ORLANDO, Fla. – An Orlando man has filed a federal lawsuit against the City of Orlando and several Orlando police officers after spending two years in prison for a crime he did not commit.
Jorge Valle Ramos said he was 19 years old and studying to be an X-ray technician at Anthem College in 2013 when one night derailed all of his future plans.
“I was just hanging out in my living room on the phone with my mom,” he said. “I was waiting for the maintenance guy to come do some work in the bathroom, and I get a knock on the door. I’m thinking it’s the maintenance people, and it turned out to be U.S. Marshals had a warrant for my arrest. At that point, I knew something was wrong.”
According to court documents, investigators said his large, afro-styled hair from a 2-year-old picture matched the description of a man wanted for a nearby burglary.
Investigative photos from the scene show an apartment had been ransacked, and the thieves had made off with jewelry valued at more than $9,200.
Witnesses picked Valle Ramos out of a photo lineup, and Orlando police arrested him, even though he no longer wore the afro, and he had an alibi.
“They had a warrant out for my arrest for burglary that was committed, and instantly, I knew everything was wrong, and they were wrong,” he said. “I was more mad at first, just because they messed up.
“I started to get scared when I started going to court, seeing that they were really trying to pin this on me, offering me plea deals and stuff like that. Me – having to look for a lawyer – that’s when I started getting scared,” he said.
The jury eventually returned a guilty verdict.
“I just broke down in tears at that point, and now I became scared of something else – how much time I was going to get.”
An Orange County judge sentenced Valle Ramos to 2.5 years in prison.
“(I saw) a little bit of everything, you know? Violence. Roommates that are doing life sentences, gangs, thieves, people you can’t trust sleeping next to you,” he said. “Sleeping in a room with 100 other people a bunch of bunk beds next to each other. You got to sleep with one eye open.”
He served his entire sentence.
Nine years after the crime and armed with a new attorney, Valle Ramos secured a new court hearing at the Orange County Courthouse.
It was during that hearing one of the witnesses changed her story.
She claimed she felt pressured by police investigators to identify Valle Ramos as the suspect in the photo lineup even through she was not sure he was the man that committed the crime.
“Deep down, I always knew she wasn’t sure,” he said. “I said it all the time. They know it wasn’t me, and I’m just glad it came to light.”
The judge agreed, and one year after the hearing, he threw out Valle Ramos’ conviction.
More than 10 years after his arrest, Valle Ramos was no longer a convicted felon.
His story is rare, but it has happened before.
An analysis of data compiled by the National Registry of Exonerations going back to 1989 shows 3,587 people across the country have had their cases thrown out after their convictions.
Illinois topped the list with 533 cases thrown out, followed by Texas, New York, California and Michigan.
Florida ranked eighth on the list with approximately 90 exonerations.
Brevard and Seminole counties each had two cases that saw exonerations.
Marion and Volusia counties each had one case.
Orange County had four cases that were thrown out – one of them was Valle Ramos’.
He said despite being exonerated, he still has a hard time securing employment and furthering his education.
Orlando police said they cannot comment on active lawsuits.
“Hopefully, my story can help somebody else,” he said. “I consider myself blessed, because I got a second chance.”
Valle Ramos’ attorney works for Loevy + Loevy, which is a national civil rights law firm that deals with wrongful conviction cases through The Exoneration Project.
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