WESTFIELD – A Pittsfield woman was arraigned in Westfield District Court recently, after she allegedly threatened to distribute an embarrassing photo of a Southwick man’s private parts, unless she was paid thousands of dollars.
Southwick police officer Marc Siegel reports in a document filed in support of a criminal complaint against Christina Ramos, 29, of 40 Riverview Homes, Pittsfield, that he was approached in August by a Southwick resident, who said that the woman had demanded “five or six thousand dollars” under threat of revealing a photograph of his genitalia to the police, her lawyer, the internet and his employer.
The victim explained, in a statement to police, that he had dated Ramos about a year previously and had recently begun to again talk to her on the phone and exchange text messages with her.
In his statement, the victim said “The conversations got to the point were you show me yours, I will show you mine. As in sending revealing nude pictures of each other to our cell phones via text messages.”
The victim said that he sent his photo to the woman but did not get a revealing picture of the woman in return.
He said that he received a text message saying “she could not send a picture of her right now” and did not hear from her for about two weeks, when her next text message demanded he “pay her five to six thousand dollars in order for Christina not to publish the picture I had sent her of my genitals.”
Instead, the victim called police.
Siegel reports that he viewed “about twenty-five” text messages stored on the victim’s phone and made digital images of them, noting the phone number they had been sent from.
Seigel reports “All text messages were in reference to the extortion of monies from (the victim), in exchange for not reporting (the victim) for sending (sic) text image of (the victim’s) penis.”
Seigel reports that he called the number the text messages had been sent from and spoke with Ramos who confirmed that it was her phone number and that she had been sending text messages to the victim.
She was advised not to contact the victim and was apprised of his investigation.
Subsequent calls, Siegel reports, were not answered or returned and he was thus unable to ask her to come to the station to provide her account of the issue.
Siegel consulted Pittsfield police and learned that Ramos has not spoken with Pittsfield police to make a complaint about receiving revealing text messages from the victim.
Siegel reports that the victim told him that the extortion attempt is a scam “being done” in the projects where Ramos lives in Pittsfield. Seigel reports he was unable to verify this claim.
Unable to reach Ramos again, Seigel filed an application for a criminal complaint on Sept. 4.
On Oct. 28, Ramos was arraigned in Westfield District Court on charges of extortion by false report of a crime and of making annoying telephone calls or electronic communications.
She was ordered to stay away from the victim and to make no threats or violence toward him. She was released on $1,000 personal surety pending a Dec. 20 hearing.
