Bob Norman/Florida Trident

As he faces a federal corruption investigation and also floats a potential run for Congress, the last thing Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno needs to do is upset his supposed allies in the Republican Party.But that may happen as a result of the surfacing of insulting and profanity-riddled audio recordings of Marceno talking about Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and first lady Casey DeSantis — as well as presidential daughter Ivanka Trump — obtained by the Florida Trident.

For Lee County Undersheriff John Holloway, the sheriff’s office is a family business.As if Holloway’s $280,000 public salary as second-in-command under embattled Sheriff Carmine Marceno weren’t enough, now his wife, lawyer Kathleen Holloway, has been added to the Lee County Sheriff’s Office payroll at $155,000 a year, bringing the couple’s total take from the agency to more than $430,000 annually, internal LCSO documents show.State ethics law forbids public officials like John Holloway from not only hiring relatives but also from advocating for relatives to be hired at their own agencies. The sheriff’s office maintains it wasn’t the undersheriff but Marceno himself who “recruited” Kathleen Holloway after an as yet unnamed outside law firm determined the hiring didn’t pose a legal issue for the undersheriff.

The March 27 announcement on the conservative website Florida’s Voice that Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno is considering a run for Congress was met with incredulity from some voters. According to his political consultant, Anthony Pedicini, Marceno is eying the Congressional seat being vacated by U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, who is running as President Donald Trump’s pick for governor.

If Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno were to leave or be removed from office, there are lawmen who could be considered frontrunners to replace him.

A run-in at the Luminary Hotel put an honorary deputy's badge to the test for a friend of Sheriff Carmine Marceno.

Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno put Ken Romano on the public payroll as a consultant in 2022 at $5,700 a month to provide “guidance regarding public relations” and social media at the agency. The consulting agreement, released by LCSO today, claimed the 55-year-old Romano possessed the “ability, certifications and experience” to do the job and was “duly qualified.”But Romano isn’t a public relations or social media expert. He’s a Bonita Springs jeweler and former Marceno gambling buddy who said in a recently surfaced audio recording that his LCSO consulting job was a no-work sham and a portion of the money — $1,700 a month — was used to pay for a Mercedes Benz the sheriff bought for his father, Carmine Marceno Sr.

Bonita Springs jeweler Ken Romano didn’t hide his association with Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno.The two men were allegedly close friends who shared a taste for gambling, bling and high-end cars. The 55-year-old Romano defended the sheriff in social media posts and displayed a framed “Keep Carmine Marceno Sheriff” campaign poster and badge-bedecked plaque from the sheriff’s office at his jewelry store on Bonita Beach Road.But the friendship blew up recently, and audio recordings allegedly show Romano making serious allegations against the sheriff involving Romano’s own employment as a “consultant” with LCSO. In the recordings, Romano alleged Marceno gave him a no-work contract at LCSO paying him $5,700 a month, $1,700 of which was paid to the sheriff’s father, Carmine Marceno Sr., for car payments on a Mercedes Benz.

Members of the government board overseeing the Sebring Regional Airport — which includes the historic Sebring International Raceway — tend to speak slowly in a southern drawl, but they pulled a fast one last year with the sale of 17 acres of publicly owned land.Without properly notifying the public of the proposed sale or opening it up for competitive bids, the city-appointed Sebring Airport Authority sold the land to a partnership that included local developer Mark Gose, who has private business ties to several board members, and former board member John Haviland.

In an exclusive story, The Florida Center for Government Accountability's Florida Trident reports that Trump VP hopeful Byron Donalds’ ex-wife shares her story, says what he’s doing is “super-dangerous.”

While Moms For Liberty cofounder Bridget Ziegler and her husband, former Florida GOP chair Christian Ziegler, fight in court today to keep law enforcement records related to the latter’s closed rape investigation from public view, a recently released police report provides startling details about the couple’s sexual practices. The report, obtained by the Florida Trident and authored by Sarasota police Det. Angela Cox, recounts how Christian Ziegler went “on the prowl” in bars for women to bring home to Bridget, a Sarasota County School Board member who has backed a number of anti-LGBTQ measures at both the state and local level, for threesome encounters.