A former physician at a West Virginia’s veterans hospital was sentenced to probation Wednesday after pleading guilty to touching two female staffer’s breasts without permission.
The sentencing of Dr. Kenneth C. Ramdat, 65, of Silver Spring, Maryland, comes a month after a former nursing assistant at the Louis A. Johnson VA Hospital in Clarksburg was sentenced to seven consecutive life terms for giving seven elderly veterans fatal injections of insulin.
Prosecutors said the separate incidents involving Ramdat occurred as he hugged the women in 2019. He pleaded guilty Wednesday to two counts of simple assault. A U.S. magistrate judge then followed the prosecution’s recommendation and sentenced him to a year’s probation, The Exponent Telegram reported.
According to a plea agreement, Ramdat will not be required to register as a sex offender.
Ramdat apologized in court and called his behavior “repulsive,” the newspaper said. He has retired from the Veterans Affairs system, according to statements in court.
Ramdat’s plea “is a step in the right direction to giving the women affected by his horrific actions the justice they deserve,” said U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va. “The systemic negligence at the Clarksburg VAMC must be addressed and dealt with. Accountability begins at the top, and I am committed to working with VA Secretary McDonough and as a member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee to ensure that these serious issues are addressed.”
In May, a federal judge called ex-nursing assistant Reta Mays “the monster that no one sees coming” before sentencing her on seven counts of second-degree murder for intentionally injecting the veterans with unprescribed insulin.
Mays, who has a history of mental health issues, offered no explanation for why she killed the men. But U.S. District Judge Thomas Kleeh told her “you knew what you were doing.”
In January 2019, Joshua Plante received a life sentence in Cabell County District court. The sentence came as a shock to him and his attorney, because, at the time, three-strike, or recidivist, life sentences were given to people whose record included a violent felony.
Courtenay Craig, who represents Plante, said none of his client’s charges were violent.
“No. 1, possession with intent to deliver crack cocaine. No. 2, prohibited person in possession of a firearm or sales of a firearm. And, No. 3 three was possession with intent to deliver, less than four grams of heroin.”
Craig said at the time his client was sentenced, the standard set by the West Virginia Supreme Court was that only violent felonies would be considered for recidivist life sentencing. Eventually, a series of West Virginia Supreme Court cases would determine that any felony involving heroin trafficking is dangerous enough to be considered a violent crime.
But, the WVSCOA decision to treat heroin possession with intent to deliver as a violent crime didn’t happen until after Plante was sentenced to life in prison.
“My client couldn’t have possibly known what the standard was at the time of his sentencing because the standard used to uphold his license wasn’t created until 10 months later.” Craig added, “My client’s being upheld to a standard by the West Virginia Supreme Court — to a standard that didn’t exist at the time of his sentencing.”
According to Craig, a double standard exists with life sentencing in the state. Around the same time Plante received his life sentence in circuit court, the West Virginia Supreme Court threw out a life sentence for a man from Wyoming County.
The differences between that man’s case and Plante’s? That man had a violent felony, Plante did not. That man was caught selling OxyContin while Plante was caught in possession of heroin. Finally, and most importantly, said Craig, that man is white. Plante is Black.
Kyle Vass
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Carmon Plante shows the outfit her son Joshua Plante was wearing when he was convicted of a drug related felony that prompted a Cabell County Circuit Court judge to sentence him to life in prison in Huntington, W.Va., Monday, Mar. 15, 2021.
Matthew Bova, a lawyer with the Center for Appellate Litigation in New York, said in an interview with West Virginia Public Broadcasting that there is discretion built into recidivist sentencing. “There are charging decisions that can be made that can skew and direct the case into one direction or the other.”
Bova said in cases where police officers, prosecutors and judges are overwhelmingly white, there’s racial disparity when it comes to charging and sentencing people of color.
“There is an absolutely natural reaction that someone is going to have when they’re looking at someone who is of a different race and they’re weighing issues of compassion, and mercy.”
And in West Virginia, there’s a significant racial disparity in recidivist life sentencing. While Black men make up less than two percent of the state’s population, they’ve made up 20 percent of the recidivist life sentences in West Virginia since 1979, according to data from the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
“It absolutely creates a world where people believe that the government is going after a particular group of people at a far higher rate than it is going after another group of people.”
Not long after Plante’s life sentence was upheld by the West Virginia Supreme Court, the state legislature passed a bill to change the recidivist life sentence statute in the state code.
A list of qualifying offenses was added to the statute. Instead of relying solely on the precedent set by the court where one of the three felonies had to be violent, the legislature’s list included drug possession over a certain amount.
(Graph/Brookings Institute)
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A 2015 analysis from the Brookings Institute shows a significant racial disparity in drug-related arrests and incarceration across the United States.
