Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s going on in the county.
The weather affected the air show on Saturday.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “I was really excited about the air show for Saturday. I came up out of Marathon. I was watching Key West weather radar the whole way up, and was a little concerned about how that was going to be. I thought we’d get a little bit of rain, but I thought it would blow out. But the show never got off. It rained and rained and rained for hours, I found myself hunkered in one of the plane hangers for about an hour, hour and a half before I gave up. So that was a shame for Saturday, for the folks who couldn’t get back on Sunday. I couldn’t get back on Sunday. You saw my team members doing traffic control in the base, outside the base, all the key checkpoints. Some of those static points, like the east gate on US 1, the officers had to be out in the rain the entire time. They couldn’t sit in their car, because we had to do traffic control anybody coming in and out of those areas. So that was a really tough assignment. I saw a couple officers when I went in, when I came out, just getting soaked for hours and that’s part of the job sometimes.”
Sunday was a beautiful day and the Blue Angels were able to fly.
The Tavernier Creek crossing has an installation of the new water pipe, so expect some slow downs.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “We’re doing better than we were when they first started. We know when they first started it was taking a couple hours to get through that area. But now we’ve got a new management of traffic plan in place, which is more realistic. Traffic is able to flow. We are seeing some backups, but we are in the middle of season, spring break, construction, a lot of factors which make Islamorada, Tavernier difficult to transition on a good day, but I think we can live through it until this project gets done.”
This weekend will be Island Fest in Islamorada.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “I want to try to make it up there myself. I’ve got three events. Saturday morning, we’ve got the Seven Mile Bridge run. I’ve got a homeowners association meeting in Islamorada, and then Island Fest. So I’ve got a full weekend of sheriff’s office related to work projects. Island Fest is a good event, a lot of good food, vendor stuff happening up there at Founders Park, but we should expect a little heavier traffic. You’ll see my men and women in the sheriff’s office doing some manual traffic control, trying to keep traffic flowing, trying to help pedestrians cross safely and make sure that’s a safe event for everybody. But it’s really, really good event.”
The Seven Mile Bridge run will be Saturday.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “The sheriff’s office, we’ll be out there on both sides, north and south side of the bridge to stop the bridge traffic when need, when the time comes, to clear the traffic of any vehicles, pedestrians, make sure that the route is safe and secure. To monitor it as it’s going and to get the busses to and from as they bring runners across the bridge in the morning, we’ll bring them from Marathon to the south end, where the race will start, and that will be the biggest bulk of trying to move people, but this is a traffic nightmare for parking, pedestrians. You always tell people, if you’ve got a flight, you’ve got to get to Miami, make sure you get through there before that bridge shuts down, because once it shuts down, it doesn’t matter what your situation is, nothing’s moving. We’re not able to move anything across that bridge with the safety of literally thousands of runners on that bridge, but looking forward for an exciting, safe event, and we’ll be there as always to do our part.”
On Friday Night, Baptist Health Systems will have a fundraiser in Marathon.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “It’s always a nice event, it’s going to be a big crowd. We think traffic should be relatively smooth, but people going past there should look out for a little heavier traffic, maybe more cars trying to turn off the US 1 or pull onto the highway. Use a little care going through there. We just don’t envision any real big problems. But anytime you have an event, we always want to warn our people that there could be some impacts on traffic, to be cautious of and no distracted driving, put your phones down and pay attention to what you’re going across some of these more important areas with traffic, whether it be Founders Park for Island days, whether it be Baptist Health Systems at the Marathon Community Park, whether it be Seven Mile Bridge run, you come across these bigger events of people, pedestrian, cars, traffic, have both hands on your steering wheel, look where you’re going, pay attention and expect the unexpected.”
Two people were arrested on Friday following an investigation of a child neglect case where an infant suffered a broken leg.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “What a sad case. These are two adult males from Big Pine Key. One’s the father and one’s the older brother. Father’s 43 the older brother’s 24. This is an infant that was the care, custody, control of the father. The child was brought into Fishermen’s with a severely broken leg. The doctor thought it was suspicious in nature. Did not believe it was accidental. Department of Children Family Services and sheriff’s office were contacted, brought in and the child was taken out of the home. Initially, the child was turned over to the care, custody, control of the 24 year old brother who accepted responsibility. Part of that responsibility was the father was not to have any contact that was not supervised visitation, as authorized by Children Family Services. The older brother accepted that responsibility and the rules, but did not comply with them. He would drop the child back off with the father, with no supervised visitation, putting that child in harm’s way. While the investigation was ongoing, the child was investigated by experts to make sure the child did not have any type of conditions like brittle bone syndrome that would make the breaks more easily accessible. This determined this child had received multiple bone breaks throughout his body, including his skull fractured. Doctors determined and experts that the child did not have Brittle Bone syndrome. Thus, there was no reason that this child should experience these type of breaks, especially an infant who can’t run or jump, and it would just not be feasible. The prior breaks that were identified clearly determined to be child abuse child neglect. During the investigation, both the father and the older son lied to police officers, hampered our investigation, were deceptive, and ultimately, the older son was just as guilty as the father putting this child in known jeopardy letting him go back with the father without any supervision whatsoever. DCF has since put the child in other related care. We did arrest both the father and the older brother for their parts in directly and indirectly, endangering the life and safety of this child.”
A GPS case that began more than a year ago where individuals were stealing GPS equipment, saw plea deals recently.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “This was a very well organized crime ring, multiple people involved that were committing the GPS thefts, from Jacksonville to Key West, from the east coast of Florida to the West Coast. They were throughout the state of Florida, super organized, and they were doing a lot of damage. We did arrest multiple subjects in this case, I think about 13. Many are full of pending charges, but we already had one months ago, take a plea. Last week, a second person that took a plea for 22 months in state prison. When they come out, they’ll be on probation, they’ll have court costs, restitution, so the other players still remain there in jail or pending charges. While it’s ongoing, it is some level of closure, and it’s some level of message to other people who want to steal electronics from our people here, if you steal the electronics here, you’re more likely to get arrested, prosecuted and have lot more severe time in prison versus most other counties, if the cases don’t get dropped, or if they do, they do time served in county jails and are done. Not here in Monroe, the state attorney and the sheriff take this very, very serious, and we are not apt to allow minor garbage pleas to get away, we’re not going to let you just get a slap on the wrist. We’re hoping that sends a message to them when they get out, and to people they know who are the same business and people who also steal or want to steal the GPS cases that the consequences here in Monroe are extremely severe, and it’s just not worth it.”
The Citizen’s Police Academy begins tomorrow.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “The sheriff’s office continues to be focused on our partnerships, our public, our community policing, whether it be National Night Out, whether it be Kids Day at the schools, reading to the kids, Rotary chamber leadership stuff, but also Citizen’s Police Academy. The classes do start in the Upper, Middle and Lower Keys. Tomorrow is the Upper Keys, Wednesday is the Middle Keys, Thursday is the Lower Keys, a five week program, one day a week, four hours a night when you’re there and it’s a truly wonderful experience. People who did not get a chance to get signed up this year should consider next year. We make it hands on, adrenaline, action, excitement. You have a chance to meet the sheriff’s office personnel, see what we do. Put themselves in situations where they have to make split second decisions and control the situations to see how difficult it is and how our officers have half a second to make a life altering decision which could affect them or someone else for the rest of their lives, and how challenging this job can be. Rewarding, but definitely challenging. So we’re excited for all the people that are joining us.”