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Queens martial arts teacher accused of sexually abusing four students – Metro US

Queens martial arts teacher accused of sexually abusing four students

Queens martial arts teacher accused of sexually abusing four students
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A 26-year-old Queens man has been charged with sexually abusing four female students while he worked as a Tae Kwon Do instructor, prosecutors said.

Lorenzo Ramos of Elmhurst, Queens, was arraigned earlier this month on criminal charges involving one of the girls. He was later arraigned on March 11 on a criminal complaint involving the other three girls. Ramos is charged with sexual abuse, attempted sexual abuse, forcible touching, endangering the welfare of a child and harassment.

“These are serious allegations. As a martial arts instructor the defendant was supposed to train his students to protect themselves from unwanted advances. Instead he is accused of taking advantage of his teaching position to touch his students in inappropriate ways,” Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown said in a statement announcing the charges Monday.

Ramos is accused of sexually abusing and forcibly touching two12-year-old girls and two 14-year-old girls at various times over the last 19 months.

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According to the district attorney’s office, “Ramos, while working as an instructor at United Tae Kwon Doe, located at 97-12 Roosevelt Ave., and on multiple occasions between May 1, 2015, and Feb. 25, 2016, approached his four female victims individually and touched them in an inappropriate manner —such as hugging them, picking them up, grabbing their breasts and squeezing their buttocks.” He also allegedly rubbed himself inappropriately against one of the victims.

He additionally is accused of giving or offering money to three of the girls, telling one of them, “Don’t say anything because both of us will be killed.”

Ramos was allegedly caught when the “victims voiced concern among themselves and the owners of the martial studio spoke with them,” prosecutors explained. After Ramos was let go from the studio, one of the victims told her mother what had happened, and she contacted the police.

District Attorney Brown asks anyone who believes that they may have been a victim of this same abuseto contact the NYPD’s Queens Special Victim Squad at 718-520-9277.

Ramos, who faces up to seven years in prison if convicted, was ordered held on a $31,000 bail and to return to court on April 1.