Central Florida Woman Arrested in Marathon After Fleeing, Threatening, Kicking Deputies

Marianela Baez Dorta was clocked driving a Toyota at more than 80 miles per hour through a 35-mph zone in Marathon before dawn Monday, then threatened to kill a deputy after her arrest and kicked a jail officer in the stomach while hurling racial slurs at him.

Monroe County Sheriff's Office deputies spotted Baez Dorta, a central Florida resident, speeding through Marathon at approximately 4:30 a.m., traveling more than double the posted speed limit. When deputies moved to stop her, she attempted to evade them. The pursuit ended on 23rd Street, where Baez Dorta parked her vehicle and tried to conceal herself near a vacation rental home before deputies took her into custody.

The encounter did not end with the handcuffs. After her apprehension, Baez Dorta repeatedly threatened to kill one of the arresting deputies. At the jail, she escalated further, kicking a Detention Deputy in the stomach while directing racial slurs at him.

She now faces three charges, each carrying significant prison exposure. Fleeing and eluding, a third-degree felony under Florida Statute § 316.1935, carries up to five years in state prison along with potential license suspension and vehicle forfeiture. Battery on a law enforcement officer, the charge tied to the kick at the jail, is also a third-degree felony under § 784.07, punishable by up to five years in prison, five years of probation, and a $5,000 fine. She also faces a charge of threatening a law enforcement officer.

Florida law allows an additional enhancement worth noting: aggravated fleeing and eluding with wanton disregard for safety can be elevated to a second-degree felony carrying up to 15 years. Baez Dorta's speed, more than 45 mph over the posted limit, may bear on any such upgrade.

The Monroe County Sheriff's Office, which patrols approximately 112 miles of islands from the mainland's southern tip to Key West, has recorded a run of similar arrests in recent years. In December 2024, a 58-year-old Marathon man faced DUI and fleeing-and-eluding charges following a chase on U.S. 1. Earlier that year, a Key West woman was arrested in the Lower Keys on fleeing and resisting charges, and a Key Largo stop yielded a fleeing suspect found with cocaine and drug paraphernalia.

The stretch of 23rd Street where Baez Dorta attempted to hide sits in a neighborhood typical of Marathon, where vacation rentals and residential homes share the same blocks throughout the island. Deputies found her there before she could slip away in the predawn darkness.