Dennis Ward, State’s Attorney for Monroe County, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s been going on in the county.
When federal agencies refused to press charges on human smuggling with illegal immigrants, Ward and the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office took up the task.
Ward said, “Sheriff Ramsey is a good partner to have and here in the Monroe County, he is very aware of what’s going on, and we learned from his staff that the United States Attorney’s Office was not going to prosecute these people. I mean, it was a group of Ecuadorians and Chinese Nationalists that came in by boat that were smuggled in by some human smugglers. So usually, Homeland Security Border Patrol, those are federal agents. They did a great job of intercepting these people and tracked them down into Florida City and a couple of vans, and did everything proper. I just couldn’t believe it when the sheriff said that, hey, look, the United States Attorney’s office isn’t going to prosecute these people.”
Why wouldn’t they have prosecuted them?
Ward said, “Well, what would be the reason for just letting people flow through the border down in Mexico? I mean, so why should we be any different here, right? So it’s again, the administration, and it’s this left leaning administration that continues to ruin the United States of America. This is just one of the many things that they’re doing. Thankfully our legislature enacted laws that allows us to deal with human smuggling, which I believe our laws are second degree felonies which are punishable by 15 years maximum, and we’re going to pursue whatever we can pursue there and whatever we can get. This is not the first time the feds have declined to prosecute cases down here. We had a boatload of cocaine that came in, I think earlier this year, they chose not to file any charges there. We had a big child pornography offender we knew was up in Michigan or Wisconsin, and we contacted them, and they said they didn’t have jurisdiction. I’m going like, wow, United States Attorney’s office doesn’t have jurisdiction in the United States. So I don’t know if it’s laziness or it just doesn’t grab the headlines that they want to grab, but it impacts people, and that is something that we can’t just let go unchecked. So we’re moving forward on it, and I would imagine somewhere down the road there may be a little controversy, but right now, they’re sitting in Sheriff Ramsey’s jail, and that’s where they’ll stay and I’m sure they’re flight risks, so I’m not sure that they’ll be able to bond out. So that’s where we are.”
Is Florida one of the better examples of pursuing justice and enforcing laws?
“Yes,” Ward confirmed. “I think that our sheriffs and most of our prosecutors do a good job. I mean, remember that the governor removed a couple, one over abortion issues, which the governor changed his stance when he was running for president, and one for not pursuing various types of crimes and stuff, which, when you looked at a sheriff that was complaining up there in the Orlando area, a lot of that fault with those drug cases that they utilized to get rid of that, and she’s a leftist progressive state attorney up there in Orlando, but I mean, everybody’s entitled to fairness and a lot of those drug cases that the governor’s office cited were drug cases that were the fault of the sheriff’s office. So I think they’re both running again. We’ll see what happens up there. They’re in democratic jurisdictions, and they’ll probably get elected again. We get Cubans and Haitians, right? Those are established communities here, and there’s a lot of family ties, and they have support systems when they get here. These other people coming across the border, they’re from all over the world, and a lot of them. I mean, look at the controversy in Colorado now with the Venezuelan gang that is taking over some apartment buildings. That’s a big thing going on out there and it all stems from the President and his vice president, who wants to be president, not enforcing the border laws. It’s interesting to hear her say that there’s consequences. Well, what are the consequences? Come on. Give me a break here. People aren’t stupid.”
Are drug cases increasing?
Ward said, “Immigrants in the history of our country that have come in, you found crime taking place. You go up to New York and look at the immigrants that came in there, and some of the crime rings that got started up there, and now they’ve got new ones in there. Thankfully, we do a pretty good job here and the sheriff and I were all on the same page, especially when it came to the fentanyl deaths that we had here. If we could make a connection, we charged these people with murder, and then we would take that to the grand jury and up it to first degree murder, where the penalties become stiffer, and we continue to send that message, and I believe the message to these people that want to cross our county lines and come here for nefarious purposes, they’re going to be punished. You’re not in Dade County anymore. You look at some of these records of these people that the sheriff’s office arrests and my office prosecute, and you’re look at all the charges dropped in so many cases and the sheriff’s got them on phone calls talking to their friends and parents back up in Dade County, and they’re going like, wow, I can’t believe this is happening. They’re looking at putting me in prison and, oh my God. I mean, things that are commonplace in Dade County, they’re not commonplace down here. We’re not going to put up with it.”
A conviction was also made on a molestation case recently.
Ward said, “This is a woman who walks into her daughter’s bedroom and there’s her naked boyfriend on top of her 12 year old daughter. First, she delayed reported it, which is always a problem for us and when it comes to prosecutions, but we moved forward. The sheriff’s office did an outstanding job investigating the case. My prosecutors put together a good plan and it was about a two or three day trial, and jury was out about four hours and came back with a guilty on a couple of lewd and lascivious charges. This guy’s looking at somewhere between 30 years to life. So I don’t think we’ll be seeing him around much anymore.”
It looks like Christine Hurley, former director of the land authority for Monroe County, will be the next county administrator.
Ward said, “My understanding is they appointed her last night. I don’t know what the terms and conditions of her employment are, but she was always a good person to speak with and go to when I had questions about some aspects of the county government. She’s a firm but fair person, and I think she’s got a lot of work ahead of her. I mean, I hear these commissioners saying that they want to start some investigations into various areas of the county, and I think a couple of them have gone so far say, hey, let’s look at every department and see what’s going on. There’s a couple of problems in a couple of those departments, they just haven’t come forward and told the public about it yet. But I think Christine will be an outstanding person to look into those things, and I think that she’ll be more forthcoming with the county commissioners and keep them more up to date on what’s going on in the various departments in our county.”
How’s recruitment going in Ward’s office?
He said, “I just heard yesterday we’re losing one of our senior prosecutors recruitment. It’s not going good. I’m still in Marathon doing misdemeanors. So that’s been, I don’t know, 16 months, 17 months now.”