KEY WEST, Fla. — Florida Highway Patrol troopers arrested a Monroe County Tax Collector’s Office employee on Thursday after accusing her of knowingly getting a man an identification card under someone else’s name, according to arrest documents made public on Monday.
Sandi Marie Wensel, 37, of Key West, faces three felonies and one misdemeanor charge. She has since been fired, Monroe County Tax Collector Sam Steele told Local 10 News via email.
According to an FHP arrest report, Wensel issued an ID card to Reneris Obando Martinez, 45, of Geiger Key, under another man’s name and Social Security card on July 21.
Records show an FHP trooper pulled over Obando on July 22 near Boca Chica Road and the Overseas Highway on Big Coppitt Key and took him into custody on felony fraud, forgery and perjury charges.
Troopers said that Obando, a Nicaraguan national under a deportation order, admitted that he knew Wensel and was “friends with her husband.”
Surveillance footage showed Wensel “gestur(ing) for (Obando) to come directly to her workstation” when he was in the tax collector’s office and issuing him the ID card.
Authorities said they went to the office, located at 1200 Truman Ave. in Key West, on Thursday morning and took Wensel into custody.
According to the arrest report, she admitted she knew Obando as “Rene” and not under the name she issued the ID card for ― a man named Luis ― and showed investigators text messages between her and Obando’s wife as he arrived at the office.
Wensel, who faces charges of official misconduct, issuing identification documents to an unauthorized person, unlawful use of a two-way communications device and criminal conspiracy, was given a $15,000 bond and no longer appeared in Monroe County Sheriff’s Office jail records as of Monday morning.
Meanwhile, records show Obando remained in MCSO’s Key West jail facility on a $320,000 bond. His arrest report also states that he has an immigration detainer.
Steele told Local 10 News in an email Monday afternoon that his office “immediately reviewed our transaction records and security footage” and provided information to FHP after being informed of the investigation into Wensel, who was “immediately” fired following her arrest.
“A public office is a public trust,” Steele said. “As an elected constitutional officer, I lawfully appoint my deputy tax collectors to carry out the duties of this office, and each takes a loyalty oath before serving the public. My employees are entrusted with sensitive personal information, and I have zero tolerance for conduct that abuses that trust or compromises the integrity of this office.
“My office has cooperated fully with the Florida Highway Patrol throughout its investigation, and we value our continued partnership with FHP in protecting the public.”
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