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Uncredited / AP
Jose A. Ramos is shown in this May 28, 2010 file photo provided by the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections.
Authorities say a man long considered the prime suspect in the disappearance of a New York City boy more than three decades ago was released from prison then immediately taken into custody on a Megan's Law violation.
Pennsylvania State Police say 69-year-old convicted pedophile Jose Ramos was released from a state prison early Wednesday then immediately arrested for failing to provide authorities accurate information as required of sex offenders.
Ramos had long been a suspect in the disappearance 1979 disappearance of 6-year-old Etan Patz, who vanished after leaving his Manhattan home for a bus stop two blocks away.
Earlier this year, a new suspect named Pedro Hernandez was charged with Etan's murder after police said he confessed this spring. His lawyer, Harvey Fishbein, has said Hernandez is mentally ill, and authorities have not cited any additional evidence to implicate him beyond his own admission.
Police did not immediately specify what information Ramos failed to provide.
Investigators in Etan's case had long been focused on Ramos, who had been dating the boy's baby sitter and later served the time in Pennsylvania for molesting two other boys.
Etan's disappearance prompted a massive search that stretched as far as Israel and spawned the national movement to publicize the cases of missing children. The blond, blue-eyed boy's photo was among the first put on milk cartons, and his case turned May 25 into National Missing Children's Day.
His parents never moved or changed their phone number, in case he returned. In 2001, they obtained a court order officially declaring their son dead. They have become outspoken advocates for child protection issues.
Ramos was declared responsible for Etan's death in a civil court in 2004, but the Manhattan district attorney's office has said there wasn't enough evidence to charge him criminally. Ramos has denied any involvement in Etan's disappearance.
Prosecutors are expected this month to announce whether they believe there's evidence enough to continue pursuing a case against Hernandez, who worked at a convenience store near Etan's home when the boy disappeared and told police he strangled the boy and stuffed his body in a trash bag.
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Leave a Comment:
SANTA! They arrested Santa!
So... wait. You're telling me they released him as they were required to by law, then rearrested him "immediately" because he failed to notify officials? How much time passed between these two events? Was he given enough time to notify the state?
This story doesn't really make any sense unless police were pulling a fast one.
More like Santa's slower less jolly half brother.
"This story doesn't really make any sense unless police were pulling a fast one."
And, the problem with that is...???
They probably asked him as he was headed out the door: "So where are you going now?" And he answered "oh, I don't know." And, the cuffs got slapped on.
My problem is that he isn't getting due process. They didn't convict him of the other crime.
I'm not trying to defend this cretins actions. I find people like him abhorrent filthy animals! However if we let police violate his rights, what's to say they won't do the same to us! Very slippery slope indeed.
He is an imposter!! Not the real Santa!!
The fact that he was arrested a second time and returned to prison is a good thing because this guy is a real monster. His arrest record is confirmation to the fact that this scumbag is a confirmed child molester and has no business outside of prison walls. I just feel bad that the system has not placed him in a situation where justice could have been served up by his fellow inmates because this guy should be eliminated off the face of the earth.
I read the book After Etan and I am convinced Ramos is the one who killed him.He had means,motive and opportunity. I think the police still believe it was him as well,which would explain why he was re -arrestred so quickly. They were looking for something to keep him behind bars so he wouldn't disappear.
We may never know for a fact, this sob is a real piece of work and personally I believe he shouldn't be breathing free air in the first place. Maybe give him to the sandman and see if the sandman can loosen him up a bit. It is a really sad incident, a lot of innocence has been lost since this happened, a lot of it.
Pedophiles should just be put to death
I really hope they have enough to have arrested him, for if not it will cost the taxpayers millions and a lot of law enforcement their careers..
Here we are years later and I still can't believe anyone would let a 6 year old out to go to a bus stop two blocks away in Manhattan.
It was 1979. A different era completely. Two blocks in a familiar neighborhood. When I was 6, I walked, alone, to the bus stop and rode a city bus to the Catholic school where I went, got off the bus at least 4 blocks from the school and then walked from there. It was in the mid fifties, but still, a great deal of alone time for someone that young and I did this for 5 years. Even then, our parents told us not to talk the strangers or get into a car with someone we didn't know, but the amount of child abductions in those days, and in 1979, was very low. Don't be so quick to judge. If that's all you want to do, go find yourself another website where you can spew your holier than thou @!$%#.
Wow Maureen, Where did that come from?
kind of looks like the Wizard in "Santa Claus is Coming to Town"...put one foot in front of the other...
Who's to say this "monster" hasn't repented, isn't he entitiled to due process and not entrapment?
NO!
Get rid of this child molester and killer, just hang him already and save us our tax dollars...
It appears that 'someone' is running an end run around the courts in this case. This man is suspected of a horrific crime against a child and this makes him that much more odious in our eyes. I get that.
I am not against arresting someone on a technicality, as in this case, but I would sleep better if I was told that sufficient time was allowed this suspect to abide but the rules he is accused of violating. Otherwise, such action gives too much power to law enforcement against persons not convicted by a court of law.
It has happened before! A Canadian citizen working in the USA was previously accused of a crime by a law enforcement agency. He was arrested and jailed pending trial. He was found not guilty at his trial. However he was "immediately" re-arrested (leaving the courtroom) by the same law enforcement agency because he had failed to leave the USA in accordance with his visa even though he was in jail all that time! There was little doubt that this man would have left the USA ASAP had he been given the time to do so.
Aren't you concerned that something like that could happen to YOU if the "authorities" had their sights set on you?