{"id":171720,"date":"2026-02-27T17:30:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T17:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/171720\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T17:30:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T17:30:08","slug":"lee-sheriffs-father-was-a-well-documented-menace-did-the-law-treat-him-differently-wgcu-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/171720\/","title":{"rendered":"Lee sheriff\u2019s father was a well-documented menace; Did the law treat him differently? | WGCU News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>While jogging in her gated community, Vanessa Pagan noticed an older man in a white BMW following her, passing her in both directions, and at times holding his phone out of the car window as if photographing or videotaping her.<\/p>\n<p>It wasn\u2019t the first time.<\/p>\n<p>The Puerto Rico-born Pagan told Collier County Sheriff\u2019\u2019s deputies she had endured the chilling behavior in the normally placid Saturnia Lakes community at least a half dozen times in the first few months after she moved there.<\/p>\n<p>This time, on May 15, 2017, she said the apparent stalker was \u201cparticularly aggressive,\u201d prompting a crying and visibly shaking Pagan, who was 41 at the time, to report it as a crime.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe kept pace with her [in the BMW], forcing traffic to drive around him, for miles,\u201d Collier County Sheriff\u2019s Deputy Jim Greeves wrote in his report. \u201cAt times he would pull to the curb forcing her to divert her path. At one point she became so afraid for her safety she hid in a set of bushes near the clubhouse.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She told deputies the man acted more like a \u201cpervert\u201d than a robber and she feared he was waiting for the right moment to \u201ceither hit her or rape her.\u201d Employees at the clubhouse helped rescue Pagan from the situation \u2014 and they were all too familiar with the suspect, a notorious Saturnia Lakes resident named Carmine Marceno Sr.<\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"Image\" alt=\"Carmine Marceno Sr.\"  width=\"880\" height=\"884\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/.webp\"\/><\/p>\n<p>A raft of never-before-seen police reports obtained by the Florida Trident\u00a0via a public records request portray Marceno Sr., who was then 67, as a stalker, bully, and thief who routinely roamed Saturnia in his signature sweat pants terrorizing his neighbors.<\/p>\n<p>Aptly nicknamed \u201cButch,\u201d Marceno Sr. was accused over a 15-year period of threatening neighbors, creeping after underage girls and women, strong-arming Saturnia HOA board elections, impersonating a law enforcement officer, stealing from neighbors, and other alleged crimes.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the complaints, Marceno Sr. was never formally charged with any crime, prompting some to question if he benefitted from a very powerful family relation \u2014 his son and spitting image, Carmine Marceno Jr., the Lee County sheriff who previously served as a Collier deputy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think so, everybody thinks so,\u201d said former Saturnia resident Michael Gervino, who had an epic run-in with the elder Marceno in 2021. \u201cWho gets away with that kind of shit year after year? If it was me and you, we would have been locked up. Everyone knows his son\u2019s got all kinds of connections.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Marceno Sr. played a key role in the FBI investigation of an alleged kickback scheme that rocked Lee County. A friend of both father and son, Ken Romano, alleged the sheriff instructed him to divert $1,700 per month to Marceno Sr. from his LCSO consulting contract to make payments on a white Mercedes Benz the sheriff had gifted his father.<\/p>\n<p>After more than a year of investigation and the seating of a federal grand jury, the case was dropped this past November after the Trump administration fired the U.S. Attorney overseeing the Middle District of Florida as well as the federal prosecutor directly in charge of the case for reasons unrelated to the sheriff.<\/p>\n<p>The U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office, however, explicitly left the door open for other law enforcement agencies to pick up the investigation, and the case is now the subject of a state criminal complaint and numerous complaints made with the Florida Ethics Commission.<\/p>\n<p>Any potential investigation however will be missing a very important witness: Marceno Sr. died in December 2024, at the height of the investigation. While the man called Butch lived loudly, he left the world silently, with no obituary or even a death notice.<\/p>\n<p>The story told in police reports about Marceno Sr. is one filled with aggressive and predatory behavior done with seeming impunity. But on at least two occasions, Collier sheriff\u2019s deputies did file criminal warrants against him, including the Pagan stalking case.