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Go to AnaheimPress.com for Anaheim Specific News M O N D AY, F E B R U A RY 1 - F E B R U A RY 7, 2021
V O L U M E 7, N O. 5
FORMER MEMBER OF BALDWIN PARK CITY COUNCIL PLEADS GUILTY TO BRIBERY, ADMITS RECEIVING NEARLY $38K TO SUPPORT A POLICE CONTRACT A former Baldwin Park city councilmember has pleaded guilty to accepting tens of thousands of dollars in bribes – including $20,000 in cash – from a Baldwin Park Police officer working at the FBI’s direction, in exchange for the councilmember’s political support of the Baldwin Park Police Association’s contract with the city, the Justice Department announced Thursday. Ricardo Pacheco, 58, of Baldwin Park, who was elected to the City Council in 1997 and served as mayor pro tempore in 2018, pleaded guilty on June 15 to a federal bribery charge. On Tuesday, federal prosecutors unsealed a criminal information against Pacheco, as well as portions of a plea agreement in which Pacheco agreed to fully cooperate in ongoing public corruption investigations. The unsealed plea agreement contains a redacted statement of facts to protect the integrity of ongoing aspects of those investigations. In the documents unsealed last week, Pacheco admitted to soliciting and
receiving a total of $37,900 in bribes from a Baldwin Park police officer from January through October 2018 to support and vote for the Police Association’s contract, which was worth at least $4.4 million over three years. The police officer who made the payments did so at the direction of the FBI after another officer and he approached the FBI and agreed to assist in its ongoing corruption investigation. In exchange for the payments, Pacheco voted in favor of the Police Association contract in March 2018. The payments to Pacheco included a $20,000 cash bribe in October 2018, which the police officer provided to him in an envelope in a Baldwin Park coffee shop. Pacheco also solicited and received $17,900 in checks that he directed be made out to his church and sham political action committees he had set up using other individuals’ names but which he controlled. As part of his plea agreement, Pacheco agreed to resign from his City Council seat, which he did in June.
Courtesy photo
Pacheco also agreed to forfeit $83,145 in cash proceeds seized by the FBI, which included $62,900 that Pacheco said he had buried in his backyard in two locations. Pacheco pleaded guilty before United States District Judge Otis D. Wright II.
Pacheco is scheduled to be sentenced on August 2, at which time he will face a statutory maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison. The case against Pacheco was investigated by the FBI. This case is related to public corruption investigations being conducted by the FBI,
IRS Criminal Investigation, and the United States Attorney’s Office. Any member of the public who has information related to this or any other public corruption matter in Los Angeles County is encouraged to send information to the FBI’s email tip line at
pctips-losangeles@fbi.gov or to contact the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office at (310) 477-6565. The case against Pacheco is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Thomas F. Rybarczyk of the Public Corruption and Civil Rights Section.
San Bernardino County Man Who Extorted Sexually Explicit Images Sentenced to 18 Months in Federal Prison A San Bernardino County man was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison for blackmailing female friends and acquaintances on Facebook by threatening to publish nude photographs and videos of them unless they complied with his demands of sending him additional sexually explicit images. Jorge Esteban Sanchez Ramos, 24, of Ontario, who used a series of online aliases,
including “Jose Gonzalez,” “George Sanchez” and “Jorge Ramirez,” was sentenced by United States District Judge Dolly M. Gee, who said, he “inflicted harm in a sadistic manner.” Sanchez Ramos pleaded guilty in June 2020 to one count of stalking. From April 2016 to May 2018, Sanchez Ramos used multiple aliases and Facebook accounts to mask his identity while he contacted his
victims, who were friends, and acquaintances from high school. The purpose of establishing these accounts was to extort nude images and videos from the victims using explicit images of the victims that Sanchez Ramos previously obtained. Sanchez Ramos’ anonymous communications took on a variety of forms, but their substance was the same: a threat to publish
nude or sexually explicit photographs of the women if they did not send him more nude photographs or videos of themselves. On certain occasions, when the victims resisted his demands, Sanchez Ramos followed through on his threats and published sexually explicit photos of the victims on social media. If a victim blocked the Facebook account Sanchez
Ramos was using to contact her, he then would create a new Facebook account and mock the victim for attempting to block him. He also threatened to rape one of the victims if she did not comply with his demands, according to court documents. “[Sanchez Ramos] engaged in a pattern of activity spanning over two years in which he terrorized young women acquain-
tances,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum. “[He] preyed upon their insecurities, convincing them to send explicit images of themselves to [him].” The FBI and the Pomona Police Department investigated this matter. Assistant United States Attorney Aron Ketchel of the Public Corruption and Civil Rights Section prosecuted this case.