Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s been going on in the county.
A detention deputy was arrested recently for making false statements. He has been put on administrative leave without pay pending a predetermination hearing. He has worked for the department since 2015.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “We’ve got to hold ourselves to a higher standard. We want our men and women to be truthful, honest. This individual, detention deputy had asked for a vacation time off to go to Europe. When he did, he knew that there was already several officers who had vacation slots for that time frame that he would not be able to be let off. So he asked for it. He was turned down for coverage reasons, as he suspected would happen. He then, last minute, called out sick to care for a loved one, a mother in Boston, and without us knowing it, he was not taking care of his mother in Boston. He went on a trip to Europe. He took pictures of Europe, posted all about it on his Facebook. We found those pictures and determined that he had lied. He was called into internal affairs division under oath, sworn in, he lied again and said that no he, in fact, was in Boston taking care of his mother, that those were old pictures from a prior trip to Europe, that he was just doing a repost. We did not believe him. We investigated it, worked with our friends at TSA, airports airlines to prove and figure out that, in fact, he was not taking care of his mother, that he was in fact in Europe when he was supposed to be on shift working, has falsified his time sheets, lied to team members, under oath, lied. I can’t tolerate that, so we did charge him with two felonies, and he has been suspended without pay pending a predetermination hearing where my intent is to terminate his employment. So as hard as it is to get detention deputies to work in these jail facilities, and we’re short staffed, I still can’t have garbage and people that are lying working for me.”
Florida Keys resident Sandy Williams was honored recently for her continued support of the sheriff’s office.
Sheriff Ramsay said she’s an “outstanding young lady from the Islamorada area, has been a big supporter of Florida Sheriff Association for now 30 years. I went and gave her a 30 year certificate on behalf of the Florida Sheriffs Association and myself, spent some time with her. I’ve known her for a bunch of years, a great woman, just a good community leader, very active in our Save the Turtles Program and just a just a wonderful woman, so I was happy to present an award to her and thank her for her support. We keep saying how important it is for all of us to work together, and we can’t do it without the support of our citizens.”
The mother and brother of a man who was arrested on June 1 for robbing a rideshare driver in the Upper Keys, they also have been arrested in that case for tampering with evidence and accessory after the fact.”
Sheriff Ramsay said, “This is a shame to see this case continue to go this direction. This was an adult male in his 20s and his brother who were drunk at Hog Heaven. One brother had a stolen firearm in his pocket, got an Uber ride back to the mother’s house where he lives. Once they got in the driveway, he pulled the gun out, put it to the head of the Uber driver, demanded his money. But the Uber drivers don’t carry money because it’s all credit card based. So then demanded his watch, stole the watch, got out, went into the house. Right after that, the Uber driver found a deputy and told him what happened. We investigated this case. We notified the stepfather and the mother. The stepfather was very cooperative. The mother was not cooperative, but we understand motherly instincts, we said, but she knew that the gun was used in this case that we were trying to recover. We had to get a search warrant for the house and we determined we believed the gun was discarded in the canal. We brought in police divers. Found the gun behind the house in the canal. We subpoenaed the video camera system for the house. Under the video camera, we see (the mother), the person who’s supposed to be the responsible adult here and her other son back behind the house. The mother is holding the gun in one hand and the magazine from the gun in the other hand, and is seen on video throwing them both in the canal behind the house, exactly where the divers located the gun, which was a stolen gun as well. So we arrested her for tampering with evidence and accessory after the fact. Motherly instincts is one thing, but she’s clearly crossed the line to criminal conduct, making herself an accessory after the fact to the crime, making herself no better than her son, who just used a stolen gun to rob somebody at gunpoint. She’s no better, and unfortunately, she’s setting a core example for these young adults, to think they can do this type of stuff and get away with it, and she’s going to be part of the problem, not part of the solution, by trying to cover up so they’re not held accountable for their actions. That’s just the poor parenting, in my opinion, and we are not going to tolerate that. She’s recently put a Facebook post out trying to make herself the victim and her son the victim, which is sad. The true victim is the Uber driver who had a gun put to his head, not the mother or her son who had the stolen gun and committed armed robbery in front of her house. It’s sad to see that they tried to make themselves the victims in this case.”
A traffic tie up in the Upper Keys yesterday made it a little tricky to get out of the Keys.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “We hear and see terrible things in law enforcement. A lot of our listeners may have been stuck in traffic. Northbound on Sunday is probably the worst time trying to leave the Keys in the afternoon for weekend traffic going back to Dade. At the 118 mile marker in the Miami Dade County side of the 18 mile stretch, there was a car fire on the south shoulder. It appears to be a car pulled over in the shoulder. It appears the male driver got out with a can of gasoline, doused his car and himself with gasoline, and then set himself and the car on fire. So we had to bring in sheriff’s deputies from Monroe side, responded northbound, our friends, partners from Miami Dade County Sheriff’s Office had to respond from the north, going south. Miami Dade County Fire Rescue had to respond. So a lot of emergency vehicles in the area, which is difficult, the center medium, has very little parking to get the fire extinguished. Once they did, we determined that, well, a body was there, and then this turns into a homicide investigation, because it’s an unintended death, and we have to make sure there’s no foul play, that someone else didn’t do this, other than the driver, or in this case, Miami Dade has to figure this out. So the whole area becomes a crime scene, and instead of just putting the car out and towing the car away, opening the road, they’re there for potentially hours with crime scene technicians. So it was a sad, tragic situation, but probably the worst time of the day that it could have happened.”
