(KVRR) – Clay County Attorney Brian Melton says he does not believe the work of his office caused or contributed to the death of Sahar Ramirez, the Moorhead woman found dead last month near the Red River.
The case received significant public attention after a video circulated on social media showing a domestic violence incident involving Ramirez, her children and her husband.
Moorhead police say the nearly four-year-old video was handled at the time by Dilworth police.
Protesters demonstrated outside where Ramirez’s husband works, saying they were unhappy no arrests were made in connection to her death.
Melton says that while the Clay County Attorney’s Office did not originally have the video as evidence in the 2022 investigation, it was later obtained and referenced before a final charging decision was made in 2023.
The office agreed that there was not enough evidence to charge Ramirez’s husband with child endangerment, but he could be charged with misdemeanor domestic assault.
Melton says his office acted appropriately while prosecuting the case. He says the decision to not charge Ramirez’s husband was because Ramirez was working with a crisis center to leave the relationship, and prosecuting could put her at risk.
He also says that any maximum sentence Ramirez’s husband could have been given based on the evidence available to them, would have been 90 days, and could not have prevented future contact between the two.
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