Secret Sex Tapes
What would you do if you discovered your partner is making SECRET SEX TAPES of you without your consent? What if the local district attorney denied you justice when you were raped as a kid?
Is it ever OK to take your child and run? Our nationwide Family Injustice series comes to Northern California.
The Video Proof
Sometimes in our investigations we must fight to see evidence in criminal cases that quite frankly we don’t really want to see.
Like tapes of folks having sex.
But the Butte County Sheriff and the district attorney won’t let us see the sex tapes we do want to see.
Are they protecting privacy… or covering up a possible crime?
“Where do people go when they need help for something or do we take the law into our own hands,” said Jessica Lee Vranich.
Jessica Vranich makes another appearance before a judge in Butte County, California. She does that a lot these days.
She is on probation for taking the law into her own hands.
For interfering with child custody.
Jessica fled California to Texas with her daughter in the fall of 2024 so her ex couldn’t see the little girl.
This court order tells us Jessica does not fit the typical profile of an accused kidnapper in a family case.
Jessica had been awarded primary custody in august of 2024. Her daughter lived with her. The ex was only allowed to even see their little girl on supervised visits for four hours a weekend.
Jessica had claimed domestic violence before… but now she had seen something else.
Jessica claimed she had discovered a zip drive portraying dozens of videos of her and her boyfriend in bed having sex… videos she said she never consented to making.
There were videos where Jess and her daughter were supposedly naked together in the bathroom.
Another video allegedly showing her ex pleasuring himself while their daughter walked through the camera.
“When you saw those videos for the first time what was your reaction… jess… I was sickened,” said Jessica Lee Vranich.
That’s when Jessica says she decided to flee California and come here.
To Smith County… Tyler, Texas.
Jessica says when she learned that Butte County deputies were looking for the little girl she reached out to the sheriff’s office.
We don’t have to take her word for it
We’ve got a copy of the sheriff’s incident report they gave her… dated October 23rd, 2024.
She never heard from investigators again.
Four months later she was arrested.
February 12th, 2024 was the last time I saw her when she was eight.
“What’s your daughter’s name,” said Wayne Dolcefino.
“Laura Lynn. I don’t think about her if I don’t have to, I don’t say her name watch pictures remine nothing I guess I can’t,” said Jessica Lee Vranich.
Jessica is now serving what amounts to a family death sentence.
Sure, she eventually pled no contest to the interference charge… but what if she had a legal defense to withholding contact.
“I was mortified I started to cry… I know now why she fled,” said Bandi Maxwell.
Bandi Maxwell had known Jess and her ex for a couple of decades.
Weeks before Jessica disappeared, she asked Bandi to hold on to the zip drive.
“She didn’t explain to me what was on it I didn’t know I didn’t bother to go look,” said Bandi Maxwell.
Bandi hadn’t even looked at it until the Butte County investigators called. Then she watched the videos. Once she did boy did, she got eyeful.
“I see beau on his cell phone, and I see him setting up the camera in the bedroom,” said Bandi Maxwell.
“And she comes into the room naked. She’s not in the room at any time … she comes in, and they just having explicit sex,” said Bandi Maxwell.
“They are all done. She gets up and goes to bathroom. He quickly grabs it and you see him fumbling and grabbing the phone to turn it off,” said Bandi Maxwell.
California penal code 632 relates to eavesdropping without consent. even with your own spouse.
Fun fact Mike Ramsey is the longest serving DA in the state and says the years have gone by quickly
Michael Ramsey is the longest serving district attorney in America.
Our office statement motto is to do justice, no one is above the law no one is beneath its protection.,
So why doesn’t that include asking a grand jury to review the videos. hear testimony.
“She specifically told the sherifs deputy’s things that were on the tape that were not on the hard drive on the videos,” said Michael Ramsey.
A grand jury has never seen them…Ramsey says he has never personally seen what’s on the videos… but his people have.
“I’m not going to quite frankly go through hours of sex tapes. doing a lot of other things,” said Michael Ramsey.
For a guy who didn’t watch. Ramsey sure knows interesting details…
“They have consensual sex and the little girl from the side a head pops up and goes toward the bathroom,” said Michael Ramsey.
But Ramsey has decided Jess Vranich really isn’t a victim of a creepy ex setting up hidden cameras…….
“The evidence we have is that it doesn’t appear that is what happened,” said Michael Ramsey.
“There is nothing on those videos that shows she had a clue,” said Wayne Dolcefino.
“Part of it is the indication… that they watched these videos together… afterwards,” said Michael Ramsey.
“And who told you that,” said Wayne Dolcefino.
“He did,” said Michael Ramsey.
But Ramsey says there’s forensic evidence that Jess may have looked at least one video not sure what that proves. Maybe she did that before she decided to get hell away.
But remember Bandi Maxwell she watched the videos… is she now lying too?
“You know of no credibility problems with Bandy,” said Wayne Dolcefino.
“I don’t know bandy,” said Michael Ramsey.
