Dennis Ward, Monroe County’s State’s Attorney, joined Good Morning Keys on Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s going on in the county.
Monroe County Judge Mark Wilson has announced his candidacy for the 16th Judicial Circuit Judge.
Ward said, “Judge Jones announced that he wasn’t going to run for re election. He’s going to retire, and we thank Judge Jones for the outstanding job that he has done. He will be on the bench until, I think the first week in January 2027. The judges are special. They run in August. They have their own elections. So that seat will be determined in August. I’m sure that someone will run for Judge Wilson’s County Court seat. Then whoever wins those elections, will take their positions in January of ‘27. Judge Wilson worked in the state attorney’s office before I got there, and then he left and he came back when I was elected, and we worked together on a number of things. He was my public corruption prosecutor, and we prosecuted a lot of high profile cases during my first term. Judge Wilson, our assistant state attorney, Mark Wilson, was my public corruption prosecutor. We did the school district, we did some mosquito control issues, the head of Florida law enforcement, the head of the Bahama redevelopment project, and probably four or five others. Then when I came back, he was my chief assistant, and unfortunately for me, Governor Scott appointed him to the bench, and he’s done an outstanding job there. He’s got credentials that are similar to United States Supreme Court Justices, and he’s a law and order type of guy. He was a Wyoming highway patrolman. I believe he was a staff sergeant in the United States Army, 82nd airborne, a professor at Penn State’s University Law School. He’s just so well qualified, and I think it’ll be an outstanding addition to the bench there.”
A new appointment of the head of FWC enforcement division has been announced as well.
Ward said, “Alberto Maza. He was the major for the Southern District of FWC, and at their most recent meeting, they made him the colonel, I think they call it, for the FWC’s enforcement arms. He’s the first Latin to be placed in that position. He’s also, I think maybe the first one from down here, South Florida, Dade County, Monroe County, to be in that position. Certainly it’s good for us down here, being surrounded by water, basically. He knows what the needs are of the Keys community. I texted him yesterday, to congratulate him, make sure he had the same phone number so if we have some issues, or we need some additional help, I can just ring him up. He’s very responsive and just an outstanding guy. Congratulations to him.”
A new grand jury in Monroe County will be selected today.
Ward said, “Judge Wilson will be there today. I’m on my way down to Key West to select a new grand jury, and I just want to say thank you to all the hard work that the previous Grand Jury did. They did a substantial amount of work into the issues in Key West, especially with the city of Key West, and we called them in, and we always had the minimum requirement for a quorum of 15. There’s 21 of them, and it seemed like we we had it in for, like, a whole week one, one of those weeks. They just put in an enormous amount of their own time into this. That’s what we need to make sure that people are held accountable.”
A Virginia man was involved in a high speed chase recently.
Ward said, “He’s a 23 year old white male that was for some unknown reason coming down here. His family has put together an institution at the medical center at Columbia University. They deal with addiction issues and apparently he told fire rescue people and law enforcement people, first, he told fire rescue that he took 80 milligrams of Adderall. The recommended dosage is five milligrams. Then later on, he told the law enforcement officers it was 40 milligrams. So I think that’s probably why this guy may have done what he did. I know that it was terrifying, especially when he got down near Founders Park and he turned into Founders Park and went down to the waterside and came back up, ran through one of the arms that control the traffic on the street down there. Kids were playing on the soccer fields. It was just unbelievable. Then he got back out onto the highway, and finally, FHP did some pit maneuvers on him and got him off the road, and he crashed into this guy who just bought a brand new boat, a $250,000 boat, the guy was towing to put it in the water, and now his brand new boat is messed up. Fortunately, no one was injured. This guy comes from a very wealthy family. It’s my understanding that a distant relative of his was one of the founders of IBM. Our situation here, he’s charged with about nine different charges, three of which are felonies. I would imagine that, I don’t know if you’ve seen the video, but if you take a look at the video, it’s pretty clear. I would imagine that whoever his attorneys are going to be, are going to come in and probably plead him straight up to the judge, and then bring in probably the best addiction specialist in the country and maybe even the world, to explain why this guy shouldn’t be doing any prison time and should be put into a program, but we’re going to seek prison time, and we’ll argue that before the judge. I don’t think it will go to trial. I think the judge will make a decision on that, but just the potential of what could have happened, and fact that he conducted himself like this certainly is worthy of some prison time. Fleeing and eluding is an automatic adjudication. It’s a felony. So he’ll have a felony arrest record. He’ll be a convicted felon unless somehow they get their charges changed, and they won’t be able to do that. That’s my prerogative. So it was just a horrendous situation. Some of my employees were just getting out of work, and just got onto the highway. You heard the sirens and saw this Range Rover being pursued by two or three troopers and a sheriff’s office car, and it was just the speed that they were going. This guy hit 120, 125 miles an hour, and you just looked at with all the gravel debris flying up from the road, it was frightening. So that case, he had his bond hearing yesterday. Judge Kelly set, I think $90,000 bond, which is pretty much nothing to this guy. Although his mother, I did hear that, his mother said, well, you got yourself into this, now get yourself out of it. He was listed as a secretary of their treatment facility at Columbia’s medical school, and they took that down during the day. But kudos to his mother for doing the right thing. We’ve had situations where mothers have taken guns and thrown in the pond behind their house when their son commits an armed robbery. So tough love here.”
A Key West man was recently sentenced to three years in prison for trafficking in fentanyl and cocaine.
Ward said, “This guy was transporting some fentanyl. He had a small amount, but enough for us to seek a higher sentence, and it’s part of our collaboration with the law enforcement officers, Sheriff Ramsay and his crew, and Chief Brandenburg and his crew, in our quest to eliminate fentanyl from the Florida Keys. So getting Judge Wilson as a judge with his magnificent background, he understands the problem and the damage that it does to the people in our community. So this guy will do three and a half years, and then he’ll be on probation and if he goes back to sell or commits another crime, he’s going to go back in for a longer time.”
The former head of a PR firm, Andy Newman, pleaded to some charges that resulted from the Grand Jury investigations involving the Tourist Development Council.
Ward said, “He plead to 14 counts. He plead no contest. He and his attorney came in, I believe on Monday, and Judge Kelly, I believe it was, sentenced him to three and a half years probation and 100 some hours of community service, 70 days jail. That was a suspended sentence. If Mr. Newman completes his probation successfully, then he won’t have to worry about spending any time in jail. That’s an unfortunate situation. I mean, he had some character references show up, and it’s amazing to hear those people talk about the guy, but he kind of messed up, and it took him a couple of years, but he took responsibility for his actions, and I’m sure he’ll get through this probation period without a problem and then he can go his merry way.”
A Veteran’s Day thank you gathering will be held at the Murray Government Center.
Ward said, “We do that every year in collaboration with the Veterans Administration from Monroe County, Cathy Crane. It’s always a good event to come to. It’s usually standing room only. We expect it to be that way this year. We have some nice presentations by some of the children of the school district.“