The date to set the Preliminary Hearing was decided during the court proceedings for March 25th, 2011 in Department 30, for 8:30 am.   Deputy District Attorney Samer Hathout appeared in court wearing an all black outfit of a long skirt and long top, and told the judge, “So that the defendants are aware, all offers are withdrawn.”  The judge replied, “Those fighting words…” 

These proceedings in Department 50 of the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center didn’t get going until nearly 10 am, even though the doors opened at 8:30 am. The judge came into the court room through the back door on crutches, making his way to the bench with his robe slung around his shoulders.  He sat down in his chair wearing his business suit and put his robe on over his suit after he got seated.

He was the honorable Craig Richman, who was filling in for the regular judge, David Horwitz, who usually presides in Department 50.  Richman stood out with his poignant sense of humor. 

He said to the Ramirez brothers in an upbeat tone, “Are you guys related in any way?”  Neither of the two brothers even responded, as they were probably not prepared for the judge’s candor.  They just sat there unresponsively.  Possibly the judge wasn’t joking as was suggested by the tone of his voice.  He was just filling in so he didn’t know the case, thus it is reasonable he wouldn’t know Hugo and Christian are brothers and that the case involves no one else at this point outside of the six member trio of husbands and wives comprising the Ramirez family.

Samer Hathout clearly had made the defendants offers of plea bargains.  But, they had all declined the offers.  She told this writer just outside the court room door in the hallway, after the defendants’ appearances, that she could not disclose what the deal offers had been that she had made to any of the defendants. 

There could only have possibly been five offers, as one offer has already been made and accepted by Dominique Boudreaux, the wife of Hugo Ramirez.  Dominique was not in court, yet she remains in custody because over two months ago she accepted a plea deal and will be formally sentenced on May 10th 2011.  She was the ostensible owner of the transportation company called Transco, to which improper payments for services not rendered were made out of Los Angeles County funds. 

Sandra Orozco, the wife of Christian Ramirez, appeared in court separately from the four other defendants who were seated on the detainees’ benches behind a partition, since she is out on bail.   Sandra represented a private investigations firm to which improper payments were made from Los Angeles County funds. 

Maria Ochoa, the mother of Christian and Hugo Ramirez, and the wife of Javier Ramirez, spoke in court through a Spanish interpreter.  Javier Ramirez, sat on the detainees’ bench somewhere near his sons, who were more easily visible in the front row wearing bright lime green jail shirts. 

All three Ramirez men are still being held on 1.5 million dollars bail each.  Mrs. Ramirez, who is named in court as Maria Ochoa, is being held on $321,000 bail.

Christian and Hugo Ramirez were entry level workers’ compensation claims adjusters from around 2008 to 2009 while their father was a claims assistant clerk with authority to release payments.  The father and the two sons all started working at Tristar in the Santa Ana office as clerks or in the file room during 2002 to 2004 and worked their way up to claims assistant and claims examiners.  One quit before the results of a 2009 audit were made definitive, and the other two were let go after that audit disclosed out-of-proportion payments to the transportation and private investigation firms owned by Maria Ochoa, Sandra Orozco, and Dominique Boudreaux, the Ramirez family wives.  The three men worked at Tristar on the County of Los Angeles workers’ compensation account under aliases with unique social security numbers which were not their real social security numbers relevant to their real names. 

The investigation of this case is still on-going by the California Department of Insurance. 

lonce@adjustercom.com