LCSO

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.

In the spring of 2023, Cape Coral resident Tammy King went to a doctor’s office in nearby St. James City, hoping to refill her prescriptions for medication to treat her ADHD. Instead she was roughed up by Lee County sheriff’s deputies and wrongfully forced into a mental facility, according to a federal lawsuit filed on her behalf.

In a social media conversation Tuesday afternoon, Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno discussed the state of the agency, highlighting what he described as the agency's accomplishments. In the fifteen-minute exchange, he mentioned next to nothing about an ongoing FBI investigation.

Embattled Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno has been captured in video recordings accepting a stack of cash from the same “ghost employee” who has claimed the two men were involved in a kickback scheme involving sheriff’s office funds paid to Marceno’s father.The video shows Marceno receiving what appears to be a thick stack of hundred-dollar bills from jeweler Ken Romano, who is said to be cooperating in an FBI investigation of the sheriff.

The Matanzas Pass Bridge was closed Monday morning after a shrimp boat struck a portion of the bottom of the span.The same boat hit the bridge again Tuesday morning.

A 25-year-old Cape Coral man is facing homicide, robbery and other charges in connection with a fatal shooting on Three Oaks Parkway Thursday.Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno reported the arrest of Khylil Draine came Saturday.“We knew our suspect in minutes, we arrested him in hours," the sheriff said. "This case still has a lot of work, it’s a fresh case.”

Deputies including K-9 officers, flooded a gated community off Three Oaks Parkway Thursday morning searching for a suspect in a homicide.

The University Police Department is conducting an active assailant training exercise from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, May 25, in Biscayne Hall, part of FGCU’s South Village residential area. A simulator that portrays the sound of gunshots may be heard throughout the training.

More than 50 pieces of heavy equipment as well as law enforcement vehicles including helicopters, ambulances and fire trucks, will be spread out inside Hertz Arena Saturday for what’s being called SW Florida’s Largest Touch-A-Truck Event.The event is a collaboration between the Florida Department of Transportation and the Lee County Sheriff's Office.