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.
Three former police officers passed away recently.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “It was a tough week. We had people get older, they pass on, but we had three officers, and within a week, and all these officers were too young, just had retired not that long ago. We have just Saturday retired Captain Mitch Snider, still lives in the Lower Keys with his family, his wife still works for us. Had retired several years ago after a 30 year career with the sheriff’s office, did a lot of great stuff at the office. I just saw him the week earlier and was talking to him, and then this past Saturday, he had a medical emergency and wound up passing away. I think he was about 65 so way too young. A couple days before that, retired Captain Bill Moran from the Upper Keys, did 22 years with us and before that, retired from city of Miami Police with a full retirement. So did two, two full retirements, two different agencies. Was a great young man there as well. I think Captain Moran was probably late 60s, about 70 so again a whole lot of life, you thought, left with him, shocked to see him pass away. He had had cancer, which he ended up passing away from, a great guy. Then a guy named Ray Jalowski was a deputy worked for 14 years for us in the Upper Keys, had retired several years ago and just passed away as well. So it’s been a tough week for the MCSO family. We know people pass on, but boy, that’s a lot and again, they were relatively young in nature. So it’s a sad day for the family.”
A vehicle burglary occurred recently in a Walgreens parking lot.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “This is on Monday. This is the 99.5 mile marker, Walgreens in Key Largo. A woman comes there about 1:25, parks her car, leaves it unlocked, goes inside to get a few things. She takes her keys with her. She comes out to see a 24 year old woman from homestead who’s inside her car, who’s trying to get the car started with some type of utility tool. She confronts the woman in the car, the woman in the car, who’s trying to steal it, gets very agitated and aggressive with the victim. The victim calls 911, immediately, and as soon she called, we had a patrol officer like almost right there, to the point that we got to the scene and got to the location where the suspect was actually still inside the car. We ultimately get her out. She had on her person some property which was stolen from within the car. We do arrest her for burglary and theft and related charges. But interesting, daytime, middle of nowhere, as you come out, someone’s in your car trying to steal it. So unusual. It doesn’t really happen here in Monroe. It happens in Miami Dade County, but in this case here, the suspect was from Miami Dade County. So we see those type of behaviors sometimes coming to the Keys, where, in Miami, it’s an everyday occurrence, but here in the Keys, it’s shocking. It’s newsworthy. They would not talk about this in Miami news, but here in the Keys, for us this is an unusual occurrence.”
When the sewer line broke in the Upper Keys on Labor Day, there was quite a traffic tie up.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “This was a sewer break, which has occurred several times here lately. One particular area is having a lot of problems, and this turned into an S-show for the Sheriff’s Office. Unfortunately, this was Labor Day when traffic was in the mid late afternoon, leaving the Keys, when our traffic’s the heaviest on a holiday weekend is when the sewer line broke on the northbound shoulder, which has the most volume of traffic during that daytime. So when it blew, it’s a high pressure line, it blows out all the fill, ultimately, it collapses the pavement and starts washing out the road. So the road has got a lot of damage at the time. We’ve got sewer feces going all over the highway. We’re in the peak of traffic flow, where our officers are super busy, but I have to pull resources from other areas to start doing traffic and trying to somehow figure out traffic. We’re able to get the traffic on the shoulder of a small, little access road. So traffic, which is normally doing about 50 miles an hour now, is reduced about 15, 20 as we’re having to go off of US 1, onto an access road, back onto US 1, under the direction of police officers doing traffic control. So because the traffic volume and the traffic flow are reduced, we have to then worry about backlogs of traffic, which we had backed up for almost 20 miles because of the sewer line break. This sewer line is owned by the city of Islamorada and it goes up north to the Key Largo Wastewater District for treatment. This area at the 92.5 mile marker in Tavernier where it blew out, has blown out several times in the past. So I think it’s not going to get any better. It’s only going to get worse, because clearly it’s an old high pressure line which needs to be replaced. So I think the city is going to have to figure this out. They can’t keep letting this happen because of the traffic impacts, the public safety impact, the health impacts of human feces and sewer all over the sediment. There’s a lot of impact here that I think they’re going to have to figure this one out here soon.”
In Big Pine recently, a woman came into her home and found another individual there.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “We all talk about good neighbors. We talk about bad neighbors. This is a bad neighbor. This woman’s had a couple prior problems with this male, 66 year old neighbor, a scruffy looking guy who, a couple different times before, just walked in the house and naked and shaking and moving around, and I guess, trying to halfway hit on her, so she puts on the security cameras inside the home. When Saturday, this guy, again, just walks inside her home, just walks in the house. He’s naked again, starts doing his dance, and he’s trying to entice her. She’s not happy about this. She calls us. We get there. He’s gone. She’s got the surveillance footage, which was disturbing the watch, but we’ve got the disturbance on camera of this guy coming in naked and what’s going on. So we confront him. Confront him with the videotape. Obviously he ultimately admits to doing it. It was probably hard not to when you’ve got this, but he was naked, exposed, touching himself improperly. It’s just sad. This woman shouldn’t have to live this way. So we did ultimately arrest him for multiple charges, for burglary and harassment, and coming on this property, indecent exposure. So he’s got several charges. The courts are going to put a no contact order on him. So hopefully this will help keep her safe and secure and she can sleep at nighttime. But this is just sad when you have this going on, you shouldn’t have to live this way, but our job is to prevent it and to stop it, and we are going to stop it. We’ve arrested him. We’re going to hold him accountable, and we’re not going to tolerate this. We’re going to make sure she’s safe and secure and she can get a good night rest.”
