Dennis Ward, state attorney for Monroe County, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s going on in the county.
It looks like budget cuts may have reached the state’s attorney’s office and public defender’s office.
Ward said, “They want to cut my office seven positions, and I think Mr. Lockwood’s office, eight positions. Come on. There are positions that haven’t been used for 90 days. Of course, that wasn’t by our doing. The cost of living is so high we can’t get in a lot of people here, and the people we do get in are basically attorneys that have 20 plus years prosecuting. So that’s their proposal, and what we’ve been using those positions for is to supplement the pay for these more experienced attorneys, more experienced prosecutors, to come in. If they cut those positions, and that’s going to cut my ability to pay those people, and that’ll put us in a position to where, once again, we’re going to have to decide what crimes are going to prosecute and what crimes we are not going to prosecute. So that’s pretty troubling. Hopefully, there’s still four weeks left in the in the legislative session, hopefully someone will give us a call and say, how’s this really working? And I finally found somebody to replace me in Marathon, but then I lost another felony prosecutor in Key West, so I’m down two felony prosecutors in Key West, one misdemeanor prosecutor in Marathon, and one misdemeanor prosecutor in Plantation Key so the other attorneys are picking up the slack for that, until we can hire some new people and then this thing going on, so we’ll see how that plays out.”
Is there anything that listeners, citizens or constituents can do to try to show their support for the Office of the State Attorney?
Ward suggested, “I guess they could call our State Rep and State Senator and voice their pleasure or displeasure. I’m sure some people would be pleasure to have somebody else down here, state attorney with some of the things that we’re prosecuting these days, but the vast majority, I’m sure, prefer the way things are going here and trying to make this a safer community for our residents and our visitors as well. That’s the only thing I can think of.”
When fentanyl sales result in a death, murder charges are brought to the dealers.
Ward said, “The sheriff and chief Brandenburg and all our law enforcement agencies, FWC, FHP, they do a great job out there, and we get their cases, and it’s our responsibility to prosecute or decline to prosecute. One of the things that we’ve worked up with Sheriff Ramsey and Chief Brandenburg is this whole thing on this fentanyl. About 100,000 Americans die every year from overdoses of fentanyl, and we stepped it up a few years ago to where second degree murder charges weren’t just enough, and we worked hard with the sheriff’s office and our Medical Examiner’s Office and the Key West Police
Department to track down these sales, and if we can show truth that an individual sold fentanyl and that fentanyl resulted in a death, we take the case of the grand jury and indict the individual for first degree murder, thereby giving us an opportunity if we want to pursue the death penalty. It’s quite a lot of leverage there, so it’s very impactful. I think we’ve had one person got nine years, and then I believe now we have four or five still in the system, and those will play out, and I’m sure that there’ll be some significant sentencing in those cases.”
Those who would perpetrate sexual crimes against minors will also be charged with the maximum penalty.
Ward said, “I don’t know what’s going on, but just two weeks ago, three weeks ago, we indicted two guys for sexual battery on a victim 12 and under. The state legislature and the governor signed a bill that provides for the death penalty in cases such as that. We took those two cases to the grand jury, and what a great grand jury we had. Their term is up this month, and they saw some horrific things here. The one individual step brother sexually battered his step sister. She was under 12. He has fled the country. He went back to wherever he came from, I think Venezuela, if I remember correctly, so we have a warrant out for him if he cares to cross the border again, and the penalty in that case is death penalty, and the other one is the individual who sexually battered his three year old daughter. We have him in custody, and he’ll be looking at the death penalty. I was looking at a few statutes the other day, and there’s one in there that provides for castration, and so I think we’re going to put that in play as well. Then we’ve got a couple active investigations going now, and a couple sexual batteries, on two little girls that we’re working on, familial situation.”
How does the process work for someone who flees the country?
Ward said, “It’s difficult these days to describe that because of what’s going on with the deportations of various Venezuelans and other illegal aliens that are in the country. So, yes, we would petition Venezuela to send this guy back to these other countries that don’t have death penalties, would put a provision in there that we not seek the death penalty. So I think Venezuela may be one of those. One that’s going to be interesting here is we had a jury trial scheduled, not this past Monday, but the Monday before that, on a rapist, a guy, one of these, I guess, Ubers, or those type of taxi drivers that picked up a fare and took the victim out to I think maybe Cudjoe, where he sexually battered her. That case was scheduled for Monday, and apparently someone saw fit to put this guy back on the street, out on a bond and he fled, and we have information that he’s in Cuba. We’ll see how that’s going to work with the Cuban government. The US Marshals told us that he’s over there, so we’ll work on getting him back.”
What are Ward’s feeling on the immigrants who where were sent to El Salvador recently?
He said, “I’m with the president, Donald Trump on this issue, and Homan from the Customs and Border Patrol, those guys are doing a great job. I mean, how many Americans do we need to see being raped and murdered, being brutalized and robbed. I’m of the opinion you’re in here in the country illegally. So the United States government can pick you up and take you and ship you wherever the hell they want to.”
Death warrants are also being signed by Governor DeSantis.
Ward said, “As a matter of fact, we have one coming up Tuesday of a murder that was committed here in the Florida Keys back in 1999 or 2000. Michael Tanzi who abducted a Miami Herald employee who was out on Watson Island on the MacArthur Causeway, where she went during her lunch break to read a book and relax, and it’s pretty peaceful and serene out there. He came to her vehicle and started talking to her and punched her in the face and beat her and threatened her with a razor, and he took control of her car. At some point, he tied her up and sexually assaulted her, drove her to Florida Keys, where he took her out on Blimp Road and strangled her and killed her. Key West Police Department and the sheriff’s office did a great job investigating this thing. Mr. Tanzi admitted to all the crimes. He was convicted by a jury in Key West and sentenced to death. So here we are, 25 years later, and Tuesday, it’s going to happen, I think probably around 6pm.”
With the grand jury term ending soon, what happens now?
Ward said, “We send out jury summonses to probably a few hundred people. So we can get 21 grand jurors, 15 is a quorum, and they’ll show up on a Tuesday, probably the 15th to the 22nd and we’ll sit down and we’ll ask them some questions and check out their backgrounds and what have you, and their feelings on various things, highlight some of the issues that the previous grand jury indicted on or didn’t indict on if that’s the case. Generally, we ask for volunteers, and we try and get as many volunteers as we can before we have to say, okay, well, you’re on a grand jury. So they’ll be sworn in, and there’ll be the grand jury until October. They meet whenever we need them to meet. So there’s been a lot of occasions where we never needed to use the grand jury in that six month period. So that happens quite frequently. But with some of these murders that have taken place, and these sexual batteries, these fentanyl murders, we’ve started using them a little more frequently. There are 21 people on a grand jury. A lot of these grand jurors, they wanted to re up.”