Bova said adding drug-related crimes to recidivist sentencing not only furthers racial disparities in the criminal justice system, it’s also contributed to communities of color losing faith in government institutions as a whole.
”You look at someone who has committed a rape, and that might be their first or second offense. And they may get, say, 10 years, whereas someone who has a third offense for a drug offense… they’re getting 20 years to life.” Bova added, “People are looking at that system and saying to themselves, this doesn’t make any sense.”
Carmon Plante said she’s still trying to make sense of her son’s life sentence.
“During court, there was someone who went before [the judge] who had his fourth felony. And the judge just told him, go ahead, go on back.”
Plante said despite her son’s receiving a life sentence in circuit court, she was hopeful that the West Virginia Supreme Court would recognize that her son didn’t have a violent felony on his record and would throw out his life sentence. But, the state’s highest court upheld his sentence.
“We’ve been fighting for almost three years. And there’s been cases so similar that we don’t understand how he gets one sentence, and somebody else gets another. And, it’s the exact same charges.”
“One case, it’s one answer. The right next case, it’s his death, you might as well say.” She added that her son is currently filing an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court.
Kyle Vass
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A painting Joshua Plante made in prison for his mother during her battle with breast cancer hands in her living room in Huntington, W.Va., Monday, Mar. 15, 2021.
Jennifer Bundy, the public information officer for the West Virginia Supreme Court said, “the Justices are not aware of the race of the people involved; however, if a party has concerns that race was a factor to any error in their case, that would be an issue they could bring to the Court’s attention in the presentation of their case.”
Currently, there are no bills before the state legislature to amend or eliminate the state code’s recidivist clause.
House Bill 2966 would put together an independent panel and create the West Virginia Sentencing Commission.
It was taken up by the House Judiciary Committee Monday afternoon and is sponsored by House Speaker Tim Armstead.
The Sentencing Commission would look at all of the criminal penalties in state code and make recommendations to lawmakers for potential legislative changes.
That’s what House Judiciary Chair John Shott, of Mercer County, says is the commission’s main purpose.
“We’ve had many laws on the books for decades and some new laws, and during our discussions here in the House chamber, there have been concerns expressed about disproportionality between certain crimes and others,” Shott explained, “so this would be an effort to get someone to take a look at that and give us some suggestions on how to rewrite some of those.”
Shott says the commission would help create fair and uniform sentencing guidelines for West Virginia.
It would be made up of 14 members appointed by the House Speaker, Senate President, and the Governor. Commissioners would serve for two years and wouldn’t be paid for doing so.
The House Judiciary Committee also adopted amendments to the bill Monday. One would require the commission to place a special emphasis on the state’s drug laws, and appoint additional members – two attorneys appointed by the President of the state’s bar exam, and two counselors from the West Virginia Association of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse.
The bill was approved by the committee and now moves to the full House for its consideration.
A Charleston neurologist has pleaded guilty to a federal record-keeping violation.
The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports that Dr. Iraj Derakhshan admitted in federal court in Charleston on Thursday that he dispensed a prescription painkiller to a patient last June without reporting it.
Prosecutors say he distributed Fentanyl to a patient last summer after another patient had brought him their remaining prescription of the opioid drug after having an adverse reaction.
Derakhshan faces up to four years in prison. Sentencing has been set for July 8.
He is appealing a three-year suspension of his medical license by the state Board of Medicine.
Lawyers for convicted ex-Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship say he can withhold personal financial information under a constitutional right to remain silent during sentencing.
Blankenship’s attorneys cited the 5th Amendment in a Beckley federal court filing Friday.
Prosecutors say Blankenship is violating criminal procedure rules and restitution laws. They say they can’t tell if he anticipated fines or restitution and altered his finances accordingly.
Blankenship opposes prosecutors’ push to make him pay $28 million in restitution to Alpha Natural Resources. The now-bankrupt coal company bought Massey in 2011.
Blankenship was convicted Dec. 3 of a misdemeanor conspiracy to willfully violate mine safety standards at Upper Big Branch Mine, where an explosion killed 29 men in 2010.
He faces up to one year in prison and maximum fine of $250,000.
Federal prosecutors say they oppose a request for a delay in the sentencing of Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship following his mine safety conspiracy conviction.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Steve Ruby said in a court filing on Wednesday that the sentencing of Blankenship should not be delayed.
The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports that attorneys are currently arguing over whether Blankenship should also pay restitution to compensate victims of the case for any losses. Ruby says that prosecutors agree that matters about restitution payments by Blankenship should be handled through a hearing separate from his April 6 sentencing hearing.
Blankenship was convicted Dec. 3 of a misdemeanor conspiracy to willfully violate mine safety standards at Upper Big Branch Mine. He faces up to one year in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
