He faces up to 21 years in prison in connection to the plea, however, none of the charges require a mandatory term in prison and he is eligible for community control sanctions. The Ohio Attorney General’s office is prosecuting the case.
“These are always difficult cases. In this case, he admitted guilt and agreed to felony charges,” Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said. “He will rightfully lose his medical license and no one will ever trust him again.”
Ramey was a longtime employee of Dayton Children’s Hospital and served as executive director for pediatric mental health resources at Dayton Children’s. Ramey’s employment was terminated in August 2019, the hospital said, adding that none of the allegations included any activity at Dayton Children’s.
Ramey had faced charges of illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material, pandering obscenity involving a minor, attempted pandering sexually oriented matter involving a minor. Those charges have been dismissed, Ramey’s attorney Jon Paul Rion said.
“This was our goal all along,” Rion said. “As I’ve said in the beginning, this is not a case of child pornography. And I think after our experts looked at the case, and other professionals looked at the case, we reached a resolution that I think is fair and properly frames the issue that is at hand.”
Rion has told the media since Ramey was charged in 2020 that the images are not pornographic and the individuals are clothed. The Ohio Attorney General’s Office on the other hand released a press release in 2020 announcing Ramey had been charged in a child pornography case.
The Attorney General’s office said in the earlier release that Ramey was identified as the source of electronic downloads of child pornography and the activity was reported to the Ohio Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force which alerted local authorities.
The investigation was done by the Beavercreek Police Department and the Ohio Bureau of Investigation.
The defense and prosecutors had spent almost a year dueling over evidence in the case and whether probable cause existed for search warrants. In court filings, the defense argued that investigators used the term “erotica” and not child pornography to get the warrants and that there was a difference.
“(The affidavit for the search warrant) did not allege any criminal activity; in fact, it dispelled any belief of illegal activity by including (the) findings regarding the downloaded images being mere erotica, not child pornography,” the defense said in court documents.
Ramey appeared in court on Wednesday where he entered his plea. On the same day, Greene County Common Pleas Judge Adolfo Tornichio granted a bond condition modification in the case. Ramey will remain on GPS monitoring pending his sentencing, but the condition of house arrest was removed. He is also not to have any unsupervised contact with children.
According to the Ohio State Medical Board website, Ramey’s medical licenses expired in July.
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