A recent traffic stop resulted in drugs and guns.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “This is about 10:50, nighttime in Marathon around 11th Street, the south end of Marathon. We stopped a GMC sport utility vehicle. It’s towing a boat, which has no tags on the trailer, no trailer lights. The boat’s not secured. So we stopped what we think is a routine safety violation that we’re going to deal with, and we’re talking to the driver, passenger, and the passenger tells us at some time that there’s marijuana in the car. So after we’re notified that there’s narcotics in the car, we ultimately do search the car, and we find 88 grams of psychedelic mushroom chocolate bars. We find about nine grams of marijuana. We find drug paraphernalia. We find the marijuana grinders. So clearly, this is a car when people that are using drugs, these mushroom laced candies, different stuff occurring in there. But we also find, disturbingly, two loaded handguns. So we’re always concerned about officer safety when we see guns in cars, and again, it goes to show that we’re just stopping you for a tag and brake lights and we have drugs and guns and issues with our safety. So this was a 27 year old male from Fort Pierce, Florida who was arrested Friday in the Marathon area.”
In Tavernier a man was trying to sell meth at a shopping center recently.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “A 46 year old male out of Key West, he is in the food store in Tavernier Winn Dixie, about 6:20pm and he’s yelling and screaming at customers. He’s yelling at them, trying to get them to buy his meth. He throws a bottle at one of them. We get a call about the disturbance. We come out there. We ultimately do encounter this individual, very agitated, clearly because he’s high on meth. Ultimately, we do detain him. We do find 14.8 grams of meth on his person. We find him to have a scale, pipes, he’s got a machete. Ultimately, he was taken to jail for trafficking methamphetamines, disorderly conduct, battery, possession, drug paraphernalia. So it’s just sad to see, but it goes to show you, on these drugs, how unstable and how people do not make rational decisions.”
A large tank of nitrous oxide made its way into the county recently.
Sheriff Ramsay said it was “very unusual. Monday night around 10:28pm, about the 26 mile marker, but it came in out of Dade County. The persons in the car live in Key Largo. We’ve got a 19 and a 21 year old male. The 19 year old kid lives in Key Largo. The 21 year old male lives in Miami. The 17 year old juvenile inside the car. We stopped this vehicle for traffic violations, for no headlights, no lights on the car, and when we stopped the car, we get up and the wind is rolled down to talk to the driver, and strong odor of marijuana is coming out of the car. We see, in plain view, a large tank in the back seat. The tank’s nitrous oxide, which later on we find out they just purchased in Dade County. People are using nitrous oxide for inhaling. We know nitrous oxide is used a lot of times, laughing gas, at the dentist, where they’re just using a small amount. But these people are using a large amount, and we do find felony mound marijuana in the car and paraphernalia. So we ultimately arrest the 19 and 21 year old male for drug charges for possession of nitrous oxide in relationship to the minor, marijuana. We do release the 17 year old male back to the parents, but very unusual to see nitrous oxide. They just bought it from somebody in South Dade, and were bringing it back into Monroe when they got stopped by our officers for traffic violations.”
The Law Enforcement Academy is coming up.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “We keep looking for some good local men and women who are part of this community. Want to be something, part of something really good. We do have a Basic Law Enforcement Academy starting in November. We’re going to sponsor people, means that we’re going to pay you a salary. We’re going to pay for your school. We’re going to get you certified. You’re going to get college credits for this course. You’re going to have a job ready and waiting to go for you, good agency, good opportunities, good benefits, good retirement, so much good stuff for someone who may want to have a job change and go from a mundane job to an action, adrenaline, exciting job. So we’re looking for good men and women, looking for local people from this community. We’re looking for people who potentially are going to be stationed in the central and south stations, the Marathon, Cudoe area is where we have the most vacancy needs. So we want people who live here, who are from here, who are going to stay here, or going to be the future of the agency and future for the county. So if anybody has any interest, they can contact the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, our Human Resources Division. You can call the number at 292-7044, and you can go online or you can stop by our headquarters at 5525 College Road and go to human resources. If you have an interest, you can go online look at opportunities. There was a pre application online that can be filled out online. We are trying to seek that Academy right now and again opportunities don’t knock too often. When it knocks, you need to answer the door.”