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.
The Seven Mile Bridge Run went smoothly this weekend.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “We’ve got this thing pretty honed in. I was there myself. I’m there every year to be part of the solution out there, but it’s very manpower intensive to have the road shut down, to have the security teams all around the runners make sure it’s a safe event. Our people put out steel barriers if you were out there, or anybody who was around the bridge for that event would have seen on each side, big steel bearers set across the road to keep any cars from driving where the pedestrians, the runners are at. Once we shut the road down, we bring those steel barricades designed just for this to shut a road down. You could drive a dump truck into it, and it would stop a dump truck, so it takes about 20 minutes to set up, but we ensure that that’s a safe event no matter what. While we think the chances are so low of somebody trying to do something crazy, but we’re in a crazy world, and we can’t sit back and hope it doesn’t happen like in Louisiana, let that person drive through the crowd and kill a bunch of people. They actually had 64 of these barrier devices, which we use. They just never put them out. So we got them about nine months ago. I was adamant that we were going to put them out. Not that I thought we needed them, but I want to make sure that everyone’s got a sense that we’re taking security seriously and security of their well being is a top concern. So it went smooth. Our guys, gals, did a good job. We closed the bridge at six o’clock sharp, like we said, and it was opened by nine. We’re adamant to close at six. It opened no later than nine. We’ve got a really good system. So it was a nice, smooth event, just a couple minor injuries, a couple runners fell and had to get medical attention. But overall, was a well organized, well oiled event.”
There was an e-bike accident that ended in a fatality last night.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “It’s under investigation by FHP traffic homicide investigating team, but basically, about the 100 mile marker last night in Key Largo, a truck was wanting to pull out from a side street on to US 1, and when you pull up, as we know, you have to have the front of your truck across the bike path area. A bike path is generally designed for bicycles, and these e-bikes, since they can be pedal powered, they are classified as a bicycle and they’re allowed to use the bike paths, which I don’t think they should be able to, but they are, because bikes generally ride about three to five miles an hour, giving plenty of time for someone to see. These e-bikes can do 40 miles an hour. So we had a truck that was pulling out, getting ready to see if he could pull on to US 1, when he pulled the front of his truck across the bike path, because these things come out of nowhere so fast, and when he did, there was an e-bike doing about 40 miles an hour. A 40 something year old male was on the e-bike that crashed into the truck, and then I understand the truck wound up on top of him. He was determined to be deceased on scene, a really, really sad situation. We’ve got to see how that comes out. Technically in those situations, normally, how the law is written right now, the truck would have violated the right away of the e-bike, because most bike paths do not have stop signs when you cross a street, which doesn’t make sense, it’s okay for a bicycle three to five miles an hour, you wouldn’t think there’s a problem. But when you’ve got a motorized vehicle doing 40 miles an hour, that person should have to stop and yield as well, I think. So that’s going to be under investigation. Still a sad situation. We’re seeing more and more impacts, incidents with these e-scooters, e-bikes, e1 wheels, all these type of instruments. So we just have to see what legislation is going to do. Legislation has not caught up with these, to evaluate it and implement some type of laws, rules, regulations, where they can be used, where they can’t, where they should or shouldn’t be on a bike path, where they should or shouldn’t be on roads. Lot of questions, but not a lot of answers.”
Michael Tanzi’s execution will move forward. In 2000, Tanzi kidnapped a Miami Herald employee, and he brutally murdered her in Monroe County. On Friday, a federal appeals court turned down a request for a stay of execution.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “Super sad case. The crime started in Dade County, it was a Miami Herald employee who was on lunch break in a park up there when Tanzi kidnapped her in her van and abducted her and took her down towards Monroe on the way, sexually assaulted her and brutalized her and got into Monroe and eventually killed her. Eventually dumped her body down on Blimp Road, up off Cudjoe is where we found the body and our investigation started, and our investigators back then did a great job to hone in on Mr. Tanzi and eventually build a case against him. He was arrested years back. He’s been in jail for a long period of time, went to trial, got found guilty, and then the death penalty case, these things take a long time. It could take, as you see here, that case was 30 years ago, to get someone who’s murdered someone it takes 30 years for them to get, potentially to a point to have a death penalty. When they do, the government signs a warrant, a death warrant, and then the person has due process, appeals process, which takes a long time, appealing it through local courts, appellate courts. They try to get the Supreme Court, they try to get a lot of different mechanisms to not be put to death. But it looks like all his efforts have failed. I think we’re at that point now where his due process is exhausted, and we are going to see some accountability. We’re going to see some final closure for the family. A lot of people have different opinions on death penalty. Some are for it, some are against it. Some don’t know. It doesn’t really matter. That’s the law of the land, so we just comply with the law of the land, and we are going to see Mr. Tanzi be put to death here soon, which I think is probably a good thing. Taxpayers shouldn’t have to have someone in care, custody control for 60 years, who’s never getting out, who’s done something so heinous, you have to be held accountable for your actions, and that’s what’s going to occur. Mr. Tanzi here soon.”
