Monroe County State’s Attorney Dennis Ward joined Good Morning Keys on Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s going on in the county.
The Duval Street shooter has seen a conclusion and a sentence.
Ward said, “This case goes back, probably seven years, eight years, nine. We convicted the guy before of a number of counts. He was a guy that went day drinking with his wife, and at some point they got into an argument, and then there was a physical altercation, and then some bystanders jumped in to help the wife, and the guy broke out a gun and started to open fire, hit three different people, thankfully, none of those people died. One guy messed up his leg pretty good, and we tried him and we convicted him, and he got sentenced to a lengthy prison sentence, but there was some problems with the jury instructions that year on, I think it was attempted second degree murder, and the Supreme Court reversed the case and after years of delay, we finally got into court, and he took a plea on Friday in Plantation Key and he was sentenced to 10 years in the state prison system.”
Another 10 year conviction occurred on the same day for a man who dragged a woman behind him attached to his pickup truck.
Ward said, “He claimed he didn’t know that she was on the back of the truck as he dragged her like the length of three football fields. We had witnesses prepared to testify that she was screaming and they were a significant distance away and they could hear. She tore so much skin off of her body, it was terrible, and we’ve been going back and forth with him for a number of years, and he took a 10 year prison sentence. He’s got four years of time served already, and he’s trying to get out of that, but we got a pretty good sentence on him there. He signed off. So he’ll be off to the state prison system, and probably him and the Duval Street Shooter will be in the on the same bus heading up that way.”
It does take some time to get a case to completion.
Ward said, “We got great cooperation. The Duval Street Shooter case was a Key West Police Department case, and they did a pretty good job on putting that all together. But it took us maybe a year and a half to get to the first trial, and then probably another five or six years, maybe more, after the reversal, and then just trying to keep the victims together, the witnesses together, the law enforcement people together. Then every once in a while, new evidence pops up, and you’ve got to make sure you get that to the defense attorneys. Otherwise they’ll get in front of the court and start complaining and stuff. They complain a lot anyway, but sometimes they’re right. Not very often, but sometimes they’re right.”
The passing of Cara Higgins was a sadness to the legal community and community at large and it did affect the Preston Brewer III trial.
Ward said, “Her partner in the law firm is one of the defense attorneys in that case, and he’s also been designated as the individual that is responsible for her law firm and closing it down. The Florida bar makes attorneys put on the record who’s going to be responsible for closing their offices down, and a lot of these attorneys die, and they still have pending cases. They’ve collected money from people and what have you, and given them legal advice. So Mr. Ballarotto, who was friends with Miss Higgins, for such a long period of time, he’s distraught. I think he’s seeking some help for his emotional state right now, plus he has this trial that he continued because he had to go on vacation in August, and now it was scheduled for this month, but because of Miss Higgins’ untimely passing, he is strapped with all these responsibilities, and he just needs to get his head right and make sure that he gets in there and closes down her office and makes sure that all the clients that she had are satisfied with where their cases are going. So Judge Jones gave him, like, three or four months, and I think we’re scheduled in January, and now we’re already hearing that he may have another vacation plan, but we’ll see.”
A new DUI law took affect yesterday of a second degree misdemeanor if a person refuses the blood sample and breathalyzer.
Ward said, “That just went into effect yesterday. The legislature had for years provided people a one time opportunity not to take a breath or blood test, and a lot of people take advantage of that, and it certainly interferes with our ability to successfully prosecute a number of DUIs, especially these repeat offenders, and you get repeat offenders that haven’t blown two or three times in a row. Of course, the second refusal is a first degree misdemeanor, and that’s punishable by 364, and $1,000 fine. So we would use that as leverage to get convictions in the DUI cases, and we may do that with the with the new one too, but we’re certainly going to seek jail time in these refusals. But the thing that really makes it work is, what are the judges going to do? They’re the ones that sit up there. They’re the ones that make these decisions. And for this new law passed by the legislature to have any teeth in it, you’re going to need judges that aren’t shy and aren’t scared of putting these people in jail. So, it’s all on video now it’s all on body worn and when the law enforcement agencies take these people into the DUI room, they’re required to read a certain amount of things that advise these people of implied consent, and they are asked more than once if they want to take the test and either they do or they don’t, but it’s pretty clear. I mean, I think tactically, we will go forward on that charge first, and then we’ll do the DUI after that. But it’ll certainly give us some leverage. Some of these people don’t want to be convicted of DUI. They are concerned about the second DUI within five years is a mandatory 10 day jail sentence, and they progress after that the third, third and fourth, fourth is a felony. So you try and get these people off the street, between those DUI drivers and domestic battery people, those are cases that we need to take the most effort in, because so many things can go wrong in either one of those cases and people, people get hurt and killed.”
Resource cases are also taken seriously.