<\/p>\n<p>Both warrants, however, were rejected by a State Attorney\u2019s Office run by Amira Fox, who happens to be one of his son\u2019s closest professional and political allies, begging the question: Was justice ever served?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy son\u2019s a deputy\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Collier deputies reported that even as they were interviewing Pagan at her home, they spotted Marceno Sr. repeatedly driving by in his white BMW. And Pagan told them she wanted to press charges against him for stalking her.<\/p>\n<p>When questioned by Det. Scott Peterson, Butch claimed he wasn\u2019t following Pagan but instead was only \u201cdriving around to keep an eye on things.\u201d He said he was a former member of Saturnia Lakes HOA board and blamed Pagan\u2019s complaint on other board members who didn\u2019t like him.<\/p>\n<p>On May 25, 2017, Peterson filed a warrant to charge Marceno Sr. with misdemeanor stalking in the Pagan case, with a maximum penalty of one year in jail. \u201cThe case will remain open while under review by the State Attorney\u2019s Office,\u201d Peterson wrote in his report.<\/p>\n<p>Then serving as No. 2 at the SAO was Chief Assistant State Attorney Amira Fox. In that position Fox ran the day-to-day operations of the 20th Judicial Circuit, which includes both Collier and Lee counties. Fox had already started her ultimately successful run for state attorney at the time with the strong support of Marceno Jr., who was then undersheriff, or second-in-command, at LCSO.<\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"Image\" alt=\"Sheriff Marceno and State Attorney Amira Fox are close professional and political allies.\"  width=\"880\" height=\"925\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1772213407_551_.webp\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Lee County Sheriff\u2019s Office\/Florida Trident<\/p>\n<p>         Sheriff Marceno and State Attorney Amira Fox are close professional and political allies.<\/p>\n<p>Such a close professional and political relationship between the sheriff and the then second-in-command at the SAO might seem to call for a recusal by the 20th Judicial Circuit to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest. But that didn\u2019t happen. Instead, the State Attorney\u2019s Office retained jurisdiction and rejected the stalking warrant for Marceno Sr. on July 6, 2017.<\/p>\n<p>Just six days later, on July 12, Marceno Jr. personally contributed $4,000 to Fox\u2019s political PAC and reportedly raised thousands of dollars more for her campaign at the time.<\/p>\n<p>Four years after the stalking case was rejected, Butch was at the center of another bizarre and disturbing incident at a Pinch-A-Penny pool supplies store in Naples involving a 26-year-old employee named Kristen George.<\/p>\n<p>While Marceno Sr. was speaking with George on the sales floor, he suddenly slapped her in the face and repeatedly patted her arm, according to sheriff\u2019s reports.<\/p>\n<p>The incident was caught on store cameras and George wanted to press charges for the slap, which deputies described as \u201cnot forceful enough to warrant an injury or concern for her well-being but it did make her feel very uncomfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Collier County Sheriff\u2019s Deputy Darrel Kehne submitted a warrant with the State Attorney\u2019s Office to charge Marceno Sr. with misdemeanor battery.<\/p>\n<p>By this time, Fox and Marceno were an even more powerful duo in Lee County, both now the No. 1\u2019s at their respective agencies. The pair often appeared together at political events and that same year, Marceno\u2019s political PAC, Friends of Carmine Marceno, contributed another $2,000 to Fox\u2019s campaign.<\/p>\n<p>And again, the State Attorney\u2019s Office rejected the warrant, allowing Marceno Sr. to avoid the inside of a courtroom. Fox has not responded to detailed questions emailed to her office by the Trident.<\/p>\n<p>Attorney and judicial watchdog Bill Gelin, who runs the JAABlog website in neighboring Broward County, said the circumstances of the battery case called out for a recusal.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese are both very powerful people and anything involving themselves or a family member they should immediately kick to another jurisdiction where no one can claim an appearance of a conflict or impropriety,\u201d Gelin said. \u201cIt\u2019s the sheriff\u2019s father. Why not send it out and walk away from it?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fox did in fact <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flgov.com\/eog\/sites\/default\/files\/executive-orders\/2025\/EO%2025-03.pdf\" class=\"Link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">recuse herself from a case<\/a> tangentially involving the sheriff last year, citing their \u201cprofessional relationship.