A 43-year-old Key Largo man was arrested on Friday for sexual battery against a 7-year-old female.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “It’s another sad case. We see these cases with these young minors and adults, it’s almost always going to be a family member or friend, someone who’s got access to that child, is in the household. It could be a spouse, it could be a parent, it could be a step parent, it could be a boyfriend, girlfriend. We see this so much. It is so sad and difficult to see, but again, our detectives work these difficult, challenging cases. Not everybody can work these type of cases. It is so emotionally draining and so sad to see. It really wears on the men and women in law enforcement, for sure, but we are able to get some closure for that case, hold that person accountable, get that person off the streets so he can’t reoffend or hurt somebody else. Now, this child who’s been identified can get some services, help, some counseling and try to cope with this, but these are life altering situations which affect these kids and adults, who are victims as well, sometimes the rest are lives. This is just emotional scarring, which we can try to mitigate it, but you can never get rid of them, but we are actively pursuing all these type of cases. Again, he’s where he needed to be in Monroe County Jail.”
Two Stock Island suspects are facing a litany of drug charges following a sheriff’s office search of a residence on Friday. They were charged with trafficking fentanyl, trafficking cocaine, trafficking hydrocodone, possession of cocaine, possession of a controlled substance, possession of harmful new drug legend and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “This is a guy named Timmy Farmer. I’ve known him his entire life. When he was a teenager living on 41st Street, he was into trouble, mischief, drugs early on, never got out of it in life, but most of his life as an adult has been spent in Monroe county Jail. As soon as he gets out, he reoffends, he’s right back and continues to re offend with drugs and violence and batteries. But yes, we brought out our SWAT team. This was a special operations case. We felt we needed to bring our tactical team out for many reasons of violence as well, as the entry into the place. So we did bring out the team. We did get into this house, and we found a litany of all kinds of controlled substances. Fentanyl being the most deadly. We know if you just touch that, instantly the contact will kill you. When we see overdoses we talk about they’re almost all going to be fentanyl related, whether it be a fentanyl mixed with cocaine or something else. So this is a terrible person, and his girlfriend, who don’t care about anybody else or lives and are never going to have a real job, are always going to be just a detriment to society, and society is always going to have to pay for their care, custody and control, and he’s right back where he needs to be in my jail, which is by this time, I think he’s got such a long rap sheet with these type of charges, he’s likely to be sent off to state prison, which gets him out of my jail, and gets him out of Monroe County taxpayers responsibility for care, customer control and pain. We had another fentanyl case just the other day. Of our friends at Key West Police helped us on that case as well. They were assisting partner. John Casey Kornetti, who’s as well a frequent flyer, spending the majority of his adult life in my jail. Slinging drugs. It’s a sad situation. I know the family, good family, but it doesn’t matter what family you come from. People will make poor decisions or get hooked on drugs and use and deal drugs. This is one of those people that had a lot of potential in life, but turned his life into being nothing but a drug dealer, a drug user, and a person who’s is slinging drugs, is going to take life. He had a violation probation, a warrant out for his arrest for drug related charges, as it was having been released from Monroe County Jail just a few months ago on probation, but we had a warrant for him. We did see him driving. We did stop him in the city, again, partnership with our Key West police as well, and we arrested him for the violation probation. He was trying to destroy drugs that were in the car. We did find trafficking level amounts of fentanyl, cocaine, other related drugs, drug paraphernalia in the car. He’s been arrested for trafficking in fentanyl, as well as other drug related charges. He, as well as such a freaking flyer, has been in the system so much, at this point in time, I think that he’ll be heading off to state prison eventually. The case is a good, strong case, and he’s going to spend time in the state prison system, which is a shame. It’s destroying his life.”
Another fentanyl case came from a traffic stop recently.
Sheriff Ramsay explained, “We have warrants that stem from our special operations teams. We did conduct the traffic stop. This person had warrants for their arrest. We brought out our canine, Mako, did alert to the presence of narcotics in this car, in the traffic stop for Upper Keys, we did find a large amount of narcotics back in his car again. This car was had the fentanyl and cocaine. So we’ve been making a lot of fentanyl cases here lately, which is sad that it’s here in our county, but good that we’re on top of it, and we’re going to continue to attack these drug dealers, hold them accountable. If someone overdoses, we’re going to continue to work with our state attorney and our grand jury systems to get these people indicted on these first degree murder charges, which we’ve done, we’ve seen. Just a couple weeks ago, we had two people indicted for drugs, where someone overdosed and died and been charged on the first degree murder. Myself and state Attorney Dennis Ward have been very adamant about this. We’ve had good, long conversations. This is the direction we were going to head as two different agencies with the same goal is to hold people accountable, put people in jail, and do everything we can to stop the spread of these drugs in our community, hold these drug dealers accountable, try to protect life, limb and property in that order.”
A man was arrested for shooting a gun in a hotel room in Marathon last week. He claimed that he thought the gun wasn’t loaded.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “At the Hyatt, really nice resort, we got a report of a gunshot going off, and then we got out there and determined that a male, female in some type of argument, somehow, he had a firearm that he believed was not loaded, but it in fact, was loaded, and he aimed it a headboard and pulled the trigger, and the round went off, doing damage to the property. So we did come out there and determine that he was the person in possession who pulled the trigger and caused damage, and he was intoxicated at the time. Comes down again, core decisions in the first place, alcohol related decisions are never going to be right decisions. You shouldn’t be handling and playing with a gun if you are intoxicated, and if you do have a weapon, you should always consider it’s loaded, and there’s no reason to ever pull the trigger on a weapon unless you’re at the range or you’re protecting your life. So at this point in time, he made a poor decision, alcohol related which is lucky that no one got hurt or killed. That would have made the situation just that much more worse and severe. But we do have to hold him and others accountable for these type of reckless actions.”