Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay joined Good Morning Keys on Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s going on in the county.
This time of year often brings heavy traffic to the Keys.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “We are seeing heavier traffic right now. This is the time of year where it is the coldest peak points to our friends to the north. So this is a time they’re looking for a break from that really nasty weather, and just want to come down and get a little sunshine. So we are seeing heavier amounts of traffic. Obviously, we are still dealing with road construction in the Upper Keys with the aqueduct authority project, which is going to go on for a while. So we continue to do the best we can to try to move traffic. But we always say this time of year we’ve got to be a little more patient. Leave a little early. Don’t be frustrated. It is just part of living in the Keys and being a tourist driven area, just having at times heavy traffic.”
A recent traffic stop of motorcycles didn’t have all members stop.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “The Pagans, we’ve talked about them a few times here, and hate having to talk about them, but when they do dumb stuff, they can count on the sheriff’s office to deal with them. We had a pack of motorcycles that were heading southbound on the highway and caused some traffic issues, one of my officers went to engage the pack, tried to stop them. And not uncommon, most of the pack refused to stop, and the officers just can’t chase after every motorcycle going different directions. One bike stopped, the other continued on. So the officer stopped with the one who stopped. That motorcyclist had a suspended license, but because that motorcyclist did stop, did yield, and did not give our officers any real crap, we elected to give that person a notice to appear in lieu of arresting them in person. But while that other pack took off, the officer radioed ahead to other officers saying that the other pack refused to stop and fled. And when that happens, it’s not uncommon for these motorcycle groups to go ahead slightly and pull off somewhere and wait for the bike that got stopped to get released and come back to them is kind of a common theme. So after stopping the first one, they went down the road to pull off around Kyle Avenue on Grassy Key when they did, they blocked off part of the road on Kyle and the bikes parked on the bike path and the road, which is not uncommon, these motorcycle groups don’t worry about just blocking traffic or roads or bicycle path. Just think they can pull up there and do what they want to do. So my officer did locate them again. They were parked illegally after checking the persons there, because we had them stopped and contained one person from Delray Beach had an active warrant out of West Palm Beach sheriff’s office for possession of cocaine, possession of a firearm by convicted felon. So we did arrest that Pagan for these felony charges out of Palm Beach for drugs and guns, which is a common theme when it comes to the criminal outlaw motorcycle gangs, Pagans included, drugs and guns, which continues to be why we are concerned about the safety of our citizens when we deal with these groups that just can’t seem to follow the law and try to rule from fear and intimidation. So we did arrest him, towed his motorcycle, and then the other ones were released thereafter. I think they continued southbound. I saw them, some of them myself going through Marathon. We do know they have a smaller chapter around the Big Pine area that meets out of a warehouse. So presumably they were heading to that area there. They just draw attention to themselves. And I always say, you want attention, we’ll give you all the attention you want. Don’t cause any problems. Don’t draw attention to yourself. You won’t have any problems, but you can’t have it both ways.”
A case out of Monroe County made the statewide news in Florida, where a Marathon man was arrested for punching a sheriff’s office deputy, among other charges at a gas station.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “This was the Racetrack Gas Station in the south end of Marathon. This is a drunk idiot showing his ass to the point that we got called by the business to have this person removed. We get there, we do find this individual who is extremely intoxicated, combative, argumentative, causing a disturbance, not complying with lawful commands of law enforcement. At some point in time, he balled up a fist and punched one of my officers in the head, which is not a good move for a lot of reasons. A, is just going to increase more charges. B, it’s just going to cause a counter attack, because we’re not going to let our men and women get attacked. So after being punched in the head, the officer retrieved his taser. We deployed a taser to stop the aggressive nature. We use tasers not to be a weapon of pain. They’re designed to stop the threat. It’s an intermediate weapon which is there to prevent people from attacking but also keep us from having to go fist to fist and throwing punches, seeing who’s the baddest guy in the block. This is the ability to de escalate, cause a free distance and have a verbal compliance to comply with the taser or else. Failure to comply with the taser order with a taser drawn will result in the deployment, which is not going to be a fun thing for the person who receives that taser hit, but it does just what we want to do. It immediately stops the aggression of the person that we’re out with. It puts them in a situation where they’re on the ground, they can’t hurt us, and we’re better able to contain them, so we get them handcuffed. After that, we did take him to hospital, have him checked out for medical attention, make sure he’s okay. He was released. He was then brought to the MCJ Monroe County Jail, where he was booked in on battery and law enforcement charges, which are felony charges. A simple battery on the citizen is a misdemeanor, but you batter a police officer, it enhances it to a third degree felony. The sheriff’s office in the state of Florida are not going to tolerate people punching police officers or battering officers. You batter a police officer, you’re going to be going down for a felony charge.”
