Former dental technician pleads guilty to sexual battery of female patients in San Diego

Reporting from San Diego —  A former San Diego dental technician accused of groping female patients while they were under anesthesia pleaded guilty Wednesday to 13 felony and misdemeanor charges, including sexual battery and sexual penetration.

Luis Alfonso Ramos, 36, admitted charges related to incidents involving 13 victims at the Park Boulevard Oral Surgery office who ranged in age from 17 to 63, a prosecutor said.

San Diego Superior Court Judge Michael Smyth scheduled a sentencing hearing for Aug. 26, when Ramos could be sent to prison for up to 15 years.

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He was charged in February with seven felony counts of sexual battery of an unconscious person, all of which were linked to a Jan. 21 incident that occurred when a teenage girl underwent a dental procedure.

The girl told police she was waking up when she realized someone was touching her inappropriately. The crime was captured on security video, prosecutors said.

After that, San Diego police sex crimes detectives began reviewing hours of video from the surgery office and identified 13 victims. The incidents took place between January 2015 and early this year.

“There were more complaints than we were able to charge,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Martin Doyle said Wednesday, adding that some people weren’t sure what may have happened to them while they were anesthetized.

Ramos did not administer the anesthesia. His job as a technician was to clean up after the dental procedures were completed, the prosecutor said.

Ramos’ case was scheduled for a preliminary hearing on Wednesday, when a judge was expected to hear from witnesses and determine whether there was enough evidence for the case to go to trial.

Instead, many of those alleged victims sat quietly in the courtroom as Ramos pleaded guilty to nine counts of sexual battery of an unconscious person, one count of sexual penetration, one count of attempted sexual penetration and two counts of misdemeanor sexual battery.

dana.littlefield@sduniontribune.com

Littlefield writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune.

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