Ward said, “It used to be a diversion penalty that people would get. They’d pay a fine and do some community service and take a FWC class. But now, depending on the amount and size of fish or lobster or stone crab, there’s jail penalties that I instituted. I got the gnashing of teeth from defense attorneys and of course, the Miami defense attorneys say, what? You’re going to put people in jail for fish? Well, I mean, they can’t put people in jail up there for murder. So I understand their dilemma when they come down here and they see that we’re seeking jail time for fishing violations, but that’s our economy, so they don’t understand that. When you see people with fish or lobster as big as your finger, that’s very concerning to the reproduction of these fish and lobster and some of these lobsters don’t even have the chance to bear eggs, so, we’re just not going to put up with that. I’m very happy. I think the sheriff’s office is probably the leader in these fishing violations by far. They outshine the Fish and Wildlife Commission, I can tell you that much. So Sheriff Ramsay really took up the flag on this one, and he’s got some really good deputies out there that check the bridges and has marine patrol, people checking boats and what have you, and they do a great job.”
Going after people who sell fentanyl that results in a death will not end any time soon.
Ward said, “That that program is working pretty well. I mean, we don’t see the amount of fentanyl that used to come in here before we have. We record and listen to jail calls and time and time again, we hear these defendants sitting in jail talking to their family or their cohorts saying, hey, don’t come down here and do that, because these guys don’t play. And we don’t. That’s a dangerous drug.”
The US Attorney General Pam Bondi is creating a Memphis Task Force to clean up the city.
Ward said, “People should welcome that. You saw what they did in DC, and they’ll do that in Memphis, and they’ll do that in Chicago, and Portland’s on the hook now, and they’re whining and crying out there. But there’s a lot of people that are impacted by this crime, and they’re happy to see the federal government doing what they’re doing. You hear the legal arguments and what have you, and the president and his team will deal with those legal arguments, but you look at the statistics, and they look very good. What’s my biggest concern, though, is what happens when they leave? And what happens with the prosecutions? These guys are going to get out of jail eventually. Who knows what the judges are going to do? Once again, where are the judges, and we have no idea what they’re going to do. You saw that poor Ukrainian Girl on the train a few weeks ago, and now the one all over social media is the father up in Massachusetts that is just so distraught and outraged over the killing of his 22 year old daughter by a individual that had 39 prior arrests, 39 prior arrests, and the guy is still on the street, and the responsibility for that falls on offices like mine and judges throughout the country, and there’s a lot of liberal judges out there. If you remember, before we had all these crime fighting crusaders here in Florida, there was a big push for us to find ways to avoid incarceration for some of these people, and it was a big push, and the prisons in Florida are full and what are we going to do about this? And we need to find alternative means, and it’s costing us so much money, and then within the change of a legislative session, boom now here for the last seven or eight years, there has been a big push into putting these people away, which I agree with. So we’ll see how that progresses down the road.”
A man from Boca Raton, FL, was charged with threats to law enforcement officer, burglary, resisting arrest, and criminal mischief after blockading himself in a property in the Upper Keys and it turned out he had an extensive criminal history.
Ward said, “The family of his former wife had a house, still do have a house on Conch Key and he went there. Apparently he was in rehab, and found the love of his life, another rehab romance. He took her down to this house, and apparently they had cameras in there, and they called the sheriff’s office, and this guy started threatening the deputies. Well, I don’t like anybody threatening law enforcement, so we’ll see what happens with this clown.”
Florida now has open carry laws for guns.
Ward said, “It should be interesting to see how that goes. Prior to Florida going to open carry, I mean, there was only four states left in the country that didn’t have open carry, from what I understand. So we have a difference of opinion between the sheriff’s office in the city of Key West on whether people can carry guns into bars and liquor stores and churches and government meetings and there are exceptions for those things that provide laws that prevent people from doing that, but some people feel that all these exceptions should go back before the legislature and be acted upon before they can be enforced. So I’m sure there’ll be a test case around somewhere, grocery stores and businesses, private businesses, they’re allowed to post things that say that you can’t come into their store with a gun, and we’ll see how that works. But those are exceptions that were provided for before that may not be in play now, but we’ll have to see how it progresses. I guess the legislature starts early next year, I think in February.”
How is the grand jury report coming along for the city of Key West?
Ward said, “I had a little meeting with the Key West city manager yesterday, and we discussed a few of the grand jury things, and they seem to be progressing pretty well there. There’s other things that, he can’t do that have to be done by the City Commission. I think maybe that’s going to be on the agenda on the ninth I’m not sure, but there’s some things that grand jury recommended that he can’t do that he needs direction from the City Commission. It’s been a while now. I mean, we should have some type of direction on that. I don’t know what they’re going to do. I mean, I don’t tell them how to run the city, but these are recommendations that when the grand jury reports came out that they agreed to take up, and we’ll see what they’re going to do.”