CUDJOE KEY, Fla. — A Florida Keys sheriff’s deputy was arrested by his own colleagues after they said he drove drunk with “a young child in the vehicle” while off-duty early Wednesday morning.
It’s not the first time the 30-year-old lawman with the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office has been to the county jail ― as an inmate. Deputy Jesus Abdiel Rojas Burgos faces charges of DUI and child neglect.
According to an MCSO arrest report, Rojas Burgos, driving a Nissan Kicks SUV, nearly sideswiped a fellow deputy’s cruiser along U.S. 1 on Cudjoe Key as he passed him at about 75 mph in a 45 mph zone.
The report states that the on-duty deputy pulled Rojas Burgos over and “instantly” smelled alcohol.
“In plain view on the front passenger seat, I observed a partially (quarter) full bottle of Bacardi rum,” the deputy wrote. “I asked Jesus if the bottle belonged to him, and he stated ‘it’s inside the car’ sarcastically.”
The deputy said he then saw the child, secured in a car seat. “Jesus advised he was on his way to take his child home,” he wrote.
The report states that Rojas Burgos initially admitted to having “a couple of drinks, but a while ago,” but then denied drinking that night.
He failed a battery of field sobriety tests, according to the report, and deputies took him into custody.
During a vehicle search, deputies said they found “a half-full bottle of Bacardi Black Rum” on the front passenger’s seat, a “purple Beat box beverage container” in the passenger’s door cupholder and “a blue shot glass containing a liquid substance consistent in appearance and odor with the Bacardi Black Rum” in the center console.
They said they found Rojas Burgos’ service weapon “inside the front driver(’s) side door console.”
Authorities said he later blew a 0.06% blood alcohol content during a breathalyzer test, under the legal limit of 0.08%. According to the National College for DUI Defense, Florida drivers under the legal limit can still be arrested for and convicted of DUI “if the person’s normal faculties were impaired.”
Deputies said they notified the Florida Department of Children and Families and “the child was handed over to Jesus’s girlfriend.”
Previous arrest
Rojas Burgos, then 28, was arrested in Key West in March 2024 after police accused him of misdemeanor battery on a woman at a Duval Street bar.
It’s not clear what became of the case, which does not appear in Monroe County court records.
MCSO officials said after his first arrest that Rojas Burgos was hired by the agency in 2023.
“I am committed to the public hearing about significant incidents in the Sheriff’s Office — both positive and negative — from me first,” Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay said in Wednesday’s news release.
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