Florida State-Controlled Media Gives Cover For FDLE Report On Lee County Sheriff Regarding Threats In Paternity Suit – Here’s What They Didn’t Report

Tim BrownApril 15, 2019

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As I continue to report on the case of Deanna Williams out of Florida, I find myself amazed at the amount of rubber-stamping the local media and reporters down there actually do. Furthermore, I’m beginning to wonder if the corruption in Lee County is limited to Lee County attorneys and judges. After a report was released yesterday concerning a report by Ms. Williams to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), it appears that the FDLE ignored the serious ethics violations of Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno and the local media outlets, who are close friends with the sheriff, simply rubber-stamped the report without actually investigating anything.

I also received the report from FDLE on Friday along with other outlets. The bulk of the five-page report is only a smidgen of what I presented on Friday at The Washington Standard concerning Sheriff Marceno’s behavior. However, so that people can read the report for themselves, I’m providing it below.

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I have a serious problem with media that will not do their job to inform the public about corruption within their own government. These are, to use the old adage, “useful idiots,” who will be disposed of when they lack their usefulness.

Once again, this same type of useful idiot reporting is going on in Florida, and it’s virtually everywhere to cover for Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno.

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The latest came out on Friday with the report above.

News-Press.com, a part of the USA Today Network, reported nothing more than to rubber stamp the contents of the report without failing to dig into why the FDLE ignored Facebook messages regarding the ethics of Sheriff Marceno, which is what Ms. Williams was attempt to actually report and what the governor’s office and the attorney general’s office told her to report to FDLE.

Not only that, but News-Press.com didn’t even rightfully report about the child Ms. Williams had been carrying.

“According to documents filed in the paternity lawsuit, the child will be born in April or May 2019. Both parties have agreed to submit the child to DNA testing once they are born to determine the paternity.”

The child was stillborn, and I notified the reporter via Twitter on Friday. As of Sunday, the report has not been updated. Though the reporter, Brooke Baitinger, claims to have contacted Ms. Williams’ attorney, it seems unlikely, given that she was completely unaware of a nearly two-week-old story regarding this matter. Even Sheriff Marceno was aware as he used my reporting via his attorney to verify its authenticity.

This seems par for the course with USA Today aligned News-Press.com. More than a year ago, the outlet rubber stamped without verifying Marceno’s claims that he was working on finishing his college degree from FGCU. As I reported last week, FGCU verified that he had not been to that school since 2004. Of course, he posts this fraudulent claim on the Lee County Sheriff website as well.

Lying about one’s background, especially in a political race is disaster often and since Marceno was appointed last year by then-Governor Rick Scott, this will be his first election race, and at least there is an ethical man running against him, Jim Leavens.

That’s not all, when The Washington Standard spoke to Chris Cifatte of WINK, the same outlet that again, basically posted a brief story that basically did nothing more than to say there wasn’t evidence to launch a criminal investigation, I asked him why media in the area was not digging into the whole story of what is going on and he said, “I think we’re done here.”

I’ve covered the allegations and contents of the report in previous articles, so anyone interested in those can see for themselves. Sheriff Marceno is reluctant to even stay on the phone with The Washington Standard for a comment.

These two outlets aren’t the only ones failing to do their duty here either. The Associated Press merely pointed back to the News-Press story even still claiming the baby was “due soon.” So did The Chicago Tribune and The Ledger. Not one outlet questioned the FDLE and why they didn’t deal in the ethics of Marceno’s behavior with Ms. Williams, and I’ll tell you why that’s important below.

According to the conclusion of merely stating facts from Ms. Williams side of the story without providing one comment from Sheriff Marceno, any evidence provided by Marceno or alleged evidence collected from other agencies, the FDLE stated:

“Based on a review of the above interview, text messages, information forwarded to the FDLE OEI by the Executive Office of the Governor, Florida Attorney General’s Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigations regarding allegations against Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno and consultation with the FDLE’s Office of General Counsel, it was determined the information provided did not constitute a criminal predicate that would warrant a criminal investigation by FDLE at this time.”

Well, that’s convenient since that was not why Ms. Williams contacted FDLE. She contacted them due to corruption/ethics.

She wanted them to know how Marceno began to pursue her with messages and ultimately pressure her into a sexual relationship once he saw her at the sheriff’s office. Why is his ethics a problem here? Glad you asked.

