Monroe County State 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.
Ward serves as state attorney for Florida’s 16th Judicial Circuit.
Former air rescue captain Andrea Thompson was convicted on all counts following a week-and-a-half trial involving the theft of dangerous drugs from an air rescue program, Trauma Star, and efforts to cover up the missing medications.
The investigation initially involved the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office. Sheriff Rick Ramsay and his team conducted the initial investigation, while additional inventory and control checks were conducted by other agencies.
“Both those agencies determined that drugs were missing,” Ward said. “But they couldn’t get too much cooperation from anyone.”
Ward said the information was eventually turned over to his office. Prosecutors reviewed the reports before presenting the case to a grand jury.
The grand jury indicted four people, including the county administrator, the chief medical officer for the air rescue program, the chief flight nurse and Thompson.
Ward said the other defendants resolved their cases through pleas or a pretrial diversion program, leaving Thompson as the only defendant to go to trial.
“The county administrator took pretrial diversion program and successfully completed that,” Ward said. “And Thompson was the only one left, so Thompson went to trial.”
The trial lasted approximately a week and a half, with Ward’s major crimes prosecutor and her staff presenting the state’s case.
“At the end of the day, the jury came back after deliberating for three hours and found former Captain Thompson guilty on all counts,” Ward said.
Thompson was convicted of two counts of official misconduct, three counts of giving false statements to law enforcement officers, two counts of attempted tampering with evidence and three counts of tampering with witnesses.
Ward said the official misconduct and attempted evidence-tampering charges are third-degree felonies, the false-statement charges are first-degree misdemeanors and the witness-tampering charges are second-degree felonies.
“The third-degree felonies are punishable by a maximum of five years in prison,” Ward said. “The first-degree misdemeanors are 364 days in the Monroe County Jail maximum.”
He said each of the second-degree felony witness-tampering charges carries a maximum sentence of 15 years.
Thompson was expected to post bond by Friday or be remanded to jail. Her sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 29.
Ward cautioned that a conviction does not necessarily mean a defendant will receive a prison sentence.
“So there’s a good possibility that she won’t spend any time in jail,” he said. “But we’ll see how that plays out.”
Ward also discussed an ongoing domestic violence case in the Upper Keys.
According to Ward, the case began when a man went to the home of his estranged girlfriend, where an argument escalated into a serious assault.
“He’d been drinking, and it evolved into a serious beating that he gave her,” Ward said.
The victim suffered severe facial injuries and now has a plate in her face because of the damage.
Two young children were in the home during the attack. Ward said the woman’s young daughter heard her mother calling for help and called 911.
“That call was played for the jury and the judge for the whole court,” Ward said. “That was chilling.”
The defendant also found a rag the victim had used to clean the floors and shoved it into her mouth while continuing to beat her.
A Monroe County Sheriff’s Office sergeant responded to the home after hearing screaming. Ward said the sergeant encountered the children and entered the residence.
According to Ward, the defendant initially appeared to surrender but then attempted to take the sergeant’s firearm.
“The defendant immediately went for the deputy’s gun, and there was a big struggle over that,” Ward said.
The struggle eventually went to the ground, with Ward saying the defendant and deputy fell on top of one of the children.
The defendant then escaped from the home wearing only boxer shorts, jumped into the running patrol car and drove away.
The sergeant attempted to use a Taser but was unable to get a good shot, Ward said.
The defendant later allegedly confronted another woman near U.S. 1, pulled her from her vehicle and stole the car.
“He pulled up and kind of like almost T-boned her, stopped there, jumped out of the car, opened her car door, dragged her out, threw her on the ground, jumped in her car, backed it out, and took off and headed north,” Ward said.
The Florida Highway Patrol pursued the vehicle, which eventually overturned.
Ward said the woman whose vehicle was stolen had Christmas presents for her family inside.
“Those presents were all destroyed,” Ward said. “Her car, which she had to borrow the money to put a down payment on, was destroyed.”
Ward said the defendant faces approximately 11 charges, including some that could carry life sentences. Jury instructions were scheduled to begin following closing arguments, with the case then going to the jury.
Ward also discussed the sentencing of a former Monroe County deputy accused of stalking a woman with whom he had been romantically involved.
Ward said the deputy met the woman while responding to a police call and later entered into a relationship with her. After the relationship ended, Ward said the deputy began following her.
“He put tracker devices on her car. He used a license plate system to track her all kinds of different things,” Ward said.
Ward also said the former deputy stood outside the woman’s home and positioned the blinds so he could look into her bedroom.
“One night he saw her texting, and he pounded on the door and asked her who she was texting,” Ward said, describing the conduct as “creepy stuff.”
The woman reported the conduct to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, which investigated.
Ward said his office pursued a felony charge because of the former deputy’s alleged misuse of license plate reader information.
“I’m not going to have these cops out there using these license plate readers for non-police activities,” Ward said.
Ward said law enforcement officers receive training regarding the sensitivity of information obtained through license plate reader systems.
The former deputy received 60 months of probation on the felony charge, with adjudication withheld, along with probation on a misdemeanor charge and orders to stay away from the victim.
Ward said he is also watching to see what happens with the former deputy’s law enforcement certification.
There was also a case involving a 29-year-old man who was convicted of soliciting a minor for unlawful sexual conduct using computer services or devices and other related charges.
Ward said prosecutors obtained a 40-month prison sentence.
“There was no physical contact between this guy and the victim,” Ward said. “Everything was on camera the way I understand it.”
Ward said the defendant is also expected to be required to register as a sex offender for life.
A death penalty case that has been pending since approximately 1999 also came up. Ward said the underlying case involved the killing of a husband and his pregnant wife and said he had contacted the attorney general and governor about the case.
Ward said, “This guy killed a husband and a pregnant wife, and told his roommate how he felt the baby moving around while he was having sex with the wife and had the husband watch while while he had sex with the wife, while the husband was bound and he strangled him. We’ve been waiting on that one. That guy deserves the death penalty. Too bad we can’t kill him two or three times.”
The role of grand juries in the criminal justice system is incredibly important.
He said grand juries serve six-month terms, with new panels beginning roughly every six months.
“We’ve got to get a quorum,” Ward said, explaining that he believes the quorum is 15 members out of a 21-member grand jury.
Ward said grand jurors sometimes have to return for several days or weeks as prosecutors present cases.
“These last three or four grand juries have done a lot of work on various things that we’ve gotten into,” he said.
Ward credited grand juries with helping prosecutors pursue cases involving Key West officials, fentanyl deaths and alleged child sexual battery cases.
He also raised concerns about a potential future challenge to the role of grand juries by the Florida attorney general, saying he expects the issue may need to be examined.
“We can’t do it without juries,” Ward said. “I’ve just got to thank all the jurors and everybody that cares about the community and the safety of this community.”
Ward encouraged people who are summoned for jury duty to participate.
“We need you jurors to do what we have to do and protect our community,” he said.