When Fort Wayne police officer Benjamin MacDonald took Patrick R. Fluker into custody in the early morning of Sept. 3, 2010, he noted in his report that the then-19-year-old said he hadn’t hurt anyone.Facing at least 15 years in a federal prison on child pornography charges, a 34-year-old Fort Wayne man now faces child molesting charges filed by the state based on statements he made in the federal investigation.
Allen County prosecutors filed seven charges against Christopher Ramirez, of the 400 block of Greenwood Avenue: three Class A felony charges of child molesting; one Class C felony charge of child molesting; one Class C felony charge of child exploitation; and a charge of dissemination of matter harmful to minors, a Class D felony.
In August, a federal grand jury in Fort Wayne indicted Ramirez on three counts – sexual exploitation of a minor, producing child pornography and possessing child pornography.
During the federal investigation, Ramirez admitted to downloading and storing child pornography on his computer, and admitted to having sexual contact with a 10-year-old girl – performing sex acts on her and having sex with her.
He told police and federal agents he took sexually explicit pictures of the girl while she was wearing a dress, but deleted the photographs and did not distribute them, according to federal court documents.
Charging information filed Friday in Allen Superior Court details many of the same events and seems to be based largely on Ramirez’s statements during the course of the federal investigation and subsequent interviews with the young girl, according to state court documents.
His federal trial is currently set for later this month, and he has yet to appear in state court on the new charges.
Messages left with state and federal prosecutors seeking clarification on the differences in the two cases were not returned Monday.
