Feds say WSU student leader solicited sex with minor

A 20-year-old Washington State University student who held leadership positions in several student organizations, including the Young Democrats, was arrested in a sting operation targeting sexual predators earlier this year.

Homeland Security agents, working with a detective from the Chelan County Sheriff’s Office, arrested Eduardo P. Ramos on May 5 in his hometown of Wenatchee, according to court documents.

One agent posed as a 14-year-old boy on the gay dating app Grindr and began communicating with Ramos shortly before 10 p.m., according to court documents. They agreed to meet at a hotel to have sex, and Ramos arrived there in a black Jeep at about 11:20 p.m., the documents say.

Minutes later, agents arrested Ramos, who was then 19, in a parking lot behind the hotel, according to court documents. While searching his vehicle, they found a box of condoms that he had purchased on his way to the hotel, the documents say.

The arrest was reported in May by the local newspaper, the Wenatchee World, and resurfaced Monday with a series of Twitter posts by James Allsup, the former president of WSU’s College Republicans chapter who frequently espouses white nationalist views and has gained a following among the so-called “alt-right.”

Allsup attempted to draw a connection between the alleged crime and Ramos’ Mexican heritage, tweeting, “Young Democrats Leader, ‘Son of Immigrants,’ Busted for Soliciting Child Sex.”

Ramos is a U.S. citizen and a former vice president of WSU’s Young Democrats chapter. He also was a student senator and a member of the Latino group MEChA.

In a phone call Monday, Ramos said he was studying abroad in Italy last semester and spent the summer in Wenatchee. After a weekend in jail, he said, he was released on his own recognizance.

Ramos is back in Pullman preparing for the fall semester, with a trial scheduled next month in Chelan County Superior Court. He faces one count of communicating with a minor for immoral purposes. For first-time offenders like Ramos, that’s a gross misdemeanor under state law.

Ramos said he has long grappled with his bisexuality. He would not directly answer questions about the age of the boy he thought he would meet at the hotel.

“I can’t comment on the specifics of the case,” he said. “I can generally tell you I had no intentions of breaking the law or harming anybody.”

His attorney, Brandon Redal, did not respond to a message seeking comment Monday.

The sting operation also led to the arrests of Matthew Kelzenberg, a 42-year-old private music teacher from Cashmere, Washington, and Jose Manuel Ortega Ibarra, 21, of Wenatchee.

The operation was carried out by Homeland Security Investigations, a division of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It was part of a broader initiative known as Operation Predator, according to a news release issued in May.

“Since the launch of Operation Predator in 2003, HSI has arrested more than 14,000 individuals for crimes against children, including the production and distribution of online child pornography, traveling overseas for sex with minors, and sex trafficking of children,” the release says. “In fiscal year 2015, nearly 2,400 individuals were arrested by HSI special agents under this initiative and more than 1,000 victims identified or rescued.”