\u201d The case involved the sheriff\u2019s former friend-turned-accuser Romano, who was the subject of an investigation unrelated to the federal corruption probe. Because he\u2019d made allegations against the sheriff, she punted the case over to the 12th Judicial Circuit.<\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"Image\" alt=\"The sheriff and his father at Fort Myers Mighty Mussels game in 2023.\"  width=\"880\" height=\"1424\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1772213408_833_.webp\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Lee County Sheriff\u2019s Office\/YouTube-Florida Trident<\/p>\n<p>         The sheriff and his father at Fort Myers Mighty Mussels game in 2023. <\/p>\n<p>\u201c[T]o avoid a conflict of interest or an appearance of impropriety, [Fox] has voluntarily disqualified herself and has requested the executive assignment of another State Attorney regarding the investigation and prosecution of this case and all related matters regarding Kenneth Romano,\u201d read Gov. Ron DeSantis\u2019s executive order executing the change of venue.<\/p>\n<p>Those are just two of a total of 11 criminal allegations made against Marceno Sr. in Collier County between the years 2006 and 2021.<\/p>\n<p>His son, who left CCSO for Lee County in 2013, indirectly pops up in several of the complaints, including one from 2011 alleging the elder Marceno impersonated a police officer during a standoff with another driver in a 7-Eleven parking lot.<\/p>\n<p>The complainant, Jeff Vicarella, told deputies that as he was exiting the convenience store parking lot, Marceno Sr., driving the wrong way, blocked him and loudly demanded Vicarella move out of his way.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJeff told Carmine that he was going the wrong way and he is not moving,\u201d the report states. \u201cJeff then put his car in park and crossed his arms. Carmine then pulled out a badge and said, \u2018How do you know I\u2019m not on a mission.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When Vicarella called police, Marceno Sr. drove off. Deputies obtained sworn statements from Vicarella as well as two witnesses who confirmed his story.<\/p>\n<p>Questioned later, Marceno Sr. admitted flashing the badge, which had the words \u201c\u2018deputy\u2019s father\u2019 or something to that effect inscribed upon it,\u201d and said he told Vicarella his son was a deputy.<\/p>\n<p>Marceno Sr. \u201cstated that as the other person was yelling at him and threatening to call the \u2018cops,\u2019 he told him to go ahead and call, as his son was a deputy, and that was where the badge came into play.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The sheriff\u2019s office determined no crime had been committed because Marceno Sr. never made a direct order and Vicarella was never in fear during the altercation.<\/p>\n<p>Sheriff Marceno didn\u2019t respond to a detailed email requesting comment for this story. Several sources who\u2019ve had close associations with Marceno Jr. have told the Trident that while he always defended and remained loyal to his father, he was at times frustrated with him. They say too that the younger Marceno\u2019s own behavior has definitely been strongly influenced by the example of his father to the sheriff\u2019s own detriment.<\/p>\n<p>While Marceno Jr. has publicly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/watch\/?v=320466660273359\" class=\"Link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">decried \u201cmoral decay\u201d in society<\/a>, he\u2019s also widely been linked not only to the corruption allegations but also to poor personal behavior, including rampant gambling and womanizing, glimpses of which have been <a href=\"https:\/\/floridatrident.org\/unreported-gifts-high-stakes-gambling-and-an-obscene-death-wish-marceno-recordings-paint-a-troubling-picture\/\" class=\"Link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">caught on tape<\/a>. In 2018, he survived a scandal involving a crime victim named Deanna Williams whom he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox4now.com\/news\/local-news\/woman-explains-lee-county-sheriff-lawsuit\" class=\"Link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">allegedly pursued and impregnated<\/a> before pressuring her to have an abortion.<\/p>\n<p>The Bronx\u2019s \u2018Bus Stop Butch\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Prior to moving to southwest Florida in the late 90s, Marceno Sr., long divorced from his son\u2019s mother, worked in the car business, according to a former close friend of his in the Bronx, where Butch grew up and intermittently lived over the course of his adulthood.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe could schmooze anybody,\u201d said the friend, who spoke anonymously due to fear of repercussions from law enforcement. \u201cThe man could sell cars. He could move metal like nobody\u2019s business.