When Ms. Williams had $200,000 intercepted without her permission from her attorney, G. Ware Cornell, she pursued an avenue via her replacement attorney, Michael Chionopoulos, to regain the $200,000. Instead, she was pressured to sign a form giving half of that money to attorney Scott Mager of Mager Paruas and the other half given to her. Chionopoulous would then acknowledge in an affidavit filed in the court that he made an “error” in a later agreement between himself and Mager in which he turned over another $200,000 of Ms. Williams money without her authorization. He never saw that motion be heard before the court and that money was also taken from her.

After she was unable to get that sorted through her attorney and the judicial system, Williams went to the Lee County Sheriff’s Office where Marceno was undersheriff at the time. Shortly, very shortly, after she went there to file a criminal grand theft complaint and provide documents, Marceno contacted her on Facebook saying he wanted to help her with her complaint. However, inside of two weeks, it was clear he was helping himself to her.

Not only did he confess to losing documents, but Williams alleges that he said he could not pursue the criminal complaint she initially came to the Sheriff’s Office to report. Why? Because of how he contacted her and the relationship he was pursuing.

Stop right there. Isn’t that an ethical violation? Could it also be perceived as excusing a matter and possibly being involved in obstruction of justice?

FDLE knows this too. It’s why they didn’t want to see Ms. Williams’ screenshots that we provided of how Marceno approached her and connect the dots. If they had taken the FB messages Williams wanted to provide, she alleges that according to FDLE agent Jonathan Feltgen, they would have had to suspend the sheriff. Consequently, local media outlets didn’t want to report on that either when they made public her paternity lawsuit, believing that the sheriff would have to step down.

According to its own “Ethical Standards of Conduct,” FDLE states:

4.5 Police officers, while off duty, shall not engage in any conduct which the officer knows, or reasonably should know, constitutes an unwelcome sexual advance or request for sexual favor, or unwelcome sexually motivated physical contact or other unwelcome verbal or physical conduct or communication of a sexual nature.

4.6 Police officers shall not commit any acts which, as defined under Florida law, constitute sexual assault or indecent exposure. Sexual assault does not include a frisk or other search done in accordance with proper police procedures. (emphasis mine)

Ms. Williams has alleged that Sheriff Marceno “exposed himself” to her in his car parked in a church parking lot less than two weeks after he initiated contact with her via Facebook. She rejected his advances. She has also said that during their relationship, which developed after he pressured her for a sexual relationship, he was continuously attempting to get her to engage in public sexual acts.

To satisfy his own sexual cravings, Sheriff Marceno put at risk a grand theft, criminal complaint from Ms. Williams. I ask FDLE, if this is not the case, where are the results of the criminal complaint Ms. Williams filed with the Lee County Sheriff’s Office?

I ask FDLE, why have these “standards” if you are unwilling to uphold them among those in authority in your state?

By the way, this is the same sheriff’s office that would not file charges in her previous rape case.

Meanwhile, instead of doing right by Ms. Williams and following a grand theft complaint or even caring that his own child is dead, Sheriff Marceno is engaged in doing ridiculous things like a “Deputy Dog” agenda, something that is not a part of law enforcement.

It’s also noteworthy that he is charged with arresting Ms. Williams in the injustice she has faced in Lee County courtrooms by corrupt judges and attorneys, including attorney Gloria Allred, which you can read about below. If You Are Compelled To Help Ms. Williams With Funds To Acquire An Attorney, Which Will Cost $15,000 In Order To Retain One, In Order To Help Her Fight Back, Along With Money To Simply Survive, Please Click Here To Donate To Her Go Fund Me Account.

Here are the previous reports on what led to uncovering this and there are lots more to come, including allegations of the woman Sheriff Marceno was seeing at the same time he was seeing Ms. Williams without her knowledge, which include statements alleged to have come from Marceno indicating framing Ms. Williams for drugs and then gaining custody of her child and marrying this other woman.

Click here to hear the interview to tease this bombshell on Sons Of Liberty Radio.

Furthermore, The Washington Standard has obtained documents that point out that Sheriff Carmine Marceno has apparently perpetrated a fraud of his law enforcement history on the people of Lee County. More to come.

Article posted with permission from The Washington Standard

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