Captain David Smith with the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office joined Good Morning Keys on Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s going on in the county.
A brush fire yesterday has spread a little south.
Captain Smith said, “As of this morning, about eight o’clock in the morning, we had a meeting with both on the Miami Dade side. So right now, both Card sound and US 1 are currently open. The concerns they’re meeting about today are the neighbors south of 344, and tomorrow, the wind seems to be out of the north. So they’re concerned the fires can jump and push south to Card Sound Road. So they’re going to keep meeting throughout the day and just keep Adam updated. And also, I said to the listeners, please download our app and check our Facebook because as Captain Brian gets up to date, he will push it down to Adam, and then we’ll push it out on our app.”
A local woman passed away recently near Little Palm Island because of a propeller strike.
Captain Smith said, “This is an extremely sad situation, and the lead agency on these boat incidents or accidents is FWC, so the sheriff’s office was first on scene, and then all the scene gets turned over to FWC. So they’re the lead investigation of this boat strike.|
A 43 year old woman from Port Charlotte, Florida was arrested on May 9 for hitting a sheriff’s deputy on Big Pine Key.
Captain Smith said, “The sheriff’s office was doing patrol around the Pine Channel Park that’s in Big Pine. It’s the new, beautiful park, right when you get into Big Pine as you’re traveling northbound. So it closes around sunset, so around 10:26pm the deputy is doing foot patrol inside the park and notices Miss Graham seated at a park bench. As he walks up to her, he can smell a little bit of an odor of marijuana. And then he notices that she has a grinder on the table. So this is all in plain view. So when he tries to get her ID, she doesn’t want to give him any ID. Doesn’t want to cooperate with his commands. So he goes to put her into custody, and she starts resisting. She turns around and slaps him in the side of the head, knocking his glasses off. Now I will tell you this deputy is a rather large man, and like the sheriff always says there are these dangers. It’s always an unknown. He’s out there by himself and you never know what kind of substances these individuals are already on. She was probably hopped up on some unknown substance to include marijuana, and she decided to get a little aggressive smacking the deputy in the side of the head. He’s completely fine. He has a little bit of a red ear. But he was able to unholster his Taser and give her verbal commands. She complied. After seeing the taser, he holstered up, was able to cuff her up and take her into custody safely, and now she’s staying down here at the Ramsey B&B.”
An individual out of Green Acres Florida was in possession of undersized spiny lobster and possession of out of season lobster as well.
Captain Smith said, “This is Willie Guerra in the Middle Keys. This guy is King Neptune. When it comes to resource violations, he does them. He does them all. He’s seen everything. He’s a senior deputy. When you talk about resource, he’s the ground zero for enforcing these resource violations. And we do work very well with the State Attorney’s Office. They get prosecuted. There is with the sheriff zero tolerance for this if you come down here and try to devastate our resources and our beautiful reefs. So deputy Guerra issued a mandatory notice to appear. He had possession of 200 size spiny lobster and possession of out of season. As we know, mini season is coming up in July. So he was issued the citation. They took all the lobsters into custody for evidence. And now he has to come back down here for court.”
A domestic dispute happening on Maloney Avenue on Stock Island resulted in a battery charge recently.
Captain Smith said, “Alcohol is involved in this situation, and alcohol is never, never a good, good solution to anything. So a 33 year old man from Stock Island was arrested for choking a teenager, and this is a felony battery, a felony for the choking and strangulation. He was charged with domestic battery by strangulation, which is a felony on Maloney Avenue. The teenager stepped in when him and his mother was having a verbal argument and started getting physical. So this is a son that steps in to try to protect his mom, and then this male turns his aggression on the juvenile by strangling. Deputies were able to show up, and the juvenile has minor abrasions and some discoloration around his neck, but he was taken into custody and put where he belongs in the jail.”
An intoxicated male got verbally aggressive with staff at a resort recently – and he had a child with him.
Captain Smith said, “When children are involved, this is sad, but now you have one male that has a little too much to drink and starts getting disorderly intoxication, starts going after staff, starts yelling at staff all these vulgarities. So the sheriff’s office shows up to Gilbert’s Resort at approximately 3:30pm regarding this intoxicated male and a small child who is yelling and causing a scene. He was declined by servers for additional alcohol, as learning the child was already left alone on the beach in the swim area. So as employees were trying to take care of the child, the man became more belligerent. So he was taken into custody, and now he stays at the MCSO. The family member was contacted, and the child was picked up. So Department of Children Families was also notified. When any children are involved in any kind of crime, we also notified the DCF.”
A recent arrest came from cooperation from deputies in Broward, Charlotte, Miami Dade, and Osceola counties, as well as Mooresville, North Carolina, that started with the investigation into the theft of a camera.
Captain Smith said, “This is a great example of the long arm of the law. Like the sheriff always says, our interagency cooperation, and all of our cooperation throughout the state and throughout the country, more charges are going to be put on this man. So what he was doing was taking fraudulent IDs, renting equipment from these, and all these other places that rent equipment, and he would not return it. He would go and sell it, whether it be pawn shops or other other entities. So this investigation was a was a very lengthy one. But the detectives reached out to other agencies, North Carolina, Mooresville, Osceola County, Miami Dade Broward, Charlotte, and were able to charge him with all these crimes. Now, with everything being charged, he’s still pending more charges out of those counties as well.”