In an October feature on KOAA-TV, Ramadon is described as a "secret weapon" for soldiers serving in Iraq circa 2003, when he was only thirteen.
"I saw people get their head cut off, people chopped up to pieces, people die in front of me, explode," he says in the report. "In Iraq, my dad was in the military with Saddam Hussein's military. He was a captain.... He gave me an A-K and said, 'Time for your childhood is gone. Now you've got to fire at the soldiers.'"
Rather than doing so, Ramadon told KOAA that he instead approached U.S. Army Sergeant Robert Evans and asked to be arrested -- after which he started to provide information about insurgent cells and the like. The first target for the boy Evans and fellow soldiers dubbed "Steve-O" was to bust his own dad."We had Steve-O in the Humvee -- ski mask," Evans says in the report. "Brought his father out; he identified him through the window of the Humvee."
In the end, young Ramadon is said to have participated in twenty missions and aided in the capture of forty Saddam loyalists -- tales told by Army First Sergeant Daniel Hendrex in a 2009 book called A Soldier's Promise.As KOAA notes, soldiers helped Ramadon relocate to the United States. He stayed with Hendrex for a time before entering the foster system -- and he admitted that he had trouble in local schools, in part because other kids called him a "terrorist." He also had learning issues that likely were either caused or worsened by post traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injuries for which he was receiving treatment last year from the Warrior Relaxation Response Center.
The report includes Ramadon talking about being a good father -- he's seen with a toddler. (Not mentioned are past run-ins with the law; the Colorado Springs Gazette notes that he currently has two protection orders pending against him.) He also lingers over memories of his mother, who was killed in Iraq. In his words, "I think she's proud of me; I know she watches over me. I don't regret that decision [to help the U.S. soldiers], because this is the right thing to do, and she always taught me to do the right thing."
Which brings us to the awful events of July 22.
Page down to continue reading about the arrest of Jasim Ramadon and four others. At about 1:30 a.m. on July 22, according to the CSPD, a woman living in the Wildridge Apartments on Gold Rush Lane in Colorado Springs decided to go for a walk and check her mailbox; CSPD spokeswoman Barbara Miller notes that she works midnight shifts, so she's accustomed to a late schedule.
While she was outside, the woman heard "two groups of people fighting," Miller goes on, with one of them featuring Ramadon and four other Iraqis living legally in the U.S.: Sarmad Fadhi Mohammed, Mustafa Sataar Al Feraji, Ali Mohammed Hasan Al Juboori and Yasir Jabbar Jasim. "And she kind of felt for the Iraqis. She went into one of their apartments after the fight, and they were discussing how difficult it is living in a foreign country, and she concurred, because she's traveled and lived around the world. She's a very intelligent woman, very articulate. She has a son their age, and she felt she was building up a rapport with them. She definitely did not go there to have sex with these guys."Shortly thereafter, Miller goes on, the woman was given what was described to her as lemonade -- and she remembers nothing after that, raising the prospect that she was drugged.
What occurred next appears to have been a variety of brutal sexual assaults that included what appears to have been the use of a fist. The result were "injuries we'd never seen before, because they were so severe," Miller says.
Later, she continues, "one of the Iraqis walked her to the apartment they thought she lived in, but a man answered. He saw that she was passing in and out of consciousness, and when she had to sit down for a minute, he saw blood everywhere." Her demeanor "could have been from the drugs that are alleged, or they could have been because the attack was so violent she could barely walk."
Since then, the woman has had "some serious operations," Miller reveals, and physically, "she'll never be the same."
The charges? Sexual assault allegations against Ramadon and Mohammad, plus accessory counts aimed at the other three. All five can be deported if they're found guilty of these crimes -- meaning Ramadon might have to return to the country where his nightmares took root.
Still, Miller keeps the focus on the victim. "No one deserves what happened to her," she says.
Here's Ramadon's booking photo:
Page down to see the mug shots of the other accused men, as well as the KOAA video. Note: The video will automatically begin playing when the next page opens.More from our Follow That Story archive: "Perrish Cox lawsuit: Victim got date-rape drugs before non-consensual sex with ex-Bronco?"
