Records Show Teen, Man Involved In Amber Alert Had Relationship
Court Records Show Mother Recently Complained About Affair
HIALEAH, Fla. -- Officials are now saying that the teenager and man involved in Thursday's Amber Alert apparently had a
consensual sexual relationship.
An Amber Alert was issued Thursday morning for 17-year-old Dialys Ramos when it appeared that she had been abducted by 39-year-old Robert Laird.
Florida Highway Patrol troopers found
Laird, a registered
sex offender, after getting a tip from a driver that the missing
Hialeah girl was in the car.
Troopers said Ramos jumped out of the car after it was stopped and moments later, Laird shot an
d killed himself.
On Friday, NBC 6's Nick Bogert reported that Ramos and Laird had apparently been seeing each other
since 2002, when they met at Miami Children's Hospital.
At the time, Ramos was a patient at the hospital where Laird was employed as a technician.
At age 13, Ramos wrote about Laird in a school essay that her teachers first assumed was fictional. She wrote that Laird introduced himself as Dr. Laird. She called him her prince and the love of her life.
"I couldn't believe my eyes. What a fine doctor. But it was an impossible love," she wrote.
Detectives said Ramos called Laird after leaving the hospital and they eventually had several sexual encounters at a motel by Miami International Airport.
After school officials uncovered the affair, Laird was charged with lewd and lascivious battery on a minor, but he plea-bargained and got probation with the consent of Ramos' mother, Jakelyn.
Laird's lawyer, Larry Arnkoff, s
aid
the mother seemed OK with Laird's relationship with her daughter until recently, when the mother got a new boyfriend.
"She liked Bobby on a personal level," Arnkof
f said. "She wasn't going to police, she wasn't going to the state attorney until the boyfriend came into her life."
The mother wouldn't comment when reached by phone Friday, but court records show in July she complained of finding her daughter visiting with Laird in a car outside their Hialeah home.
Laird reached a plea deal again and avoided prison, but his probation was extended and he had to retake a sex offender course.
In the last couple of weeks, Ramos' mother complained again that she had found her daughter on the phone with Laird, and suspected Ramos had sneaked out to see him.
His ex-lawyer thinks Laird and Ramos might have been trying to flee together, knowing he might face 20 years in prison for the new probation violation.
"The suicide was pred
icated
on the knowledge that if he was going back to court, he was going to prison for a long time," Arnkoff said.
Arnkoff said Laird never admitted to having sex with the girl, but he pledged to break off contact with her sever
al times.
http://www.nbc6.net/news/5358345/detail.html
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Florida Highway Patrol troopers found Laird, a registered
sex offender, after getting a tip from a driver that the
missing Hialeah girl was in the car.
Troopers said Ramos jumped out of the car after it was
stopped and moments later, Laird shot and killed himself.
http://images.ibsys.com/2005/1118/5358238_320X240.jpg' border='0' alt='us
er posted
image' />
On Friday, NBC 6's Nick Bogert reported that Ramos and
Laird had apparently been seeing each other since 2002
when they met at Miami Children's Hospital. At the time,
Ramos was a patient at the hospital where Laird was
employed as a technician.
[img]http://images.ibsys.com/2005/1118/5358239_320X240.jpg
At age 13, Ramos wrote about Laird i
n a school essay that
her teachers first assumed was fictional. She wrote that Laird
introduced himself as Dr. Laird. She called him her prince and
the love of her life.
"I couldn't believe my eyes. What a fine doctor. But it was an
impossible love," she wrote.
Detectives
said Ramos c
alled Laird after leaving the hospital
and they eventually had several sexual encounters at a motel
by Miami International Airport.
After school officials uncovered the affair, Laird was charged with lewd and lascivious battery on a minor, but he plea-bargained and
got probation with the consent of Ramos' mother, Jakelyn
Laird's lawyer, Larry Arnkoff, said the mother seemed OK with Laird's relations
hip with her daughter until recently, when the mother got a new boyfriend.
The mother wouldn't comment when reached by phone Friday, but court records show in July she complained of finding her daughter visiting with Laird in a car outside their Hialeah home.
Laird reache
d a plea deal aga
in and avoided prison, but his probation was extended and he had to retake a sex offender course.
In the last couple of weeks, Ramos' mother complained again that she had found her daughter on the phone with Laird, and suspected Ramos had snuck out to see him.
His ex-lawyer thinks Laird and Ramos might have been trying to flee together, knowing he might face 20 years in prison for the new probation violation.
"The suicide was predicated on the knowledge that if he was going back to court, he was going to prison for a long time," Arnkoff said.
Arnkoff said Laird never admitted to having sex with the girl, but he pledged to break off contact with her several times.
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No . . .
A BCL and caught!