Vegas attorneys say victim’s wealth buys court secrecy in extortion case

The government's unprecedented effort to keep secret the identity of a wealthy Las Vegas businessman who reported he was extorted after a tryst with a stripper is alarming, say veteran defense lawyers and former prosecutors.

"It appears that there's some type of privilege given to this victim that we've never seen before,'' said attorney Chris Rasmussen, who regularly practices in federal court. "Would a regular person be afforded this privilege?

"I think it's alarming when you're giving adult victims a cloak of secrecy," Rasmussen said. "We have courts that are open to the public for a reason — to allow cases to be heard in an open forum, not behind closed doors.

Fellow defense lawyer Todd Leventhal said the victim probably "knows somebody."

"This is just to keep the stain of what this guy did off his name and status in the community," Leventhal said. "The cornerstone of the judicial system is open and public. Why is this guy above the policy of the courts?"

Leventhal, who has practiced in federal court for years, said he doesn't consider the businessman a victim.

"It takes two to tango," he said. "He participated in an act that could have been charged as a solicitation case."

The businessman is described in an FBI criminal complaint as a married Las Vegas resident who has two minor children and who is "part-owner of a well-known business" with access to a private company jet.

Over a two-year period, the businessman tipped the stripper roughly $200,000, usually at $10,000 per visit, to dance and have sex with him in a private room at an adult nightclub, the complaint said. No public records name the businessman, the dancer or the club.

But Ernesto Joshua Ramos, a 38-year-old Las Vegas resident described as the stripper's live-in boyfriend, was indicted by a federal grand jury last month. He is accused of trying to extort $200,000 from the businessman by threatening to make public a secretly recorded videotape of the woman and the businessman having sex during a rendezvous outside the country.

Ramos, who is free on his own recognizance, faces a single felony count of use of a facility of interstate communication to promote extortion during the scheme, which is alleged to have been carried out between November and January.

Following his indictment, U.S. Magistrate Judge Bill Hoffman signed an unusual protective order that prohibits disclosure of the businessman's name — not even his initials — in any public filings. Hoffman signed the protective order without a hearing or input from the public or news organizations.

"That concerns me given the First Amendment considerations," defense lawyer Kathleen Bliss said. "It seems like an unusual practice."

Bliss, who left the U.S. attorney's office in 2012 after a long stint as a prosecutor in its organized crime unit, said she's seen protective orders to conceal the identities of children or government witnesses who face threats to their safety, but never an adult victim being extorted for having sex with a stripper.

Nevada U.S. Attorney Daniel Bogden defended the government's actions.

"Per DOJ (Department of Justice) policy, we do not release the names of victims or any other information concerning victims, in cases we litigate," Bogden said in a statement to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

He also said the Crime Victims Rights Act of 2004 gives a victim "the right to be reasonably protected from the accused" and "to be treated with fairness and with respect for the victim's dignity and privacy" throughout court proceedings.

Both Reno-based Assistant U.S Attorney Carla Higginbotham and defense lawyer Gabriel Grasso, signed a publicly filed agreement to withhold the victim's name on those grounds.

But Charles Kelly, a former federal prosecutor now practicing defense law, said he finds the push for secrecy in the case "pretty extraordinary."

"In my 33 years of practicing law, I've never seen the government being enlisted to help conceal the identity of someone in a situation like this," he said. "I'm just amazed that they would do that."

Thomas Pitaro, who has been practicing criminal defense law for 41 years, agreed.

"I've never come across this before under those circumstances in my life, and there's been some pretty substantial people who have been victims of crimes that were embarrassing to them," he said.

Robert Draskovich, a veteran of 20 years in the criminal defense bar, questioned the propriety of keeping the businessman's name under wraps.

"Unless the investigation is ongoing or there is a charged defendant who has not yet been arrested, there appears to be no legal basis for having the matter sealed," he said.

Defense lawyer Craig Drummond said this case sets a bad precedent.

"Crime victims certainly do not choose to be victims and would normally not like anything public," he said. "However, our justice system is one of openness and there are many reasons why the public as a whole should know who the government is charging with a crime and who is asserting that they are a victim."

The lawyers all agreed that the victim's name won't remain secret if the case goes to trial, where the businessman likely would have to testify in court.

But if Ramos strikes a plea agreement with prosecutors, the businessman's identity may never be known.

The government has plenty of incentive to give Ramos a favorable deal if it doesn't want the victim's name revealed, the lawyers said.

Added one attorney: "What is the interest of the government in withholding the identity of someone in a position of wealth?

Contact Jeff German at jgerman@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-8135. Find him on Twitter: @JGermanRJ.