Deported sex offender arrested on Bronx River Parkway

By Ken Valenti
The Journal News • April 6, 2008

YONKERS - A convicted sex offender and illegal immigrant who had been deported from the United States last year was arrested yesterday after Westchester County police stopped him for allegedly driving a commercial van on the Bronx River Parkway, the county Department of Public Safety said.

Jaime Tepezilla-Ramirez, 30, who was driving a 1988 GMC van, was stopped by county Police Officer Brian Tierney shortly before 9 a.m. as he headed south toward New York City. Commercial vehicles are not allowed on the parkway.
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Tepezilla-Ramirez could not produce any identification and allegedly gave Tierney a false name, but a fingerprint check taken after he was brought to county police headquarters in Hawthorne revealed his identity, police said.

State police had arrested Tepezilla-Ramirez in Cortlandt on Jan. 31, 2007, on a charge of third-degree rape, police said. County police said he was convicted on June 28 in Cortlandt Town Court, but it was unclear whether he was found guilty of the same charge.

The fingerprint check also revealed that Tepezilla-Ramirez is registered as a convicted sex offender in New York state and that on Oct. 4, 2007, he was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a division of the Department of Homeland Security, as a deportable alien. He was apparently deported to Mexico in late October 2007, county police said.

Tepezilla-Ramirez told county police he had re-entered the United States in January and was living at 1964 Cross Bronx Expressway in the Bronx. ICE has no record that he returned to the United States legally.

Westchester County police notified ICE and charged Tepezilla-Ramirez with criminal impersonation and aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle, both misdemeanors, as well as two violations - operating an unregistered motor vehicle and operating a restricted vehicle on the Bronx River Parkway.

He is being held at county police headquarters pending arraignment in City Court.

Reach Ken Valenti at klvalent@lohud.com or 914-696-8255.

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