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This is a political advertisement paid for and approved by Sandra Downs (NPA) for Sheriff. |
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LITTLE KNOCKEMDOWN KEY
I reported the Goodman’s for destroying the mangroves in August 2004. On November 10th 2004, Senator King, President of the Senate 8th District demanded an investigation. My dealings with the Sheriff Department began then. First they were relatively minor, then this. On January 3 2005, as I crossed the bridge with one of my sons, I noticed 2 fires on Little Knockemdown Key. It is an offshore island seen from my home. 75% of the island is state owned and a few parcels are privately owned. I called my older son, Preston, who was at our home and asked him to take a boat and see if everyone was okay out there and to also call 911 if it was serious. The fires started at approximately two P.M., and my calls to him were at 2:20 and 2:22 P.M. He and his friends were at my home when I called him. I know because I had just left there. My calls were verified with the State Attorney’s Office. The fires were started when he was at my home with me. Preston attempted to go the island with his friends in one of their boats per my instruction. They got stuck on the flats and they did not make it there. Already there in the waters surrounding Little Knockemdown was Don Nelson, the self proclaimed ferry boat captain to the island who also owns property there. According to the boys, he was photographing the fires, but had not called to report the fire. Curiously enough, he reports later that homes were being burned to the ground, but did not call 911 immediately. He told the boys he had. From property appraiser records there were various lean-tos and shacks that were placed there prior to Hurricane Georges. Hurricane Georges all but wiped the island out. The temporary shelters and illegal structures were in complete disarray, non-functional and because of the laws could not be rebuilt. According to Monroe County permits, the legal thing there is a cistern and port-o-let. The abandoned and degraded structures could have been the target of code enforcement for mandatory removal as they were polluting the island. It would have been advantageous to burn them instead of financially supporting the removal in an environmentally sensitive area. The majority of the island is state owned and available to the public, so it is no crime to go there. However the structures were dangerous and structurally failing. There existed no “No Trespassing” signs that anyone was aware of. Donald Nelson was seen many times transporting bags of dirt out there. It has been questioned whether marijuana was being grown as there was much secrecy involving the island and Donald Nelson did not want visitors, except those he brought. The property appraisers were not allowed on the island without a uniformed sheriff’s deputy with them. The majority of the properties are taxed at less than $20,000 for land and all. Detective Manny Cuervo was assigned the case. He swore in an affidavit that $100,000 damage had been done and 2 residences burned to the ground. But Gary McCullough, an investigator for the Crime Lab said to me he would not testify to this. Detective Cuervo swears in official documents that many homes had been burglarized. He attributes the damage from Georges on some current event he made up. Catherine Vogel of the State Attorney’s office did not buy it. She closed the case in March because of no evidence. Detective Cuervo repeatedly stopped my son and his friends after this incident and searched both them and their vehicles. One of the boys’ wallets went missing after one of these searches and some of his belongings suddenly appeared on the island days after the event. With all of the “residences” that were burglarized, the only evidence Manny Cuervo submitted was several small items that could have been easily taken from our homes in his unannounced visits. No structure had evidence of prints, etc. save one smudge from some unknown window pane that was not produced. There was no evidence of arson of homes. There were no victims of arson, and all Manny Cuervo could muster up is one woman who would press charges for destruction of a lean-to and trailer that had been there prior to Georges. Her name is Judy Ernst and her building was taxed in 2006 at $15,878 and was found by the property appraisers in 1992. This does not mean it was legal or ever occupied. This does not mean Hurricane Georges did not wipe it out. You must understand that property appraisers appraise what they see, and this does not justify its existence or mean it is legal. Code Enforcement has to do that. The case was closed and no further evidence was submitted. On April 26 I west to Judge Perry Fowler and swore in a statement that I feared for my son’s life from Detective Manny Cuervo. He had been stalking my son, and had assaulted him on one occasion. She denied my petition and afterwards that same day signed a warrant for my son’s arrest for felony burglary offenses. With no new information, and with a case that was closed, Judge Perry Fowler ignored the State Attorney’s conclusion and signed a felony arrest warrant for my son with $50,000 bond. Detective Cuervo provided no proof, nor documents that would warrant this action on Judge Fowler’s part. It is her duty to investigate such a matter before signing. She did not. My son turned himself in for these felony offenses. He faced 30 years in prison if convicted. Judge Jones threw the charges out the next day, and my son was released. That did not prevent him from undergoing a cavity search, the shackling of his hands and feet for 10 hours, nor the degradation of what had been done to him. This was the 30th day of April, 2005, a Saturday. The Sheriff Deputies followed him during the next few days, repeatedly searching him and harassing him for hours on end. On May 4th, I was to attend a Mother's Day tea at my youngest son's school in Big Pine Key. I did not want to leave Preston home alone and attempted to keep him safe by sending him with his older brother to Key West. His older brother was working with my husband that day. Preston died at the job site in an unexplained electrocution. Detective Cuervo showed up at the hospital and had the Deputies throw me out of my dead son’s room in my grieving and allowed Det. Cuervo to lift his fingerprints. He turned them in as evidence to link him to the fingerprints he had obtained when he was jailed and tried to submit them as evidence in Little Knockemdown 4 days after he was dead, in a case that had no merit. Capt. Bob Peryam, Sheriff Candidate, is on the Board of Keys Energy. Two unexpected surges hit my family members that fateful spring of 2005. One of them caused my son’s death, another almost killed my husband, Nick. Keys Energy has no explanation. Their breakers did not work. Keys Energy did no investigation that I am aware of to try and gain insight to their problems. The spokesperson said my son hit the high voltage wire. Impossible, he was too far away and could not have made contact. The electricity did not stop and his fingers were fused together. Will Bob Peryam investigate or explain how these accidents happened as a Keys Energy Board member, so future accidents like this can be prevented? Four different people were badly shocked, injured or killed, in Key West that spring of 2005. And another in the Upper Keys who also died. I imagine Bob Peryam will be as accountable on the Board of Keys Energy as his wife is as Head of MCSO Internal Affairs "investigating" the affairs at the Sheriff Office. It is a necessary component of the Bubba System: Bubba friends sit in positions that allow them to cover up what needs to be covered up to protect those in power, their positions and their money. Come see me at the forums! This has to stop, and we have the power with our votes to stop a big part of it. |
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