Bob Norman/Florida Trident

In a recent viral social media post, U.S. Sen. Rick Scott makes bold allegations about the recent Los Angeles mayor’s primary election that saw Mayor Karen Bass and Democratic candidate Nithya Raman edge out Spencer Pratt, the former reality TV star endorsed by President Donald Trump.

Collier County sheriff’s reports from 2020 paint a very bleak portrait of Det. Sgt. Kristine Whittaker’s performance as a criminal investigations supervisor.

Lieutenant Arturo Gonzalez, who led the Fort Myers Police Department’s special enforcement division, abruptly retired this week after allegations he was caught on city surveillance video in an affectionate moment with a human resources employee earlier this month, the Florida Trident confirmed.

The federal corruption investigation against him was terminated last November, but Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno faces a new inquiry into some of the same allegations — this time by the Florida Ethics Commission. Editor's note: Watch WGCU's Southwest Florida In Focus tonight for a special interview with Florida Trident's Bob Norman on the Carmine Marceno case.

When a penny stock company in Arizona called Bourque Industries was looking to sell a new form of protective body armor to law enforcement agencies around the country back in 2011, nobody was buying it. Then the Collier County Sheriff’s Office stepped up.

A raft of never-before-seen police reports obtained by the Florida Trident via a public records request portray Carmine Marceno Sr., who was then 67, as a stalker, bully, and thief who routinely roamed a Collier County gated community where he lived in his signature sweat pants terrorizing his neighbors.

When the U.S. Attorney’s Office closed a criminal investigation into Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno in November, Marceno issued a statement calling allegations that he engaged in a kickback scheme “completely false.” But in an undercover FBI recording obtained by the Florida Trident, Marceno, while not admitting personal involvement, is heard telling his alleged co-conspirator that he has his “back” regarding payments that may have been made and assuring him they were his “personal business” and the public had no way to discover they were made.

When Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno won the Republican primary on Aug. 18, 2020, he celebrated in a Bonita Springs hotel suite, where close colleagues and friends stood in a circle around the room as he addressed each one. Among those in the circle were fellow sheriff’s office employees like Capt. Chris Lalor, whom he called “heaven sent,” and John Holloway, who would later become his undersheriff and whom he dubbed the “brains of the operation.” But saved for the end was someone Marceno said came from “a different place,” his closest friend, 56-year-old Ken Romano, a New Jersey-raised jeweler with both the look and voice of a backroom character on "The Sopranos."

Bonita Springs jeweler Ken Romano, a key witness in the federal investigation of Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno, stares into the camera and addresses an audience of one about rumors circulating that the corruption case against Marceno is going to be killed by the Trump Administration.In the video, Romano, whom Marceno once called his “most loyal friend,” singles out trash mogul Anthony Lomangino – a large campaign donor to both the sheriff and President Donald Trump – and U.S. Attorney General Palm Bondi.

After a Congressional committee released Jeffrey Epstein’s “birthday book” that included a cryptic and lewd homemade card allegedly sent to the notorious child sex trafficker by President Donald Trump, the White House jumped on social media to deny its authenticity.Strongly supporting those claims was Florida Congressman Byron Donalds, a close Trump ally and 2024 campaign surrogate, who claimed in an interview with CBS News on the Capitol steps that the signature was bogus.Unfortunately for Donalds, the “signature doesn’t match” talking point was discredited in lightning speed.