Fired Monroe County Deputy Arrested for Misusing Law Enforcement Databases

Lamar Eliseo Roman, a 28-year-old former Monroe County Sheriff's Office deputy, was arrested Tuesday and booked into the MCSO Key West jail facility on charges of misuse of law enforcement computers, computer networks, and electronic devices, the agency announced.

Roman lasted less than a year with the Sheriff's Office. Hired in May 2025, he was fired before his arrest on March 10, 2026. The agency's inmate roster listed his occupation simply as "ex-law enforcement." Online records showed he was being held on a $50,000 bond.

Agency spokesperson Adam Linhardt said in a news release that Roman "used law enforcement databases to look up information for personal reasons beyond the legal scope of his employment." The release did not specify which databases Roman allegedly accessed, how many times, or whether any individuals were identified as having been affected by the unauthorized searches. Arrest documents were not immediately available Tuesday evening.

Sheriff Rick Ramsay addressed the arrest directly in the release. "I am committed to keeping this community informed of significant events that occur in this agency, good and bad," Ramsay said.

The Roman arrest is not the first time MCSO has confronted this type of allegation. In July 2024, the agency arrested deputy Jennifer Ketcham, 40, on 19 felony counts of misuse of law enforcement computers, networks, and electronic devices. Prosecutors later added eight counts of official misconduct and eight charges of using a two-way communication device to facilitate a felony, after investigators identified eight specific events in which Ketcham allegedly delivered what Chief Assistant State Attorney Joe Mansfield described as "vital" information about active investigations to her reported drug-dealing boyfriend. The Monroe County State Attorney's Office subsequently filed 16 additional criminal charges against Ketcham, who had been a shift supervisor earning $66,646 annually since joining the agency in June 2021.

The pattern extends further back. In July 2020, a 53-year-old semi-retired MCSO reserve deputy turned himself in on 30 counts of accessing an electronic computer device without authorization after allegedly conducting approximately 1,368 searches through Florida's Driver and Vehicle Information Database and the Florida Crime Information Center over two years. Those searches, totaling more than 2,920 DAVID accesses between January 2018 and April 2020, were allegedly performed to run background checks for his security job at Ocean Reef Resort on the north side of Key Largo.

The specific statutes cited against Roman and the precise number of counts filed had not been made public as of Tuesday evening. No defense counsel was identified in available records.