A former South Florida Catholic school deacon and teacher pleaded guilty Wednesday to molesting four young students, including an 8-year-old girl, and was then released from custody after accepting a plea deal.
Carlos Humberto Ramirez was initially arrested in March 2023 on charges of molesting two female students, ages 11 and 12, CBS Miami reported. He was later charged with molesting two other students.
At the time, Ramirez worked as a teacher and deacon at Holy Family Catholic Church in North Miami.
On Wednesday, he pleaded guilty to four counts of lewd and lascivious conduct on a child under age 16, NBC Miami reported.
As part of the plea agreement, Ramirez was sentenced to 29 months in state prison with credit for time served followed by 10 years of sex-offender probation. But since Ramirez had been in custody for about 31 months, he was allowed to walk free from the Miami-Dade courthouse on Wednesday.
Under the conditions of the agreement, he cannot leave Miami-Dade County without advance permission. He was also ordered to surrender his teaching license, barred from having unsupervised contact with children and prohibited from living with anyone under 18.
According to an arrest report, an 8-year-old third-grader said she was inappropriately touched by Ramirez on three separate occasions in October 2021. Another student, an 11-year-old girl, reported that Ramirez squeezed her rear end when she was turning in her classwork.
Ramirez initially denied the allegations. In 2023, his wife asked a judge to release him on bond before his trial, telling the court he was “a person of integrity” and had “dedicated his life to this community.”
“Your honor, I believe my husband is not guilty,” Lazara Ramirez told Miami-Dade Judge Milton Hirsch. “I believe he hasn’t done anything of what he’s being charged [with].”