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Even then Marceno Sr. had a reputation for roaming the streets for women, said the friend, including trying to pick them up at bus stops, a tactic that earned him the nickname \u201cBus Stop Butch.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The friendship ended, said the source, when he realized Butch was a thief.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe stole from me,\u201d said the friend. \u201cHe\u2019d take anything that wasn\u2019t nailed down. It was his nature. He lived to cause anguish in everybody\u2019s life. He got enjoyment out of causing people pain.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After Butch moved to Collier County in the late 1990s, he opened a tanning salon called Island Tan of Naples in 2002. His former New York friend called it a \u201cbrilliant\u201d move.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThink about it, this is a guy who spent most of his time going out and trying to find women,\u201d he said. \u201cNow he opened a business where they would come to him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Partnering with him at the salon was his son, the future sheriff, who listed Island Tan as his place of employment when he applied to become a Collier County sheriff\u2019s deputy in late 2002. That same year Butch married Marinella Parone, eighteen years his junior and a fellow New Yorker.<\/p>\n<p>The first of the police complaints against Marceno Sr. was registered at the tanning salon. On April 2, 2006, a 16-year-old girl named Megan Singletary walked into Island Tan of Naples for a spray tan. Singletary told deputies she\u2019d scheduled an appointment with a female employee on the phone and believed it would be a female who would be giving her the tan. But inside the store she was met with Butch.<\/p>\n<p>According to sheriff\u2019s reports, Marceno Sr., then 56-years-old, told Singletary to go into a nearby room and made a point that she should get completely naked to avoid tan lines and that a female employee would be there shortly.<\/p>\n<p>But it was Marceno Sr. who later opened the door to the room where the high school student was nude. He then tried to place a protective heart-shaped sticker on her genitals, she alleged.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMegan swiped his hand away, grabbed the sticker, and placed it on her own body,\u201d wrote Det. Frank Pilarski in his report. \u201cCarmine began spraying the tan on Megan\u2019s body.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After she returned home, Singletary and her mother called the sheriff\u2019s office. Marceno Sr. admitted to Pilarski he\u2019d gone into the room and sprayed the girl.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCarmine said it was normal business at the Island Tan for him to spray either sex,\u201d Pilarski wrote. \u201cCarmine stated his wife does the same. Carmine stated that a person can refuse service if they don\u2019t want that person to spray the tan on them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pilarski determined that because Marceno Sr. hadn\u2019t touched the girl, no crime had been committed.<\/p>\n<p>The neighborhood \u2018bully\u2019<\/p>\n<p>On June 5, 2018, Collier County Sheriff\u2019s Corporal R. Williams responded to the Saturnia Lakes clubhouse, where property manager Ashley Ortiz was waiting with complaints about the man called Butch.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe advises he harasses the neighbors, the lawn maintenance personnel and the office staff,\u201d Williams wrote in his report. \u201cThis harassment includes following people around the neighborhood, filming them as they exercise and threatening lawn service people with deportation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While threatening the lawn crew, Marceno Sr., a staunch Republican, would drop Marceno Jr.\u2019s name, threatening \u201cto use his son\u2019s position with the Lee County Sheriff\u2019s Office to get the illegals deported,\u201d according to the report.<\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"Image\" alt=\"Marceno Sr. often hobnobbed in political circles. Above he\u2019s pictured with Republican powerbroker Alfie Oakes.\"  width=\"880\" height=\"665\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1772213408_636_.webp\"\/><\/p>\n<p> Facebook\/CarmineMarceno<\/p>\n<p>\/<\/p>\n<p>Florida Trident<\/p>\n<p> Marceno Sr. often hobnobbed in political circles. Above he\u2019s pictured with Republican powerbroker Alfie Oakes.<\/p>\n<p>A witness in the ensuing investigation was resident Jane Biagini, who claimed Marceno Sr. had followed her around the neighborhood in his car at \u201ca walker\u2019s pace.\u201d She told Cpl. Williams she suspected he was trying to intimidate her for backing an opposing candidate in an upcoming HOA election.