{"id":60255,"date":"2024-12-08T20:52:53","date_gmt":"2024-12-09T01:52:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=60255"},"modified":"2024-12-08T20:56:11","modified_gmt":"2024-12-09T01:56:11","slug":"grand-jury-proceeding-involving-lee-county-sheriffs-office-discussed-by-lee-county-commissioners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2024\/12\/grand-jury-proceeding-involving-lee-county-sheriffs-office-discussed-by-lee-county-commissioners\/","title":{"rendered":"Grand jury proceeding involving Lee County Sheriff\u2019s Office discussed by Lee County Commissioners"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The existence of a federal grand jury proceeding related to an investigation involving the Lee County Sheriff\u2019s Office was disclosed at a meeting of the Lee County Board of County Commissioners on Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Pendergrass asleep during a commission meeting<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

District 2 Commissioner Cecil Pendergrass said that a grand jury will be convening over \u201cthe next 10 days\u201d<\/em> regarding the investigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pendergrass said Thursday he believes the proceeding is looking into permitting involving the Lee County Sheriff\u2019s Office at their Six Mile Cypress Parkway property.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pendergrass also said Thursday that the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office is conducting an audit of the Lee County Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The budget of the office has grown from $196 million in 2020 to $315 million for the 2024-25 budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lee County Sheriff\u2019s Office Capt. Anita Iriarte responded to questions about the investigation by saying the office is cooperating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs always -and in all matters- the Sheriff\u2019s Office is working cooperatively, and cohesively with our law enforcement partners,\u201d<\/em> Iriarte said Thursday via email.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A grand jury proceeding is secret until charges, if any, are filed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comments by Pendergrass at Tuesday\u2019s meeting were in response to a proposal from District 2 Commissioner Brian Hamman to turn the Lee County Sheriff\u2019s Office budget into its own special district. Pendergrass pushed back against the move, saying it could lead to higher taxation if communities with their own police units reject the special district taxation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pendergrass said all six municipalities in the county would have to agree to the special district taxation or the rest of the county would end up paying more in taxes to make up for the loss of tax base from a municipality that rejected the special district.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI know everybody wants to respond based upon what\u2019s going on with the big elephant in the room,\u201d<\/em> Pendergrass said. \u201cThe grand jury is going to be convening for the next 10 days. We\u2019re not going to know anything for a few weeks. I don\u2019t want to get out there ahead of something. I know some people want to respond to something but sometimes it\u2019s best to wait and see.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hamman said his proposal for a special district for the Sheriff\u2019s Office would lead to greater transparency. He said the Sheriff\u2019s Office budget makes up about half of the county\u2019s General Fund.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis budget has been growing at such a large pace, we have had to cut other departments,\u201d<\/em> Hamman said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLaw enforcement is a top priority for us. I don\u2019t think they should be competing (with other departments),\u201d<\/em> Hamman said.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Hamman said he didn\u2019t want to cut the Sheriff\u2019s budget, though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s certainly something I don\u2019t want to be cut. It\u2019s something I want to see as a priority,\u201d<\/em> Hamman said. \u201cWe actually don\u2019t approve every single expenditure the Sheriff\u2019s Office makes. We only approve the budget.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hamman said he wants the county to look into his proposal in a strategic planning session by hiring a consultant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of premature thinking we are going to be able to control the Sheriff\u2019s Department budget,\u201d<\/em> Pendergrass said. \u201cIt wouldn\u2019t take any pressure off the commission\u201d<\/em> though he said it might take off some of the \u201climelight\u201d<\/em> on the commission for the Sheriff\u2019s Office budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe still don\u2019t have any control over purchases,\u201d<\/em> Pendergrass said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lee County Attorney Richard Wesch said a study would determine the tax levy and that all county municipalities would have to approve it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pendergrass said if every municipality paid into it, he would support it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Lee County Sheriff\u2019s Office and its budget has been under scrutiny in recent months since former Lee County Sheriff\u2019s Office Deputy Mike Hollow accused Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno of contracting with a Bonita Springs jewelry store owner for social media consulting for the department at a rate of $5,700 a month and then allegedly asking that individual to help pay for a luxury vehicle for Marceno\u2019s father.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The contract with the consultant was ultimately canceled by Marceno due to a reported law enforcement investigation involving the store owner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marceno responded to Hollow\u2019s accusations in September, saying they were\u00a0\u201cpolitically motivated and baseless from a disgruntled employee.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hollow ran against Marceno for sheriff as a write-in candidate and lost in November, with Marceno receiving 90% of the vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pendergrass said he didn\u2019t believe that Sheriff\u2019s Office consulting contracts \u2014 which have become controversial \u2014 were part of the grand jury proceedings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to the consulting contract with Bonita Springs jewelry store owner Ken Romano, other consulting contracts the Sheriff\u2019s Office has engaged in under Marceno are a $ 9,000-a-month contract with AGL Solutions, whose president is former State Sen. Lizbeth Benacquisto, a Republican who formerly represented parts of Lee County. The contract calls on her firm to attend government, community, and business meetings and provide advice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another consulting contract lists John E. McGowan and Legacy Strategic Consulting, Inc. at a rate of $5,000 a month for helping to recruit members of the civilian support unit and to support them with marketing and community outreach activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Lee County Board of County Commissioners approved the budget of the Lee County Sheriff\u2019s Office and has voted to expand services, such as a 2022 expansion of the narcotics unit from 24 to 44 employees while adding five state prosecutors \u2014 which led to an annual increase in personnel of $1.7 million for the Sheriff\u2019s Office and $463,700 for the State Attorney\u2019s Office for the 20th Judicial Circuit to prosecute Lee County cases.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The existence of a federal grand jury proceeding related to an investigation involving the Lee County Sheriff\u2019s Office was disclosed at a meeting of the Lee County Board of County… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":46698,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60255"}],"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=60255"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60257,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60255\/revisions\/60257"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}