A June 27 press release by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Virginia, reported that a “Honduran national who raped a 13-year-old victim was sentenced to five years in prison for receiving child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and assaulting a federal officer.” The release adds that according to court documents, Jhoan Esau Lemus Ramos, 23, illegally entered the United States in 2021, and in February 2022, Ramos contacted a 13-year-old girl through Snapchat. In March of 2022, he and the victim met in a parking lot in Herndon.

According to the release, “When the victim attempted to resist Lemus Ramos’ sexual advances, he forcibly raped her.” For the next several months, Ramos asked the girl repeatedly for nude or semi-nude photographs, and she finally gave in and sent them to him via her cell phone. When the girl told Ramos she didn't want to interact with him anymore, he used photographs to threaten her and force her to have sex with him. “The threats only stopped when the victim contacted Herndon Police for help. A forensic examination revealed messages between him and the victim as well as CSAM,” states the release. 

On July 18, 2023, Ramos was charged with Carnal Knowledge, Possession of Child Pornography, and Manufacturing Child Pornography and brought to the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center, according to a Jan. 23, 2024, Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office statement concerning the detainee. 

The statement says a full check was done to see if there were any outstanding detainers or warrants for Ramos, but there were none. Served with the criminal charges, the magistrate gave Ramos a $1,000 bond on each of his three charges. At 11:45 p.m., Ramos paid the bond and received his release. 

On Jan. 4, 2024, according to the June 27 press release by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Virginia, Deportation Officers from Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Washington, D.C., arrived at Ramos’ Springfield residence with a warrant for his arrest. Ramos struck an officer in the face, “causing an injury that required stitches and left a lasting scar.” 

In the January 23, 2024, Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office statement on the July 2023 case concerning Ramos, the Sheriff’s Office statement cited not only their facts and timelines about charges brought against Ramos but a fierce rebuttal to a Jan. 8, 2024 release from U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE ) that alleged the “Fairfax County Adult Detention Center did not honor the immigration detainer and released the … noncitizen from custody without notifying ERO Washington, D.C.”

According to its release, ICE claimed that “the Pacific Enforcement Response Center lodged an immigration detainer against him with the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center in Fairfax, Virginia. … The Fairfax County Adult Detention Center did not honor the immigration detainer and released the … noncitizen from custody without notifying ERO Washington, D.C.”

The Fairfax County Sheriff’s office countered in their Jan. 23 statement, saying, “That [ICE] press release and the subsequent media reports [claiming the Sheriff’s office did not honor the detainer] are blatantly false.”

The Sheriff’s office added, “Contrary to information in the [ICE] press release, the Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office did not charge this individual with any criminal offenses.” Another local law enforcement agency [later disclosed as Herndon Police Department] brought this individual’s criminal charges. In its release, the Sheriff’s Office says Ramos was brought to the Detention Center at 8:45 p.m. At that time, “a full check was conducted to determine the existence of any outstanding detainers or warrants. None existed.” 

Three hours later, Ramos was released at 11:45 p.m. after paying bond. “In the three hours this individual was in the custody of the Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office, at no time was an ICE detainer or outstanding warrant provided to the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center.”

To correct this misinformation, the Sheriff’s Office released that it placed numerous phone calls to ICE media relations. “E-mails, calls, and text messages to numerous officials within ICE were sent and remain unanswered.“ 

The Town of Herndon Police Department posted on Facebook Sunday, June 30, 2024 its thanks to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Virginia for “prosecuting a child rapist case, which our agency investigated.”

 “They recognized the severity of the crimes involved and the risk this individual posed to our community … We applaud them for working with us to ensure this dangerous individual was prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” posted the Town of Herndon Police Department.

Ramos was sentenced to prison for receiving child abuse material and assaulting a federal officer, charges brought as part of Project Safe Childhood. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, it is a nationwide initiative launched by the department in May 2006 “to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.” Led by U.S. Attorney’s Offices and the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. 

For more information about Project Safe Childhood, visit www.justice.gov/psc and its fact sheet at https://www.justice.gov/d9/pages/attachments/2016/04/19/psc-fact-sheet.pdf.