A follow up to the Marathon aquarium break in, where two individuals decided that they were going to go fishing where it was pretty easy to catch a fish, saw two arrests.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “This was not an easy case. This was a late night. Two individuals went in to the aquarium encounters, with fishing gear to go fishing in the ponds and the controlled areas, and they hooked a 55 pound tarpon, were fighting it, got it out of water, taking pictures with it. Ultimately, the tarpon died. So we did get the report the following day from the aquarium counters, we found the tarpon deceased. After they went back and looked at security cameras, they knew what took place. So we had a difficult task to track down individuals from a surveillance video. But we did identify one individual from Marathon and one from out of county, and we’re able to get warrants for their arrest for burglary, entering and remaining on a property with intent to commit a crime therein. So we did identify them. We did get warrants for their arrest. We’ve arrested the local man in Marathon initially, and then we’re working with our friends to get the other person rounded up in another jurisdiction in a neighboring county, so both people are arrested, going to be held accountable, and it’s sad. What challenges are fishing in an aquarium tank? You’re killing things. There’s people coming to visit and see who have never seen it. If you want to go catch a tarpon or something, go catch a tarpon in the water. Make it a challenge. Catch something and then release it. You just don’t catch it and kill it. It’s sad to see that type of action take place. But we’re glad to do our part to try to hold these two accountable. This is the case which a lot of agencies probably would not have spent investigative time to follow up on. It wouldn’t have been important to them. But for us, every case is important, and we work hard to solve all crimes, even crimes where other agencies probably wouldn’t have put manpower allocation on. That’s where our crime clearance rates are twice that of the state and national because we continue to focus on trying to solve all index crime. We know the state and national average to clear major index crime is about 24.5%. The sheriff’s office ability to solve major index crime is sitting at about 46%, so we’re happy and proud that we are well above the norm when it comes to solving crime. But this is why, because we take it serious. The victims are our friends, our neighbors. We care about them, and we want to do our part. And we know that all types of crimes, people that commit crimes, even low level, they’re willing to commit those, they generally continue to build and escalate into higher level crimes as well. So we want to stop these individuals early on. Try to hope we can get them to get back on the track and be good citizens, if not start getting their name in the system and start building charges against them where eventually they keep committing crimes, they’ll go off to state prison.”
Traffic stops often reveal other crimes.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “Traffic stops are so important. We keep talking about that’s the number one complaint the sheriff’s office receives is traffic speeders, tailgaters, reckless drivers, drunk drivers. So while we’re doing our job to attack the number one complaint we get, we also see that people use cars to commit crimes. It’s so, so common. We stop a car for a routine traffic stop and we find people with warrants, no licenses, no insurances, drugs. So we did stop this car on traffic charges as a result, just over four pounds of marijuana. THC, vaped cartridges, I think 10 of those, drug paraphernalia throughout the car. This person was not just a simple user. This is a drug dealer, that volume, that weight and the stuff in the car will indicate someone who’s not only personal use, but is selling narcotics to others. So that changes everything to higher levels when we’re dealing with drug dealers. Our goal was to get these drugs off the street, hold these people accountable, get them charged, try to get them to have corrective behavior, if possible, if not, again, keep putting charges on them, which will ultimately, through progressive discipline, if they continue to commit crimes, eventually, they too, will be going off to prison, a chance to tow that car, get the drugs off the street, charge that person, and also deal with the traffic that we dealt with initially. So a successful day for the officer and officers of the sheriff obviously continue to be vigilant, proactive when it comes to trying to protect our citizens, prevent, deter crime from occurring. If it does occur, be proactive. Vigilant. Try to investigate and solve it, prevent it from happening again.”
Last night there was a fire in the Upper Keys with a heater in the house.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “At this time of year, people turn on heaters, but a lot of times, heaters haven’t been on for at least a year, maybe a couple years, depending on the cold snap. You always have to remember when you first turn it on, those heater coils get a lot of dust and dirt and stuff on there. And at first you smell in the house, this could smell like smoke, but sometimes, if they get too much junk on them, they potentially could be a fire hazard. Up on County Road, 905 North Key Largo, an Airbnb owner resides in Marathon, the house is being rented for a 30 day period. The folks are in the house. At some point in time they want to turn the heat on, they contact the owner to ask about how to get the heat on. They get instructions from the owner. They follow the instructions, and at some point in time later, in the attic a fire of starch as a result of the heater. By time they determine the house is on fire, they call Police, Fire Rescue Services. Sheriff’s Office responds immediately, along with Key Largo Fire. We evacuate the residents out of the house. By the time the fire department gets on scene, the fire is coming through the roof. Fire Department eventually extinguishes the fire, but extensive damage to the house, it is not livable at this time, and the damage between the fire, the smoke and the water is going to be a big haul. So this time of year, watch the heaters, space heaters, any type of heater devices. If you have a portable heater, be careful how close you put them to things which could ignite like clothing. Animals, kids and heaters can be dangerous, especially when we don’t use them so often. We’re not familiar. Up north, people use heaters four months out of the year, it’s a common piece of equipment. Here, not so much, and because of that, probably more risk for fire hazard, danger or injuries.”