{"id":39577,"date":"2016-04-06T10:22:15","date_gmt":"2016-04-06T14:22:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=39577"},"modified":"2016-04-06T22:09:11","modified_gmt":"2016-04-07T02:09:11","slug":"lee-county-sheriff-refuses-interview-with-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2016\/04\/lee-county-sheriff-refuses-interview-with-us\/","title":{"rendered":"Lee County Sheriff Refuses Interview With Us"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Lee County Sheriff Mike Scott<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lehigh Acres Gazette tried to get an interview with Sheriff Mike Scott about issues in Lehigh Acres. After a volley of emails back and forth we received the following from Public Information Officer Tony Schall, \u201cThe Sheriff declines your request for interview.\u201d<\/p>\n

This community has issues, murders, burglars, drugs and even 4-wheel issues, so were are the answers?<\/p>\n

Sheriff wanted detailed questions prior to the interview, The Lehigh Acres Gazette has a policy of not doing this at all because you get can responses to the questions. The readership of this newspaper deserve the correct answers to questions.<\/p>\n

But now he refuses to be interviewed \u2013 what the crap \u2013 he is running to be reelection in November 2016 and he cannot get along with the local media and answer some simple question concerning the taxpayers and voters in Lehigh Acres?<\/p>\n

Currently the Sheriff is on the war path with Waterman Broadcasting (NBC-2 and ABC-7)<\/p>\n

A note from Sheriff Mike Scott: (this was posted on the Lee County Sheriff\u2019s Facebook page)<\/p>\n


\nLast week, the brave men and women of law enforcement dismantled a major heroin operation in our community.\u00a0 The success of the mission was well publicized by the same media that actually risked compromising it before publicizing it.\u00a0 You see, on the eve and eve prior of this operation, Waterman Broadcasting, which is NBC 2 and ABC 7, refused our requests to scrap their story about techniques used in undercover surveillance.\u00a0 Techniques that were in fact being utilized in this major drug bust.
\nSo while some new to town Reporter in a long line of many was writing a story, Vice Detectives were writing Search Warrants.\u00a0 While this Reporter was adjusting the knot in his tie, the last line of defense was adjusting knots in their stomachs as the morning of the high-risk search warrants approached.\u00a0 While the Reporters were fixing their hair and applying make-up to look their best before facing a camera, the cops were securing their ballistic body armor and tactical weapons to preserve their lives before facing grave danger or worse.\u00a0 As the talking heads read the morning news from teleprompters in their bright and insulated studio, the SWAT heroes jumped out of armored vehicles in the pre-dawn hour and busted through the front door of dangerous drug dealers.
\nWe had trouble with Waterman during critical points of the Dr. Teresa Sievers murder investigation too.\u00a0 It seems their unquenchable thirst to be first overrides their common sense and courtesy with regard to the integrity of investigations and the safety of law enforcement officers.\u00a0 I suppose the News Directors make the ultimate decision to not cooperate with us, leaving me to wonder if they would interfere so recklessly were it one of their loved ones murdered, or if the major drug dealer lived on their street.
\nOur community is a much safer place following last week\u2019s big bust and more will follow despite what appears to be a trend of irresponsible Reporters and reporting in some media circles.\u00a0 It is truly a shame and a growing problem that we face\u2026as if our job wasn\u2019t tough enough already.<\/p>\n

-Mike<\/p>\n

From Steve Pontius Vice President and GM Waterman Broadcasting; (by emailto the Lehigh Acres Gazette)<\/p>\n

Waterman Broadcasting, NBC2 and ABC7, has always supported the on-going efforts of law enforcement throughout Southwest Florida.\u00a0 We applaud the brave men and women who protect and serve.<\/p>\n

Last week we were approached by a group of Lehigh residents who were concerned with a mysterious box that appeared on a utility pole in their neighborhood.\u00a0 They were told by the men who installed the box that it was to enhance cell phone service.<\/p>\n

One of the concerned neighbors climbed the poll and took cell phone video that showed that the box contained a camera.\u00a0 They brought their concerns to NBC2 for investigation.<\/p>\n

We reached out to every law enforcement agency in Southwest Florida for comment. \u00a0Not one agency\u00a0would provide us with an explanation or comment regarding the box.<\/p>\n

Nothing in our coverage identified the specific location of the box other than to state it was in Lehigh Acres.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lehigh Acres Gazette tried to get an interview with Sheriff Mike Scott about issues in Lehigh Acres. After a volley of emails back and forth we received the following from… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":3895,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,32],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39577"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}