Monroe County State’s Attorney Dennis Ward joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning about the goings on in his office.
A murder case from 2021 had a sentencing for some defendants recently.
Ward explained, “We took a plea from one of the participants in that drug rip off, it was just off of Whitehead Street back in 2021, in the middle of the pandemic. He got 30 years. Two other guys have pled they were prepared to testify against him and they’ll be sentenced here in the coming days. There’s one more left to get and I think we’ll be successful with him too. He’ll be sentenced to a bunch of time as well. So that that’ll close that murder case out.”
The federal government is looking to possibly declassify marijuana from a Schedule I drug to a Schedule III drug.
Ward said, “We have that coming up on the on the ballot in November here in Florida to legalize recreational marijuana. We’ll see how that goes. I’m sure the legislature and the governor they’re going to have to put some rules in. I don’t think people want to be walking down the street and inhaling clouds of marijuana smoke. They just need to be respectful of other people that don’t particularly care for the smoke. It’s just like walking behind somebody smoking a cigar.”
Governor DeSantis recently came out with strong language against the possibility of demonstrations on college campuses that are pro-Palestinian.
Ward said, “Kudos to the governor for taking a firm stance on that. I saw some tape on the University of Florida, they got some demonstrations going on, but they’re controlled and peaceful demonstrations. I mean, I don’t agree with supporting Hamas, they’re terrorists, the same type of terrorist that blew up the Twin Towers in New York City. For these people, especially in New York. I mean, what they’re doing at Columbia, these kids that are given whatever they want, demonstrating like that, and conducting themselves like that. I mean, they ought to be ashamed of themselves, and their parents ought to do something about raising their kids properly. But here in Florida, they had a little thing at the University of South Florida. They shut that down pretty quick and I applaud the Governor for doing that. It’s the same thing with New York and Chicago and Los Angeles that more out of the governor out in California, I mean, they’re all so caught up in this woke moment and reducing crime and defunding the police and then you get situations like this would occur and they arrest these people on the street and they’re right back, probably before the cops get back and they’re back there putting their tents up. Again, you’ve got Joe Biden flying these people in from all over the world and now he wants to fly in Palestinians. Give me a break. What are we going to do, import rioters? I mean, it’s crazy. He’s been flying people into South Florida since January of last year between January and August of last year. He flew in to Miami and Fort Lauderdale Airport 160,000 people from all over all over the place. Air Biden flies them right in. This guy, I mean, he’s a joke. He needs to go.”
The Marathon man who took part in the January 6 event at the US Capitol did plead guilty recently.
Ward said, “He should have. You can’t go in there and bust up the Capitol and break into the place and threaten people. Are they crazy? I know that the former president calls these people hostages or whatever he wants to call them. But they broke the law. It’s see you later. I don’t think he went as far as inciting that riot, like other people thing, but we’ll see where that goes. The federal government, dealing with the one in New York, they passed on prosecuting him in these cases and some district attorney, similar to what I am, decides, well, let me prosecute it. It’s never been prosecuted on the state level before. So it just goes to show you that there’s prejudice against the president. Look where he’s being prosecuted in New York, Atlanta. Give me a break.”
Could Donald Trump ultimately be convicted of a felony in one of these cases?
Ward said, “It’s possible that he will, but I’m sure it’ll get overturned in the appeals court and maybe if it goes all the way up to the United States Supreme Court, I would hope that it gets overturned somewhere before then. But there’s a lot of problems in those cases. I don’t look for that conviction to stick of it happens.”
School security is also an issue.
Ward said, “I had three or four incidents up and down the county of students outside of school, being arrested on gun charges, or threatening teachers or what have you. I think it’s time we started looking towards seeing whether or not we should put in metal detectors at the schools and I think we should. So I expressed that to Sue Woltanski the other day, and I’ve expressed it to John Dick. I think it’s time that we need to do that, of course, I got a response that said well, there’s no rural schools that have metal detectors in place, which I find troubling. I’ve seen some parents that were successfully prosecuted in other states and even an assistant principal, I think in Virginia. So, I mean, there’s certainly, God forbid something like that happens in our schools. I’m going to take a hard look at that and see who knew or should have known and what they did or didn’t do and evaluating whether or not to bring charges against people that are responsible for this, as well as the shooters.”
There are school resource officers in the county.
Ward said, “Sheriff Ramsay and I, he and I talk every once in a while about this and there’s certain things that he truly believes should be implemented on our campuses. He’s made some recommendations since Parkland. He’s made recommendations to the school district and they’ve enacted some and others they let fall on the way. It’s just not happening. If it’s a cost factor, I mean, what’s the value of one student’s life? So I don’t know. We put these kids in jail, some of them are charged as adults. If they want to play the game, then they’ve got to pay the consequences.”
As far as crime in Monroe County, what trends could we be seeing in the future?
Ward said, “My biggest concern is the build up of the population in southern Dade County and what that population consists of and you’re starting to see more and more violent crimes taking place in southern Dade County. It’s just crossing the border, and we would look at people, these drug dealers and stuff that want to come down here and sell their poison. I advise people like that over and over again, don’t come down here and sell that poison, because we’re going to catch you and when we catch you, we’re going to prosecute you when we convict you, you’re going to prison. This is not Dade County, where you get three or four or five, six bites of the apple.”
A lot of people are incredibly grateful that the consolidation of the judicial districts didn’t happen.
Ward said, “We don’t want to be part of that. I value the safety of our people and our tourists and our visitors. This is a place where people come to have fun, to bring their kids, to spend their time on vacation. They don’t need to be robbed or raped or their kids being sold drugs. We don’t like that.”