We didn’t know her either until seconds before the camera started rolling, she’s managed law firms in the area for decades…
“This is the one that my heart hurt on this one,” said Bandi Maxwell.
Recounting one of the more disturbing videos Bandi says she watched after learning her friend and her daughter were missing.
“You see him filing her he pulls off the sheet exposes her breaths he starts fondling her breasts,” said Bandi Maxwell.
“A defense attorney can say that’s a husband waking up in the night and saying hey honey lets have sex which they did on camera many times,” said Michael Ramsey.
But that’s not all Bandi says she saw.
“He opens her legs takes his two fingers and he’s spreading her vagina lips open, and you can see the flash of a light that he’s taking pictures of her vagina,” said Bandi Maxwell.
“She’s completely passed out. it turned it off after that… I didn’t want to see anything else after that,” said Bandi Maxwell.
“He took pictures of her vagina,” said Michael Ramsey.
“Yeah,” said Wayne Dolcefino
“While she was asleep,” said Michael Ramsey
“Apparently, is that not a crime,” said Wayne Dolcefino.
“No,” said Michael Ramsey.
Guess case closed right…because he said yes.
Ramsey has a history of downplaying a woman’s claims… folks there remember this headline about outrage bringing the chico community together.
A 16-year-old girl is sexually assaulted by four guys at a party in 2002, raped with a pool cue.
The Chico enterprise record quoted Ramsey talking about the victim… “She was doing the house… and working the male partiers into a frenzy.” acting in a sexually promiscuous way.” said Michael Ramsey.
They call that victim blaming Mr. Ramsey… she lost consciousness before the sexual assault… you didn’t want to charge anyone involved with a gang rape with a crime,” said Wayne Dolcefino.
Ramsey claims he was misquoted… he survived the outrage.
But to Jess Vranich and her friend Bandi Maxwell… it is part of a pattern of demeaning a woman’s word.
I think it’s maybe an old man mentality of women whatever.
It’s a history that reveals why this forty-six-year-old woman is so distrustful of this district attorney… because of what happened to her when she was just 12 years old.
“Her stepfather was a Christian man who was raping her and got a slap on the wrist,” said Bandi Maxwell.
Peter Wagner was allowed to keep living in the detached garage next to the house.
“Did he continue yeah,” said Wayne Dolcefino.
“Yes, of course he did,” said Jessica Lee Vranich.
Ramseys office had cut Wagner a sweet deal… if he went to classes for his raping his record would be wiped clean. He eventually skipped town.
jess says her stepfather doesn’t even have to register as a sex offender.
“She was 12 you’re still dealing with the 12 year old mind frame when it comes to things being down to here she’s not going to get any justice in this town,” said Bandi Maxwell.
Could it explain why Jessica fled to Texas instead of going to investigators first.
“Who am I going to go to the DA. I’ve been down this road before, so I knew there was not going to help there,” said Jessica Lee Vranich
She still remembers the conversation she says she had with Ramsey when she was thirteen years old.
“Did you ever talk to her about the case. I don’t remember her of these cases,” said Michael Ramsey.
But she remembers… and it is now Ramsey office prosecuting her… refusing to let her have a copy of those sex tapes.
They are here in the sheriff’s office.
“So, the sheriff’s office still has a copy today of all these videos,” said Wayne Dolcefino.
“Yes,” said Michael Ramsey.
“Well good as long as we are here why don’t we get it and we can see what’s on it,” said Wayne Dolcefino.
“Would not do that it’s a violation of personal privacy,” said Michael Ramsey.
“Whose privacy,” said Wayne Dolcefino.
“Hers,” Said Michael Ramsey.
We solved that problem. Jess Vranich signed a waiver, an authorization to release the videos to us last month.
But the DA says her ex-Beau Breedon must agree also. He declined our request for an interview…
“Given the ongoing legal proceedings I am going to decline an interview at this time. I do want to be clear that I strongly dispute the allegations you described,” said Beau Breedon.
Jess Vranich says Ramsey’s office won’t give her the video back either.
how does she defend herself without it… she claims the county is changing her probation conditions because she is speaking out.
We asked Smith County Texas and Ramseys office for a document Jess signed when they tried to take her back to California from the Texas jail, waiving extradition.
No one has it… probation orders we’ve looked at aren’t even signed… changed… we’ve been denied the reports detailing the investigation into Jesses complaint… if there was one.
In a county where what they call the Ramsey reign has lasted almost four decades.
We know this secret sex tapes are personal, and we will have to decide how much we show you if we ever get them… but for the sheriff and da we ask them to help us to get the truth.
If those videos show what were told they do… the DA has a lot of explanations to do. We don’t know what’s on them… but she does…
“So, who determines how far you can go in rape if your unconscious and someone’s doing something to you without consent its rape. That’s where the line should be drawn,” said Bandi Maxwell.
He doesn’t seem to think it is Bandi if it was done to his daughter he might have a different view.
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