Monday, April 27, 1998 | 9:10 a.m.
Clark District Judge Myron Leavitt handed down the sentence Friday to Michael Ramirez, 28, who was described by a prosecutor as a voyeur who used his position of power to satisfy his perversions.
Ramirez was sentenced to an indeterminate period of probation, six months of which will be spent under house arrest in Phoenix, where he now lives.
Under a last-minute plea bargain he accepted late last month, Ramirez pleaded guilty to two felony counts of oppression under the color of office.
He originally was charged with the two oppression counts, two counts of sexual assault and one count of open and gross lewdness.
The charges stemmed from an October 1996 incident at Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area near Las Vegas.
He was charged with fondling a woman and then forcing her boyfriend to perform a sex act on her. The couple claim the officer, who was not in uniform, displayed a police badge and gun.
Ramirez was fired in February 1997 after five years with the department.
Female victim Norma McKee and Chief Deputy District Attorney Thomas Moreo pushed for a harsher sentence, saying probation was not nearly enough.
"Each day I try to understand how someone sworn to uphold the law could commit such a crime against citizens they are sworn to protect," McKee said.
But Leavitt defended his sentence: "He's lost his job, his house, his career, his self-respect. Let's give him a chance to salvage his marriage and his family."
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