5 key details about Seemona Sumasar's case ahead of Dateline

Dateline revisits the prosecution of Jerry Ramrattan, who was convicted of raping and framing Seemona Sumasar. The case drew attention for a string of staged robberies, sworn statements that later fell apart, and a decades-long sentence.

The Dateline: Secrets Uncovered episode titled Vengeance (season 11, episode 6) airs on Oxygen on Thursday, September 25 at 12:00 am. The hour originally ran in 2022 and returns as viewers look for a clear recap before or after watching.

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Case background for Dateline: Secrets Uncovered

Before the crimes, Sumasar and Ramrattan were in a relationship in Queens. The relationship ended, but contact did not. In March 2009, she reported an assault. Afterward, police opened a rape case, and he was arrested and released on bail.

Multiple 911 reports alleged stops by a man and woman posing as officers (Image via Pexels).

Months later, a cluster of 911 reports named a woman and a man posing as officers in stickups. Descriptions matched cars linked to Sumasar’s circle. Photo arrays and a lineup produced identifications. She was arrested in May 2010, held on high bail, and jailed for about seven months while fighting charges.

The story turned when an informant contacted authorities. Witnesses recanted, admitting a scheme that pointed to Ramrattan. Charges against Sumasar were dropped, and a Queens jury later found Ramrattan guilty.

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5 key details ahead of Dateline: Secrets Uncovered

1) Conviction and a 32-year sentence

A Queens jury found Ramrattan guilty of rape and offenses tied to the frame-up. A judge later handed down a 32-year sentence. According to Reuters (January 2012), prosecutors said the result reflected the harm of both the assault and the staged crimes that sent Sumasar to jail for months.

A Queens jury convicted Ramrattan, and the court imposed a 32-year sentence (Image via Pexels).

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2) How the frame-up reportedly worked

Prosecutors described planted evidence and coached identifications. A bullet was placed at a fake scene, and witnesses were prepped so they could pick Sumasar in police procedures, investigators said. The jury heard that the reports created the illusion of a robbery pattern that never happened.

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3) Informant history raised questions

After sentencing, reporting noted Ramrattan had been a paid source for law enforcement on prior matters, a detail that prompted scrutiny of cases where he had contact. Those claims surfaced in interviews and records reviewed by journalists after the verdict, according to ABC7 Chicago (January 2012).

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4) The civil case tested the investigation

In federal court, parts of Sumasar’s lawsuit survived summary judgment, including due process claims tied to alleged fabrication or omission of material facts, while false arrest claims were dismissed. The docket also reflects that her claims against New York City were settled earlier in the case, in 2013.

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5) Early warnings surfaced at trial

As the criminal trial opened, prosecutors called it one of the most elaborate frame-ups they had seen, arguing the conspiracy grew after the rape charge. The case began to unravel when a police informant linked Ramrattan to the accusers who had pointed to Sumasar, as reported by the New York Times (November 2011).

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The Dateline: Secrets Uncovered hour focuses on the timeline from the breakup to the assault report, the staged robberies, the jail stretch, and the reversal that followed. The story also appeared on Netflix’s Worst Ex Ever in the episode Betrayed by the Badge, and in Karma’s a B*tch! in the episode The Justice System Failed Her.

Watch Dateline: Secrets Uncovered streaming on fuboTV, YouTube TV, and Oxygen.

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