Cocaine related charges following a sheriff’s office investigation resulted in a man and woman from Miami being charged with trafficking cocaine and illegal use of two way communication devices. One individual is facing two additional cocaine trafficking charges from a previous case. They sold three ounces of cocaine during a sheriff’s office investigation.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “These are what we want to call mid level drug dealers. One male from Miami Dade County is a 72 year old male. The female involved is a co conspirator, a 52 year old female, also from Miami Dade County. Monroe County Sheriff’s Office Narcotics Special Operations teams have been investigating these two. We had prior purchases of trafficking level of cocaine from the male, and this was the third subsequent case that we were going to purchase cocaine from them. We had made the purchase from the male, female trafficking levels. On the way out we did a controlled traffic stop and detained both people. We found sheriff’s office buy money still inside the vehicle. We arrested both of individuals for trafficking cocaine and charged two outstanding warrants for trafficking cocaine on the male. This is our continued effort to try to do what we can to fight the battle of war against drugs, which is a difficult, challenging war as we know, where there’s a demand, there’s a supply, and there’s a lot of money at stake, where people who just don’t want to get a job, like the rest of us, they just want to sell drugs, destroy lives to make a few dollars.”
There have been a number of incidents last week from gun incidents, to burglary and theft charges, to a DUI case.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “There’s no shortage of work for the Sheriff’s Office team members, for sure. That’s just ongoing. A little towards the 27 Mile Marker, we had two individuals who were residing together, roommates. Some altercation took place. The one male got enraged, got a firearm, pointed it at the head of the other individual, threatened his life. The victim, in this case, fled the scene. While fleeing, heard a round discharge. We don’t know where the round went or where it was pointed at. Later on, we did get called. We did find a shell casing. We did determine that this did it occur. We did charge this individual with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Calmer heads have prevail, and people can’t believe that they can take these type of stupid actions and get away with it. We continue to try to educate people through your show, not only inform people what took place, but educate people who may think about doing dumb stuff. Look for every action there’s a reaction. You’re going to be held accountable. You can’t rob somebody, or point a gun at someone’s head or shoot a round off and not believe that law enforcement won’t be called in, and not believe that there’s a good chance you’re going to jail. So in this case, you won the battle, but you lost the war. Okay, you showed your roommate, you showed him that you’re big, bad and tough. Okay, how’d that work out for you? Not too good, because now you’re in Monroe County Jail. We took your gun. You’re in jail. You got a no contact order. It means you can’t go back to the place where you’re living, so now you’ve got no place to live. You’ve got to return back to court to answer these charges. You got your face in my booking website. What have you really won in the end? In the end, you won nothing.”
With July 4th coming up, please be safe.
Sheriff Ramsay said with “Fourth of July being on a Friday, a lot of people will be off for three days, not everybody, unfortunately. So we’ll see a big influx of Miami Dade County traffic coming down. A lot of our people in the Keys will be from Dade. We’ll see heavy traffic. We’ll see people driving stupid. We’ll see a lot of boats on the water. There’ll be a lot of alcohol involved on land and sea. People should use caution. Have plans ahead of time. Leave early. Be patient. If you need to go to the grocery store for fuel, other related stuff, do it before Friday. Friday, Saturday and Sunday, the gas stations and grocery stores and whatnot will be packed. Then you’ll be frustrated. So get whatever supplies you need so you don’t have to drive. If you’re on the water, be responsible, if you’re on the land as well, be responsible. Sunday traffic outbound will be very heavy. If you’re going to leave Sunday, leave early in the morning, by midday, in the afternoon, traffic northbound will be extremely heavy trying to go back to Miami Dade County, and you’ll be sitting in traffic. So just plan your time, your routes ahead of time. Be careful if you’re going to use fireworks, still remember they are dangerous. Make sure kids aren’t using them. Don’t shoot them at people. Don’t shoot them at people’s neighbors. Try to be responsible that you may not have to work the next day, but your neighbors may have to work the next day at eight o’clock. So if you’re going to shoot fireworks, please, we ask you not to shoot them until 11 or 12 o’clock at night. Remember that dogs go crazy. Animals just hate these fireworks. But try to be respectful of your neighbors and animals. The best you can be a good neighbor will I think be helpful for everybody involved. Be part of the solution, not part of the problem, as we say.”