Pubdate: Wed, 30 Jun 1999 Source: Miami Herald (FL) Copyright: 1999 The Miami Herald Contact: One Herald Plaza, Miami FL 33132-1693 Fax: (305) 376-8950 Website: http://www.herald.com/ Forum: http://krwebx.infi.net/webxmulti/cgi-bin/WebX?mherald Author: Susana Bellido, Herald Staff Writer EX-OFFICER GIVEN 10 YEARS IN PRISON She Moved Drugs, Took A Hostage KEY WEST -- A former Miami-Dade police-officer-turned-drug-dealer who wreaked havoc in downtown Key West two years ago after officers found cocaine in her cruise ship cabin was sentenced to 10 years in prison Tuesday. When Charlotte Green Ramos tried to run from authorities on Sept. 27, 1997, she held a kite shop owner at knife-point. Police surrounded the state attorney's office mistakenly, thinking it was the scene of the hostage situation, and a police officer responding to the emergency call rammed his patrol car into tourist-packed Sloppy Joe's. Ramos pleaded guilty to kidnapping to facilitate a felony, aggravated battery, escape and aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer. "She created a great risk of harm to many people . . . during a busy time of the day," said Assistant State Attorney Manny Madruga. Prosecutors asked Monroe County Circuit Judge Richard Payne to punish Ramos with a tougher sentence, but he stayed within state guidelines. She was also sentenced to concurrent five-year prison sentences for cocaine trafficking and unrelated theft charges. While suspended from the Miami-Dade police force because of grand theft charges, Ramos went on a cruise ship to Jamaica with two other women and brought back 9 pounds of cocaine, Madruga said. During a port call by the ship in Key West, Customs agents checking out a tip found the drugs in bags in Ramos' closet. She agreed to cooperate with authorities and lead them to the person to whom she was to deliver the drugs. But while police escorted her around downtown Key West she escaped, grabbed a T-shirt and knife from a Duval Street shop and warned officers against coming near her. She asked them to kill her. She stumbled into a shop owner and put the knife to his throat. Finally, officers convinced her to drop the knife and arrested her. On Tuesday, Ramos apologized to the merchant and officers and said she had made the drug run because she found herself in a desperate financial situation when she was suspended from her job. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake