Three Key West metropolis officers have been indicted and brought to jail Tuesday night, April 15, for tampering with proof by deleting textual content messages earlier than a pending investigation.
All three males — Key West Metropolis Lawyer Ron Ramsingh; his brother Raj Ramsingh, who’s town’s chief constructing official; and Jim Younger, town’s code compliance director — face third-degree felony costs of tampering with proof. Lawyer Ron Ramsingh faces two further costs for allegedly illegally intercepting digital communication and allegedly disclosing that illegally obtained data.
“This investigation is ongoing,” Monroe County State Lawyer Dennis Ward informed the Keys Weekly Tuesday night, simply half-hour after the three males have been taken into custody.
Bond was set at $25,000 for Raj Ramsingh and Jim Younger, and $75,000 for Ron Ramsingh given the 2 further costs. If convicted, every defendant faces as much as 5 years in state jail for every depend. The fees might also carry critical skilled penalties, together with potential disbarment and elimination from public workplace, based on the state lawyer’s workplace.
The indictments and arrests have been the outcomes of a “months-long joint investigation performed by the Monroe County State Lawyer’s Workplace in shut partnership with the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” states a press launch from the state lawyer’s workplace. “The indictments stem from allegations that the three officers tried to hinder an ongoing legislation enforcement investigation by tampering with bodily proof, particularly textual content message communications despatched and obtained throughout June 2024.”
“The Metropolis of Key West is in full cooperation with the investigation and up to date arrest of three metropolis officers,” metropolis spokeswoman Alyson Crean mentioned in an announcement launched Tuesday night. “Town will proceed to offer the neighborhood with skilled and devoted service.”
The indictments state that between Aug. 23 and Sept. 16, 2024, the 2 Ramsingh brothers and Younger “did alter, destroy, conceal or take away textual content messages” that they’d despatched amongst themselves in June 2024 “realizing that an investigation was pending or about to be instituted.”
The indictments state that Ron Ramsingh in Might 2024 allegedly intercepted a Zoom convention name with out prior consent of the opposite participant. The indictment additional states {that a} day later, Ron Ramsingh ‘deliberately disclosed the contents” of that Zoom video to a different particular person.
The deleted textual content messages, which have been despatched among the many three males between June 1 and June 28, 2024, coincide with the timing of the contentious firing of former metropolis supervisor Al Childress, which occurred simply days after Childress had formally reprimanded chief constructing official Raj Ramsingh for legally questionable actions he had taken throughout the constructing division.
Days earlier than Childress filed disciplinary motion in opposition to Raj Ramsingh, his position and actions within the metropolis’s constructing division had been criticized in a 55-page investigation and assessment by planning consultants from the Corradino Group.
Corradino’s assessment revealed that Raj Ramsingh reportedly authorised scores of growth functions and permits with out assessment or approval from the planning division, which is the division tasked with approving or denying permits, growth functions and variances. The report acknowledged that Raj Ramsingh additionally had issued variances that had beforehand been denied by the planning division and issued permits with out requiring growth plans.
State Lawyer Dennis Ward informed the Keys Weekly on Tuesday night that the investigation and subsequent indictments stemmed from the Corradino Group’s assessment of Raj Ramsingh’s actions within the constructing division, the contentious firing of Childress and the textual content messages that have been exchanged amongst metropolis staff and elected commissioners previous to the vote to fireside Childress.
Ron Ramsingh, Raj Ramsingh and Jim Younger didn’t instantly return messages looking for remark Tuesday. Their mugshots weren’t posted on the sheriff’s workplace web site as of seven:40 p.m. Tuesday night time. Ward mentioned they’d not been taken into custody till after 6 p.m. on Tuesday, April 15.
“These are deeply troubling allegations involving a number of public officers in positions of belief and authority,” mentioned State Lawyer Dennis Ward. “When public servants intervene with investigations or misuse their entry, they betray the very neighborhood they’re sworn to serve. I wish to prolong my gratitude to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and to our workforce of state lawyer Investigators, who labored aspect by aspect to construct these instances. I additionally wish to personally acknowledge Main Crimes Assistant State Lawyer Colleen Dunne, whose authorized ability, diligence and integrity have been important in making ready these indictments and main this prosecution effort.”
Chief Assistant State Lawyer Joseph Mansfield added, “Tampering with proof and unlawful interception of communications strike on the core of our authorized system. These coordinated acts of obstruction wouldn’t have come to gentle with out the persistence of our investigative workforce and our federal companions. The integrity of the justice course of calls for that we maintain even the very best officers accountable when the legislation is damaged.”