Who is Leticia Ramirez? NYC judge frees man caught with 500 rounds of ammo, lets murder suspect go on $5K bail
A man who was allegedly caught with a rifle and hundreds of rounds of ammo in the Bronx was set free by New York judge Leticia Ramirez on Sunday, July 31. On the same day, the judge allowed a murder suspect back on the streets on a $5,000 bail. Ramirez let Matthew Velardo, 22, out on supervised release on Sunday, against the request of prosecutors. Prosecutors wanted him to be held on bail.
Velardo was arrested with a Tires American Tactical .22 rifle, an extended magazine, and 500 rounds of ammunition in the trunk of his car, and subsequently hit with criminal weapons charges. Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark’s Office had wanted him to be held on $50,000 bail, $150,000 bond, or $150,000 secured bond, a spokesperson said, according to New York Post. Ramirez, however, ignored the request.
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In another incident, 54-year-old Vernon Gowdy, a smoke shop worker who was accused of stabbing a man to death outside the store on Saturday, July 30, was released by Ramirez the following day. Ramirez set Gowdy’s bail at $5,000 during his arraignment on charges of murder, manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon as the Bronx DA’s Office wanted him remanded. On July 31, he was released after paying the money, officials and jail records confirmed.
Gowdy, who was once a city parks employee, had 15 earlier arrests. He also served time in prison in the 1990s. He had allegedly exposed himself to a Parks Department coworker in 2011 and was arrested in the 1991 killing of a woman named Anna McCoy. However, he evaded prosecution due to a lack of evidence.
Who is Leticia Ramirez?
Judge Leticia Ramirez, who was elected a civil court judge in 2011, was also appointed for a time as an acting justice of the Manhattan Supreme Court. She served four years as an acting Family Court Judge in Brooklyn. A state spokesperson said that she had been assigned to the city criminal court on Sunday.
A state ethics panel found in 2017 that Ramirez had misused her position as a Manhattan Supreme Court judge by writing an appeals panel on behalf of her son Michael Tineo. Tineo was sentenced to 20 years to life for shooting a man dead on Long Island. Additionally, the state’s Commission on Judicial Conduct found that she wrote a letter on official court letterhead lobbying for a childhood friend who was fighting gambling charges. Ramirez was punished only with a public admonition after admitting to wrongdoing. State jail records show that her son, who is in Sing Sing prison at present, is eligible for parole in 2024.
Police sources are furious about Ramirez releasing Velardo and Gowdy. “What does it take for someone to be held in jail?” one Bronx cop said. "We keep arresting criminals and they keep getting released." “This is crazy,” said another cop. “You can’t keep letting criminals back out on the street to victimize innocent people.”
A spokesperson for the state Office of Court Administration, Lucian Chalfen, defended Ramirez's decisions related to Velardo and Gowdy, claiming that bail in New York is “solely to guarantee” the accused returns to court. “With the recent criminal justice reform laws a judge must consider the least restrictive form of bail to ensure the defendants return,” Chalfen said. “In both cases that evidently is just what the judge did … as the law requires.”