Monroe SAO Releases More Ramsingh Discovery

City Attorney failed to comply with subpoenas; Communication with other commissioners about plans to get rid of former City Manager Al Childress may have violated Florida’s Sunshine Laws.

Indicted, disgraced City Attorney Ron Ramsingh turned over less than one-third of the text messages requested in search warrants and subpoenas issued by the Monroe County State Attorney’s Office and Federal Bureau of Investigation as part of their joint investigation.

Ramsingh complied with the orders by providing investigators with 73 text messages sent between June 4 and 28, 2024, and affirming under oath that those were all the messages sent during that time period.

Unfortunately, during the course of the SAO and FBI investigations, the agencies verified with wireless provider, Verizon, that Ramsingh had sent 366 messages during that time period, leaving 293 messages missing and unaccounted for.

Because the agencies also requested phone records from Ramsingh’s brother and Chief Building Officer, Raj, and Code’s Jim Young, investigators were able to piece together individual and group messages to sitting commissioners Carey, Weekley, Lopez, and Wardlow with regards to an effort by the Bubba Bozo Trio to either force former City Manager Albert Childress to resign, or to terminate him with cause.

They also found that Ramsingh failed to turn over 10 out of 21 phone calls to his brother during the same period. Walker noted that Ramsingh had not objected to any of the requests for production or the specified dates.

Eventually, four commissioners voted to terminate Childress without cause. Still, for those of us covering City Hall in the media, there was one burning question: “How did four commissioners, three of whom had given Childress meets-or-exceeds expectations reviews, all miraculously come to the same conclusion all at once without discussing the matter among themselves?”

Well.

Apparently, they didn’t.

The tale is in the texts.

SAO Investigator Thomas Walker stated in the discovery documents that the missing messages — when pieced together from various other sources — showed a coordinated effort spearheaded by Ramsingh to remove Childress in retaliation for disciplinary actions against his brother and Chief Building Officer, Raj.

The CBO found himself in the crosshairs while at a continuing education course in Orlando. The Department of Professional and Business Regulations had determined that Ramsingh’s certification had lapsed and the State had recommended shutting down the building department immediately while the State investigated. At the time, Childress had ordered CBO Ramsingh to return to Key West immediately.

Also at issue was his bypassing of the Planning department in issuing permits which was outside of his purview as CBO as outlined in the previously referenced Corradino Report.

The City Attorney went as far as to seek an opinion from a labor law specialist (it is unclear who paid for those services) who concurred the State and City’s position.

For some reason as yet to be determined, Ramsingh then shared that information with Carey, Henriquez and Lee with the caveat that they “not share it with outside people.”

In addition to forcing out Childress to protect his brother, Ramsingh appeared to have a vested interest in Henriquez taking the gavel.

In another text, the City Attorney counseled Weekley not to mention anything about a special meeting with regards to Childress until after the election qualifying date because it might spur then-Mayor Teri Johnston to re-enter the race and challenge Henriquez.

Johnston, a vocal Childress supporter, was eligible to run for a fourth term as Mayor, but ultimately decided not to run.

The FBI and SAO also obtained copies of several messages where commission candidate (and former KWPD Chief Donie Lee) said that he had discussed the Childress topic with Weekley. They also uncovered group texts between Ramsingh, Lee, Henriquez, and Carey — some of which belied a prejudice towards being a Conch asa job qualification.

Under Florida’s Government in the Sunshine laws, individuals are forbidden from acting as a conduit to pass information among elected officials.

Prior to qualifying for his seat unopposed, Lee had sought various legal opinions from the SAO and other attorneys as to whether he could talk with other commissioners. Lee told investigators that Dennis Ward told him there wouldn’t be a conflict before he was elected, but that he didn’t know why he would want to.

After qualifying without opposition, Lee was included on emails pertaining to official city business. Discussions then ramped up between him, the City Attorney and sitting commissioners — possibly in violation of the Sunshine Law.

Keep checking this space.

And as a reminder, all suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law by a jury of their peers.

To view the second round of discovery and evidence in the case of The People v. Ron Ramsingh with your own eyes, click below.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/wjoa97kp52sxbnknmunxx/AMwENJUVAf1WC7kZvX0oovU?rlkey=ubv9qau1rgt26pg7ho0gode8h&st=npmyto4p&dl=0