Ex-dental tech gets 15 years for groping patients

A former dental technician who molested 13 female patients while they were under anesthesia was ordered to prison Friday for 15 years.

One victim at the sentencing hearing told Luis Ramos that memories of the sexual abuse she suffered at his hands came back to her in frequent flashbacks, ruining her sleep, school work and personal relationships.

“She was very traumatized,” said Deputy District Attorney Martin Doyle. He successfully argued that Ramos, 36, receive the maximum state prison term.

Ramos had worked for three years at Park Boulevard Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Office in North Park. His job was to clean up after patients underwent various surgical procedures. He groped the victims while they were coming out of anesthesia. Some were conscious enough to be aware of what was happening to them.

Doyle said the defense attorney argued for a lesser term on the grounds that Ramos has no prior criminal history, has a new wife and baby, and has problems with meth and alcohol.

Superior Court Judge Michael Smyth “did not find that persuasive,” Doyle said after the hearing.

Civil attorneys retained by two other victims read statements from their clients, who also expressed lingering feelings of fear and anxiety since being molested.

After hearing the victims’ statements, Ramos spoke briefly and apologized to them.

Ramos pleaded guilty on May 13 to 13 felony and misdemeanor counts of groping or sexually battering female patients over the course of a year through January 2016. The victims ranged in age from 17 to 63.

A teenage girl was the first to come forward on Jan. 21. The allegation prompted San Diego police to review hundreds of hours of security camera video covering the previous month, Doyle said. They identified nine additional victims.

The surveillance camera had been installed in the surgical rooms by the dentist several years before for the protection of staff and patients, Doyle said.

He said after publicity on the case, about 30 female patients came forward to investigators, most wondering whether they had been victimized. Three women who had been patients in early 2015 were aware of being abused but had not reported it at the time, Doyle said.

Ramos had been allowed to post bail after his initial arrest, but after a March hearing in which the additional charges were filed, he was ordered back to jail. He has remained jailed since then, Doyle said.