Former Bronx cop sentenced on drug, other charges

NEW YORK. (WABC) -- A former police officer in the Bronx was sentenced Wednesday on drug related and other charges.

Jose Ramos was sentenced to a minimum 12 and a half years and a maximum of 14 and a half years in prison.

He was convicted on grand larceny, robbery and drug possession charges.

The New York City Police Department former officer was the original target of an undercover probe that began in 2008, stemming from a tip about drug dealing and other illegal activities at Ramos' family-owned barbershop in the Bronx.

The probe started when Ramos was allegedly caught on a wiretap talking about fixing tickets.

Undercover video captured Ramos using a police car to drive a shipment of supposed drugs from the Bronx to Brooklyn.

"I don't deny I've done wrong," said a contrite and tearful Jose Ramos, who begged a Bronx criminal court judge for leniency Wednesday afternoon saying: "I take full responsibility for my actions."

That's a far cry from a defiant veteran cop who spoke with me exclusively in a jailhouse interview from Rikers in February of 2012.

("You're accused of dealing drugs, robbing people, shaking them down," we said.) "Never," he said. ("None of that.") "None of that," said Ramos.

Ramos was arrested in October of 2011 with more than a dozen other cops accused in a ticket fixing scandal.

But the 40th precinct officer was slapped with additional, far more serious charges including conspiring with drug dealers.

He was convicted in October of attempted robbery and drug possession, prosecutors saying Ramos agreed to take $10,000 to transport what he thought was heroin.

In a damning video, part of an undercover sting, Ramos, in full uniform, reassures an informant not to worry about police checkpoints.

"To be honest with you, my heart didn't skip a beat," he says. "Are you out of your mind?," said the informant. "You don't know the power of the blue," said Ramos.

The judge gave the former cop a minimum of 12 and a half years in prison saying: "You have utterly disgraced your badge, your uniform, and your oath to uphold the law."

Several of Ramos' family members, including his daughter, left in tears, as his attorney maintained the officer never denied wrongdoing..

"How can you say he didn't deny it. He told me he didn't do anything," we asked.

"He did things that were offensive that he shouldn't have as a police officer, but he didn't do the things from the very beginning the DA said he did," said attorney Matt Kruger.

The DA says Ramos did even more. He's also accused of conspiring to murder a witness.