ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT – Law enforcement takes close look at young offenders

ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT – Law enforcement takes close look at young offenders - A screenshot of a cell phone - Product design

Law enforcement officers don’t always use the old “10 codes” that enabled them to communicate with each other over the radio without the world knowing what’s happening with an investigation. 

But any longtime cop still can rattle them as if singing their ABCs, and “10-37” has always meant “trouble with a juvenile.” 

There’s been no shortage of such trouble in Monroe County in recent months.

September 30 saw Monroe County Sheriff’s deputies arrest two teens — two armed teens — after they were caught breaking into cars on Ramrod Key. 

Police didn’t know immediately whether suspect Ethan Blake was aware that he was breaking into a vehicle belonging to one of his teachers at Sugarloaf School, although Schools Superintendent Mark Porter said earlier this month that he was not aware of any attempts to target that teacher specifically.

Either way, Blake, 13, and Juan Long, a 16-year-old Key West High School student, are each facing at least one felony charge of armed burglary.

The teens were found with two handguns when apprehended, according to the sheriff’s office.

Additional charges could be pending as the investigation is ongoing and one of the guns found in Blake’s possession had been reported stolen.

Blake and Long were arrested and jailed after Ramrod Key resident Scott McKnight saw two teens on his security camera enter and begin looking through the Chevy Suburban parked in his driveway.

McKnight ran outside with his own handgun and threatened the intruders. Long ran away, but as camera footage shows, McKnight wrestled Blake to the ground in the driveway, reports state.

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Three guns were involved in the incident in total — the two Blake allegedly stole from vehicles and McKnight’s own handgun — but no shots were fired and no one was injured despite Blake’s alleged attempt minutes later to run over Deputy Ty Torres while trying to escape on a motorbike. 

Another “10-37” earlier this month involved a 10-year-old girl who brought a knife to Stanley Switlik Elementary School in Marathon. 

She told other students she would use the steak knife to defend herself and her friends should an armed intruder enter the school.

The girl did not threaten anyone with the knife, and no one was injured, although she does face criminal charges, because it’s a felony to bring a weapon onto a school campus, State Attorney Dennis Ward told the Keys Weekly Newspapers.

Ward was criticized on social media following the knife incident at Switlik.

 “People hear that a 10-year-old girl faces criminal charges, and they immediately think we had her in handcuffs, or in the back of a patrol car,” Ward said. “She was charged with a criminal offense, but was given a notice to appear. The girl spent much of the day in the principal’s office. She was never in handcuffs or a patrol car.”

But, Ward emphasized, there were additional and significant factors that were considered when deciding how to proceed with the girl.

“Then again, she had brought a weapon to school, and when my prosecutor told me there had been past incidents of violence with this girl, then we told the court, ‘We’re not here to seek incarceration, but rather a mental health evaluation,’” Ward said. “If that evaluation comes back fine, then we’ll drop the charges. 

“Certainly someone can come out of the woodwork with no prior incidents and become a mass shooter,” the state attorney added. “But when we do see indicators, we want to get them in as soon as possible for evaluation and treatment.”

Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay said the trends he sees in Monroe County kids mirror those nationwide — unattended children, absent parents, the culture of blame.

“Back in the ’80s, if you called a parent about their kids doing something, the parents were mortified,” said Ramsay. “They would come to the station and apologize to the officers. Back then, the kids were more afraid of what their parents were going to do to them, than the police.”

Ramsay said the Sheriff’s Office doesn’t identify juveniles unless it’s a special circumstance. 

“When we’re dealing with juveniles engaged in a violent act — sex assault, rape, crimes with armed weapons, or drug dealing of a high level of deadly stuff … at some point in time it’s important for parents who have kids in the community to know which kids are committing these potentially violent acts,” Ramsay said. “Those parents want to know if that child is coming to their house, or their kids are hanging out with them.”

Ramsay said law enforcement becomes involved not to “ruin their futures” but to avail the juveniles of intervention to “get them back on track.”

In 2018-2019, Monroe County recorded 133 juvenile arrests. (The five-year average in Monroe County is 147 arrests.) Of those 133 arrests, 44% were for felonies and 39% were for misdemeanors. Most felonies fell into the categories of burglary, aggravated assault or battery, or felony drug charges. Eighty-two percent of the offenders were male and most were between the ages of 14 and 16.

This represents an uptick in arrests in the Keys over 2017-2018 (when there were only 84 arrests), and the highest number over five years was recorded in 2014-2015 (208 arrests). 

While 133 arrests were recorded this year, they were allegedly committed by 85 youths. Of those, 58 went into a diversion program and 11 are in the probationary system. 

Monroe County has far fewer juvenile arrests than other parts of Florida. It’s on par with the 3rd Circuit Court, located in North Florida, which includes seven counties such as Columbia, Dixie and Hamilton. The 3rd Circuit reported 617 arrests in 2018-2019. But the 9th circuit recorded 3,007 arrests of youths located in Orange and Osceola counties over the same period.

“We need to correct the juveniles before things become worse and they escalate. You can’t justify bringing a weapon to school. If she can bring a steak knife, why not a gun,” Ramsay said, referring to the incident at Stanley Switlik Elementary.