A small but determined crowd gathered on the corner outside the Lee County Sheriff’s Office on Six Mile Cypress Parkway for a “Stop the Corruption” rally. The timing was no coincidence - the demonstration came just days after officials announced they had closed a yearlong investigation into Sheriff Carmine Marceno.
“I have renewed hope,” said Mitzi Cootware, Saturday, Nov. 22. “We just needed a few days to recharge, and I had to get my anger out on everybody, and now we're back.”
Cootware arrived wearing flip-flops and with a hammer. Not as a statement, but to pound wooden sticks into the ground to support a large banner featuring Sheriff Marceno’s photo with the word “criminal” splashed across it.
She wasn’t the only one feeling reenergized. Bob Valenta, one of roughly a dozen protesters, said the group’s goal is simply to reach everyday residents.
“We just hope to get the message out to the regular voters and the regular citizens that this problem of corruption exists in Lee County,” Valenta said.
No deputies came out of the building during the demonstration, just a few passing honks of support and a handful of protesters who say they’re not done yet.
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