Apartment manager accused of stealing $28,000 from autistic Pasco man
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- Manager allegedly solicited an initial $1,600, then repeated $800 weekly payments.
- Adult with autism reportedly paid nearly $28,000 via 30 money orders over seven months.
- Police say records contradict his account; he was booked on suspicion of theft.
A Pasco apartment manager is accused of defrauding an autistic man of nearly $28,000 in the span of seven months.
Prosecutors claim that Juan M. Ramirez, 30, allegedly lied about a damaged cable in the apartment building and used that to force weekly $800 payments from a man with a mental disability.
Ramirez, who worked for the Terrace Heights Apartments in Pasco, was booked into jail on suspicion of theft from a vulnerable adult. He has been released on a $15,000 bond.
The victim’s parents called Pasco police last week after learning their adult autistic son had been making weekly payments to Ramirez for a damaged cable, court documents said.
The victim, who has difficulty making decisions on his own, lives with his girlfriend, who is also impaired, said court documents.
“It is very apparent after brief interactions with either person that they are developmentally disabled and not able to fully comprehend the extent/validity of authority unless explicitly explained,” Officer Maricela Garcia-Ramirez wrote the affidavit of probable cause.
The problem started in June when the victim and his mother were moving a couch through the apartment hallway. Along the way, they lifted a tile ceiling, court documents said. At the time, it didn’t appear that anything was damaged.
Two days later, Ramirez allegedly contacted the man and said Spectrum had reported that damage was done to a cable. Ramirez requested that the man pay $1,600.
When the victim dropped off a $1,600 money order at the apartment office, Ramirez allegedly told him the damage was far more than they initially thought, and Spectrum was asking for additional payments.
The tenant made two more $800 payments, and Ramirez kept asking for more money. He allegedly said that Pasco and Spectrum were dealing with the damage.
In all, the victim allegedly paid $28,000 to Ramirez with 30 money orders.
When the tenant questioned Ramirez about getting invoices about the damage, Ramirez allegedly “became defensive” and said it would take weeks to get that from Spectrum.
In January, Ramirez allegedly requested the man’s debit card information to give to Spectrum. About three minutes after the call, there was a fraud alert for the man’s debit card.
When police spoke to the apartment building owner and Ramirez’s bosses with the property management company, they learned that the only charge should have been for $800, according to court documents. There also were no records of the payments in the business’s records.
The building owners deny that they ever charged the tenant for the repair.
When Ramirez spoke with police, he said he had only ever charged the man once for $800.
“When I questioned why the tenant had been making the requested $800 weekly payments to him, he said he had no idea what I was talking about,” Garcia-Ramirez said. “I showed Juan the money orders we received showing his name and he said that he did not do that.”
This story was originally published February 25, 2026 at 12:54 PM.