third degree,
What is your verdict? - Guilty.
- The jury convicted him on eleven counts in all.
- I only heard the rape charge,
Because in my mind, ultimately,
That's all they needed to convict him for.
- Can you step outside this far enough to say
That if I'm on the jury,
And I'm hearing what this jury heard,
This was a pretty easy slam dunk conviction.
- No. It wasn't. The sloppy police work,
Her story? They went on emotions
More than actual physical evidence.
- In the end, it was still a case
Of he-said-she-said,
And the jury had little trouble deciding who to believe.
- What do you think about jerry now?
- In many respects, I just-- I felt really sad
And sorry for him, because, um,
He was a flawed individual.
- He did nothing but smirk
And make faces and mouthed words
And very exaggerated facial gestures,
Um, very smug. Big turnoff.
- He-he is that bee that has honey in the--
His mouth.
But he has a sting in his teeth.
- And that sting nearly destroyed
Seemona sumasar's life. - Seemona sumasar.
- At the sentencing,
Seemona was given a chance to address the court.
But instead, she spoke straight to jerry.
- You made sure that I was left with nothing
When you were done.
Because you're evil. Ev-- you're just--
I do-I don't even have words for you.
I don't.
But I know that you're pro-evil,
And you're a sociopath, and you need help.
And I hope that you take and use your time wisely
To get the help you need. - When jerry got his turn,
He refused to take responsibility
For his crimes. - It's fine.
You know, whatever has to happen to today has to happen.
I just know we're done and over with.
I maintain my innocence, and there's more to come.
It's not done.
- As he delivered the sentence,
Judge richard buchter said jerry deserved no mercy.
- The evidence showed him to be
A violent rapist,
An evil and vindictive schemer.
A sinister manipulator, a diabolical conniver.
A man who coldheartedly endeavored to destroy
An innocent victim,
Who he himself had abused and raped.
- The judge sentenced jerry ramrattan
To 33 years in prison.
He will not be eligible for parole until 2032.
From behind bars, jerry still insists
He's an innocent man, and puts the blame
On seemona and his three co-conspirators.
- We spoke to some of the jurors.
- Mhm. - And they said
They really believed seemona. - Mhm.
- She was lying, in your view.
- Yeah. I was shocked.
- Did you ask any of these three people
To concoct a story of seemona robbing them?
- No. - They're bold-faced liars.
- Oh yeah, and I'm sure in due time,
A lot more stuff is gonna come out
About all of them. - Everyone's lying,
You're the only one telling the truth here.
- Well, it doesn't matter what I say.
Because I'm-I'm the fall guy right now.
- I still think that
He believes in half of the lies that he told,
And he looks at me
As the person that did this to him.
I'm not that-- he did this to himself.
- Seemona sumasar was a victim of two crimes,
But it didn't end there.
During the seven months she was in jail,
She lost her home, her business,
And was separated from her daughter.
And now, she has to build her life yet again.
The wheels of justice eventually turn in the right direction.
But it must be hard to look at yourself
As a winner. - It is. It is.
He has turned my life upside-down.
He has took everything away from me.
Everything that I sacrificed for,
Everything that I worked for.
He even took my daughter away from me.
Up-- turn her life upside-down.
- Seemona sued new york city
And two of its detectives.
She also sued nassau county
And one of its detectives.
The city defendents settled for an undisclosed amount.
After a federal court dismissed her claims for false arrest,
The county defendents settled the remaining claims
For $2 million. - It's literally kafkaesque.
She couldn't have imagined this having happened to her.
So I-in terms of how this affected her life,
I mean, you-you couldn't invent
A worse-a worse nightmare for her.
- Sometimes the word "victim" implies someone weak.
- Mhm. - You do-- how do you
Wrestle with the term "victim"? How do you see yourself?
- I don't wanna play the victim role.
I-I'm stronger than that, I'm better than that.
So you just have to let it go and say what's done is done,
And just leave it alone.
- That's all for this edition of "dateline: Secrets uncovered."
I'm craig melvin. Thank you for watching.