A Grand Rapids man who used to be the head of the Hispanic American Council in Kalamazoo is now facing federal charges of criminal sexual conduct. State prosecutors recently dropped their charges and handed the matter over for federal prosecution. Forty year old Ramon Berlanga-Rodriguez is accused of sexually assaulting a young girl multiple times, recording the crimes, and selling the videos on the internet to an undisclosed recipient. In addition to a pair of sexual assault charges, Berlanga-Rodriguez is charged with producing child pornography and using a computer to commit a crime.
Rodriguez was reportedly paid up to $2,500 for a single video
Prosecutors say that according to the victim the sexual assaults began at the end of 2010 and took place sometimes multiple times a week for over a year. Berlanga-Rodriguez was reportedly paid up to $2,500 for a single video. As part of their evidence prosecutors say they have a phone which had pictures of the assaults on it, but no computer evidence has been disclosed yet.
Berlanga-Rodriguez was already serving a sentence for an unrelated case when federal prosecutors took over. Berlanga-Rodriguez is serving an eight month sentence plus probation for embezzling from the Kalamazoo organization he used to lead; he was convicted of the embezzlement early last year. Sources differ, but Berlanga-Rodriguez is reportedly currently being held in either Newaygo County or Kent County jail awaiting his trial. The full articles may be found in mlive.com and in the Grand Haven Tribune.
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