<\/p>\n<p>Butch followed her multiple times over the course of three or four weeks, she said, scaring her to the point that she stopped leaving the house alone. During what she called the \u201cmost aggressive encounter,\u201d Marceno asked her to \u201cdrop out of the upcoming election,\u201d warning \u201cpeople that don\u2019t listen to him typically end up in the trunks of cars,\u201d deputies reported.<\/p>\n<p>Biagini said the pressure and fear was so great she did as Butch demanded and ended her involvement in HOA board politics, upon which the harassment ended.<\/p>\n<p>In 2012, resident Rod Gustafson reported to Collier deputies that Marceno Sr. threatened his life numerous times over another board dispute. Gustafson, a retired police officer from Milwaukee, recounted to deputies the following toxic tirade delivered by a shirtless Butch while berating him in his sweatpants:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you ever mention my f\u2013king name at a board meeting again, you\u2019re done! I\u2019ll come up behind you, and you\u2019ll be done, and you will never see it coming. You have no f\u2013king idea what I can do to you! I\u2019m not afraid of nothing. I don\u2019t f\u2013king care what happens to me. You don\u2019t think I\u2019ve been in handcuffs before? I\u2019ve been handcuffed many times. I will get you. You can\u2019t stop me. I\u2019m also going to tell everyone in the community you\u2019re a thief, a liar, and that you tow everyone\u2019s vehicles. You were a rinky-dink cop in Disneyland up north, and I\u2019m not afraid of the police. \u2026 I will ruin you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gustafson asked Marceno Sr. why he was so \u201cbitter\u201d and suggested he \u201cfollow the example\u201d of his son.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou leave my son out of this \u2026 I\u2019m going to get you,\u201d Butch allegedly countered as he stabbed his right index finger at Gustafson\u2019s face. \u201cYou\u2019re not safe, because you will never know when I\u2019m coming.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"Image\" alt=\"Sheriff Marceno has done more media since the federal case was dropped, but had no comment for this story.\"  width=\"880\" height=\"1062\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1772213408_641_.webp\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Lee County Sheriff\u2019s Office\/Florida Trident<\/p>\n<p>         Sheriff Marceno has done more media since the federal case was dropped, but had no comment for this story.<\/p>\n<p>Gustafson also said he suspected Marceno Sr. had dumped brake fluid on his car, causing $1,700 in damage.<\/p>\n<p>In March of 2014, a former Saturnia Lakes HOA board president named Nan Hoepfl called deputies to report that Marceno Sr. had \u201cbullied and harassed\u201d her for two years. Again she reported he would follow her in his car and had recently tried to block her from leaving the clubhouse. She said he took pictures of the homes of board members, including her own, and had pointed his finger at her head like a gun and pretended to pull the trigger.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMrs. Hoepfl advises that she does not feel safe in her own community,\u201d wrote Cpl. Robert Capizzi in his report.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m single and retired to Florida to enjoy life, not to be threatened with bullying and [stalking],\u201d she wrote. \u201c\u2026 People like this should be dealt with by the law, and with a heavy hand.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The same year, another Saturnia Lakes property manager, Valarie Gutterridge, reported to deputies she was scared of Marceno Sr. as well. She told deputies he came into the clubhouse with another man \u201clooking for ballots\u201d for the upcoming election. When Gutterridge told them ballots had to be picked up by individual residents who were voting, both men became \u201cenraged\u201d and began screaming at her, disrupting the office.<\/p>\n<p>Again, deputies determined the behavior didn\u2019t cross the legal line.<\/p>\n<p>Alleged \u2018mastermind\u2019 walks<\/p>\n<p>When Michael and Nena Gervino moved into a house on Windamere Lane in Saturnia Lakes in January 2021, they imagined it would be the perfect place to spend their golden years.<\/p>\n<p>Their home was a block away from Marceno Sr., with whom they had mutual friends in their native New York. While preparing to move, they provided Butch the code to their garage and keys to look after the property.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019d been told to be careful because he\u2019s a crook,\u201d Gervino told the Trident. \u201cBut he was so nice to me. He was acting like he was my best friend. He said, \u2018I\u2019m the king of Naples. Nobody lets me pay for nothing because everybody loves me.\u2019 He bragged about his son\u2019s $200,000 salary and acted like he had all the money in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Marinella Marceno also became friends with his wife.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe said, \u2018I don\u2019t have friends here. I\u2019m so happy you moved here,\u2019\u201d Gervino recalled. \u201cShe would say, \u2018I love you, you\u2019re my best friend.