Pastor Bishop Gaspar Anastasi recently told his congregation that dark forces were out to destroy his faith-based drug rehab center in a rural neighborhood in south Lee County.
“We’re going through like a tremendous battle … and the stuff that is coming against [us] is crazy stuff,” the 80-year-old native New Yorker told parishioners at his Word of Life Ministries church during his June 28 sermon. “Crazy demonic things. I mean demonic.”
One of the alleged demons is 57-year-old Melinda Clarkson Isley, a married grandmother and small business owner who lives near Anastasi’s 30-person faith-based New Life Dream Center (NLDC) in the Deer Run Farms neighborhood in southern Lee County.
Anastasi sees Isley as an “enemy” out to shut down an institution he says has helped countless people overcome drug addiction. Isley said she only wants to know how an unlicensed rehab center ended up in her rural single-family zoned neighborhood — and why so many local politicians have thrown their support behind it, including Congressman Byron Donalds, who recently toured NLDC and is currently the frontrunner to become Florida’s next governor.
In this Sunday’s sermon, Anastasi essentially endorsed Donalds and congressional hopeful Jim Oberweis, who was present in the audience with his wife, to the flock.
“It’s very important you vote and vote as you hear the holy spirit,” he said. “[Donalds and Oberweis] will not bow down to the system but will stand up for what is morally and biblically correct. That’s who I want to vote for. That’s who you ought to vote for.”
Then, before taking tithes, he backtracked.
“Don’t ever say, by the way, that the bishop told me who to vote for,” he said. “I did not tell you who to vote for. I only told you who I was voting for.”
He had very serious reason to try to downplay the endorsement. Stating a position on any candidate for public office “clearly violates the prohibition against political campaign activity” for non-profit churches like Word of Life, according to the Internal Revenue Service.
“Violating this prohibition may result in denial or revocation of tax-exempt status and the imposition of certain excise taxes,” the IRS states on its website.
The separation of church and state, Anastasi said in a recent Florida Trident interview, doesn’t exist. And in his case that wall seems to be vanishing. Though the Florida Constitution explicitly bans the use of public funds to “aid” any religious institution, Anastasi’s friends in the Florida Legislature gave the center a $298,000 appropriation last year and were poised to provide it $1.85 million more in taxpayers’ money before complaints from Isley and her neighbors stymied the effort. (Attorney General James Uthmeier unilaterally announced in April he would not enforce the religious funding ban, claiming it was unconstitutional).
Anastasti, conversely, enjoys a great deal of freedom from government due to the religious status — he pays no taxes on the five-acre Deer Run Farms property purchased by Word of Life in 2022 for $1.45 million and the center is exempt from state regulation and licensing requirements.
Isley and her neighbors said they couldn’t understand how Anastasi started such a business in a single family neighborhood in the first place.
“I’m not against people getting help, I’m against the way they went about it,” Isley told the Florida Trident. “Drug rehabilitations run by churches have no oversight. It’s scary. It shouldn’t be getting funding from the state.”
Following complaints against the center, Lee County hit NLDC earlier this year with a zoning violation, along with citations for unpermitted construction, among other alleged violations. Faced with possible closure, Anastasi has hired the politically connected law firm of Strayhorn and Persons-Mulicka to represent him in the fight. The latter named partner, Jenna Persons-Mulicka, is a former state representative now serving as the county’s supervisor of elections.
“Under federal housing laws and the Americans With Disability Act, we’re legally accepted in that location,” said the pastor. “The county has all the information they need and hopefully we’ll have it cleared up soon.”
He said he just wants to keep helping people with his center, which is all about the gospel. “It’s based on Jesus, the word of God, and the miraculous power of the Lord,” Anastasi said. “It’s non-violent, it’s a beautiful type of program.”
Isley, however, saw nothing godly in the pastor’s involvement in a massive property fraud scheme back in his native New York that led to an in-depth Village Voice article about him in 2001 titled “Let Us Prey.”
Anastasi acknowledged in a phone interview with the Trident that his church was used as a front in the fraud, which involved swindling federal grant money meant to be used to improve low-income properties, and that he accepted payments in the scheme that he considered “part of a tithe.”
He claimed however that he was misled by his former lawyer and that all the money he received from the scheme went straight to the ministry rather than his own pocket. He credited that as a big reason he wasn’t among the 16 people eventually criminally charged in the scheme.
“I’m guilty because I was naive and I believed the attorneys,” Anastasi said. “I wasn’t convicted of anything, thank God. I didn’t buy a house or a car. I didn’t buy new shoes. It all went right into the New Life Dream Center.”
The past scandal only added to the distrust of neighbors in Deer Run Farms. And their digging, which included a trove of public records provided to the Trident, would uncover a web of political influence behind Anastasi rife with apparent conflicts of interest and misuse of public resources stretching from NLDC to the Lee Health system to the Legislature.