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But soon Gervino said he realized Butch was \u201chated by everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe was a big mouth bully,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople were afraid of him because he was big and he was ugly and he was scary and people just wanted to get away from him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As it was dawning on Gervino that his new friend was a problem, his wife began noticing money missing from her purse, according to sheriff\u2019s reports.<\/p>\n<p>First it was $65, then it was hundred dollar bills. The couple began to suspect that while they were on their morning jogs, Marceno Sr. and his wife were stealing the money.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe used to go around the circle when we went jogging and he would watch us and then call his wife and say, \u2018Go in the house,\u2019\u201d said Gervino.<\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"Image\" alt=\"Marinella was charged with burglary and larceny.\"  width=\"880\" height=\"926\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1772213408_357_.webp\"\/><\/p>\n<p> Collier County Sheriff\u2019s Office\/Florida Trident<\/p>\n<p>         Marinella was charged with burglary and larceny.<\/p>\n<p>With a Ring camera and bills marked \u201cGod loves you,\u201d the couple obtained evidence of the ploy and reported the crime at a sheriff\u2019s substation on April 29, 2021, prompting an investigation.<\/p>\n<p>The following day the situation exploded. According to sheriff\u2019s reports, Marceno Sr. visited the couple at their home and when he started bragging about how much money he was spending on furniture, Gervino became \u201cfurious\u201d and told Butch they had caught him stealing from them.<\/p>\n<p>The ensuing yelling match was so loud neighbors called the sheriff\u2019s office. Marinella Marceno ultimately admitted to stealing the money, said Gervino, and was later charged with burglary and larceny.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe wife turned around and said, \u2018No, [Marceno Sr.] had nothing to do with it, I did it all alone,\u2019\u201d said Gervino. \u201cI told the cops he was the mastermind. He\u2019s the one who told her to do it. He was the watchdog.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Despite those protestations, Butch avoided criminal charges once again. Gervino meanwhile hoped to see his wife do jail time. \u201cShe said it was a mistake going into my house six times and getting into my [wife\u2019s] pocketbook, it was all a mistake,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s not a mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Marinella Marceno instead took a plea deal that involved probation and payment of restitution, with adjudication withheld, meaning it doesn\u2019t count as a conviction on her record. Because adjudication was withheld and it was her first offense, the case was eligible to be sealed \u2014 and it was sealed in early 2024, obscuring the details of the theft and its resolution.<\/p>\n<p>Records posted on the legal data website UniCourt indicate a plea deal was struck in January 2022 requiring Marinella to pay the court $2,076 a month later, roughly $1,200 of which Gervino said he received in restitution. She was also given four years probation, but the judge terminated her probation in early 2024 at the behest of her attorney, Donald Day, court records show.<\/p>\n<p>Day, a former prosecutor, has longstanding ties to Marceno Jr., including serving as his personal attorney during the recent FBI investigation. A message left with Day\u2019s law firm seeking comment from both the lawyer and his former client Marinella Marceno was not returned.<\/p>\n<p>Gervino said when he received notice from the court of both the early termination of probation and case sealing, it felt like a slap in the face, but also wasn\u2019t surprising considering the sway of the Marceno name.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow do you get away with all of that?\u201d he asked. \u201cIt\u2019s unbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>About the Author:\u00a0Bob Norman\u00a0is 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\u00a0norman@flcga.org. The Florida Trident is an investigative news outlet focusing on government accountability and transparency across Florida. The\u00a0Trident 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. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While jogging in her gated community, Vanessa Pagan noticed an older man in a white BMW following her,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":171721,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210],"class_list":["post-171720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/171721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}