A bevy of state legislators — including Rep. Vanessa Oliver, Sen. Jonathan Martin, and even Persons-Mulicka prior to her appointment as supervisor in May by the governor – have at times assisted the New Life Dream Center to obtain funding.
But the most powerful ally the church had was David Lee Klein, the former elected chair of Lee Health Systems. Public records show he served for years as Anastasi’s political go-to guy and mobilized the then-public health system’s staff to work on behalf of the church.
What the records show
David Klein is a true believer in Gaspar Anastasi.
“He’s a holy individual,” Klein told the Trident. “I’ve spent time with him. I’ve seen reverence in him. He administers to the sick. I’ve seen him welcome them into his home. He’s about as good a person as you can find.”
Their relationship dates back to at least 2022, when the self-appointed “apostle” endorsed Klein during his maiden campaign for the Lee Health board, which oversees a $2 billion budget and some 16,000 employees. Klein remained on the board after the health system was privatized in late 2024 but exited as chairman earlier this year.
Lee Health emails originally requested by Isley and obtained by the Trident show Klein repeatedly enlisted public employees to help New Life Dream Center despite Florida law restricting health district board members from involvement in the day-to-day operations of the Lee Health system. The records show Klein asking staff to arrange tours of the center, introduce Anastasi to business leaders, draft legislative appropriations requests and help secure public funding.
The effort was largely carried out by Nicholas Grant, Lee Health’s government relations director. Emails show Grant writing funding requests, contacting legislators, arranging tours for elected officials and promoting NLDC to community leaders. Michael Nachef, then vice president of government relations, and Chief Medical Officer Scott Nygaard also voiced support for NLDC and participated in the support efforts.
“Just checking in to see if there is an update on possible state funding for the New Life Dream Center,” Klein wrote Lee Health employees on Aug. 25, 2023. “I see [Anastasi] on September 6. Thanks.”
Grant replied that he’d tried and failed to obtain money for NLDC from one state-funded non-profit organization and suggested pursuing appropriations from the county and state. “First Lady Casey DeSantis is a huge proponent of faith-based organizations,” Grant noted.
Klein responded that the county had refused previous funding due to “separation of church and state issues” and encouraged Grant to try to circumvent those concerns by making NLDC a subcontractor to a non-religious corporation.
“This seems like the next step in securing funding,” Klein wrote to Grant. “May we have you please take the lead?”
Klein even went so far as to suggest that Lee Health cardiac patients be diverted to NLDC, something he wrote in an email was “pursued” but ultimately “deferred.”
The emails show the main focus of Klein and Grant was the Legislature. Grant described reaching out to numerous legislators, arranging tours of NLDC for them, and asking them to sponsor funding requests he was writing for the center.
But Klein said it was someone else — long-time Lee Health CEO Larry Antonucci — who led the efforts on behalf of NLDC.
When questioned by the Trident, Klein acknowledged he was forbidden by law to direct Lee Health staff while he served on the board. “I’m not supposed to be in operations period unless somebody asks for my advice,” said Klein.
“My relationship goes through [Antonucci],” Klein said. “I brought the CEO out there [to NLDC] and said, ‘Isn’t this worthy?’ and it was up to him to decide. He supported it. I didn’t direct staff — the CEO directs staff.”
Antonucci, however, is never mentioned or cc’d in any of the Lee Health email correspondence, and when contacted by the Trident, Grant said he never interacted with the CEO about NLDC.
“I had no communication with [Antonucci] about it,” said Grant.
When the Trident reached out to Antonucci, who is leaving his CEO post in September, Lee Health media relations director Jaclyn Beavis responded instead.
“Lee Health System, Inc. has no comment regarding the ethics complaint filed against former Lee Memorial Health System Board member David Klein,” Beavis wrote.
Antonucci did, however, respond to Isley’s concerns in a June 2 email in which he falsely claimed Lee Health’s involvement was “limited to providing educational information to a non-profit organization seeking to engage in the legislative appropriations process,” dubbing it “routine.”
He further claimed that Grant’s name was “mistakenly listed on an appropriation that did not advance this past year” — an apparent reference to the $1.85 million request that was ultimately withdrawn by Rep. Adam Botana, its sponsor, after residents raised concerns.
Grant was listed as the lobbyist on not just one but four of the rehab center’s appropriation requests. He admitted to giving numerous tours of the facility to elected officials and meeting with business leaders seeking funding and patients, but said that even though he wrote several NLDC-related emails during normal working hours, he did so on his own time and “out of the goodness of my heart.”
There was one legislator, however, who didn’t include Grant’s name as a lobbyist at all. Vanessa Oliver’s office left that part of the form blank, even as her co-sponsor in the senate, Jonathan Martin, included Grant’s name as the lobbyist. Martin declined to comment for this article.
Also not mentioned on the form: Grant is Vanessa Oliver’s brother.
Siblings join forces for NLDC
Nicholas Grant told the Trident he would never have his sister sponsor any legislation or funding request he represented as a lobbyist.
“Absolutely not,” he said. “I don’t like anything looking like she’s giving me undue favor.”
Yet he admitted he introduced his sister to NLDC, wrote the funding request (which listed Klein’s name as an NLDC contact), and sent it to Oliver’s legislative office.
“I said, ‘Take a look at this program,’ and she did, and then they asked her if she would sponsor the budget request,” Grant told the Trident, adding, “She can make up her own mind, she’s not going to listen to my advice.”
The emails, however, suggest Grant played a larger role.
In a Sept. 21, 2024 email copied to Grant, Klein thanked Rep. Oliver for accepting an invitation to tour NLDC “with some persuasive argument from Nick” and wrote they hoped to continue hosting elected officials “again with Nick’s help.”
Grant insisted he wasn’t involved in directly securing his sister’s help for the state funding. However, emails show Klein thanked Oliver after being first informed by her brother that she agreed to sponsor the funding request.
After the $298,000 was approved, Anastasi also thanked Oliver in an email, telling her that with her “support and God’s grace” NLDC was “purchasing vans to safely transport students” among other uses for the money.
In a complaint filed with the Florida Ethics Commission, Isley alleges Rep. Oliver misused her public position. “Using a public legislative office to sponsor state funds to benefit her biological brother’s corporate lobbying client constitutes a clear misuse of public position,” she wrote in the complaint.
Grant rejected the allegation, arguing that because he had no financial relationship with Anastasi or NLDC, he received no special benefit from his sister’s action. As for Isley, Grant had harsh words.
“These people [at NLDC] are just living their lives,” he said, “and you have this bitch causing these people undue harm.”
Oliver didn’t respond to a request for comment sent to her legislative office.
Isley also filed an ethics complaint against Klein, alleging he “corruptly used his official public position as a Lee Health [board member], alongside public hospital personnel under his trust, to secure special privileges, financial benefits, and legislative advancements for a private entity (New Life Dream Center).”
Klein, too, said he received no compensation from Anastasi for his work on behalf of NLDC and therefore didn’t do anything “corruptly.”
“‘Corrupt’ means there’s gonna be a personal benefit back to me,” he said. “What’s the benefit? I have no business relationship with Gaspar. I have no contract and never have.”
When asked if he had concerns about Anastasi’s involvement in the New York property fraud scheme, Klein said he didn’t know about it.
“I’m not aware of any fraud that he’s involved in,” said Klein. “He’s a religious man. He lives a very modest life. I can’t imagine he’d do anything self-serving.”
Anastasi, meanwhile, downplayed his relationship with Klein, claiming he’d only known him for a year – an assertion that contradicts Klein, the Lee Health email records, and his own 2022 endorsement. He also claimed he’d met Grant only once despite the latter’s admission to having conducted several NLDC tours.
Anastasi said his efforts to secure patient referrals from the expansive health care system -- an effort also pursued by Klein — were unsuccessful.
“We never got any clients from Lee Health at all,” he said.
“It’s gonna take over Southwest Florida”
Anastasi said he’s addressing the county code issues right now, including the installation of a new septic system, in hopes of winning approval from the county to continue operating despite the zoning issue. As for the zoning issue, his attorneys, including Persons-Mulicka, submitted a request for “reasonable accommodation” on June 22.
Isley argues in a third ethics complaint that Persons-Mulicka’s involvement also represents a conflict of interest, in part because her husband, David Mulicka, is a county commissioner who ultimately oversees the code enforcement department that is taking action against NLDC.
She also pointed out that Persons-Mulicka, while a state representative prior to her appointment to her current post by Gov. Ron DeSantis, supported the facility and at one point tried to help it secure taxpayers’ funding.
“She toured the facility, her name was on a funding request, and now she’s getting paid by them as their lawyer,” said Isley. “That seems like a total conflict of interest to me.”
Persons-Mulicka didn’t respond to requests for comment sent to her law firm and the elections office she runs. Anastasi meanwhile predicted the New Life Dream Center will ultimately prevail against his “enemies.”
“They used the political machine, they used the governmental machine, they used the zoning machine … they got no more weapons left,” he said during the recent sermon. “I declare the victory already ahead of time in Jesus’ name.”
With friends like gubernatorial hopeful Donalds still in tow, he may have reason to be confident. After Donalds toured NLDC with Anastasi and Klein last month, the congressman praised the rehab center for “doing vital work” which the preacher said is just beginning.
“God’s gonna promote the New Life Dream Center in such a way that it’s gonna take over Southwest Florida,” he told his followers. “And God is going to use it as a role model for America.”
About the Author: Bob Norman is a senior editor for the Florida Trident. His work as an investigative reporter has won dozens of awards and led to criminal charges and the removal of several corrupt public officials. He can be reached at norman@flcga.org.
The Florida Trident is an investigative news outlet focusing on government accountability and transparency across Florida. The Trident was created and first published in 2022 by the Florida Center for Government Accountability, a non-profit organization that facilitates local investigative reporting across the state.
