{"id":23691,"date":"2025-10-28T13:43:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T13:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/23691\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T13:43:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T13:43:07","slug":"court-hearing-to-be-held-thursday-on-king-woodson-recall-fort-myers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/23691\/","title":{"rendered":"Court hearing to be held Thursday on King, Woodson recall – FORT MYERS"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n
\n
\n \/Fort Myers Beach News
\n
\n <\/a>
\n
\n
\n
\n <\/p>\n


\n \"article <\/p>\n


\n <\/p>\n

Fort Myers Beach councilmembers Karen Woodson (left) and John King are facing a recall election on Nov. 4 based on allegations they have denied. File photos<\/p>\n


\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n <\/p>\n

Lee County Circuit Court Judge Kyle Cohen has scheduled court hearings for Thursday to hear Fort Myers Beach Councilmember Karen Woodson\u2019s appeal of his decision to dismiss her lawsuit to stop the recall election, as well as to discuss the next steps in the lawsuit filed by Fort Myers Beach Councilmember John King after he ruled against a motion by a recall committee to dismiss his lawsuit.<\/p>\n

In Cohen\u2019s decision last week, he found that one of the three allegations against King on the recall petition against him lacked legal sufficiency. Cohen found that the allegation regarding whether King acted in a way to terminate multiple contract employees was too vague and didn\u2019t name which employees had faced any type of termination or otherwise adverse effect from King\u2019s actions. The invalidation of one of any of the three allegations would mean the invalidation of the entire recall ballot. Voting is already underway in the recall election, with 451 of the town\u2019s 3,375 registered voters having cast mail-in ballots.<\/p>\n

On Friday, Woodson filed an appeal of a Lee County Circuit Court decision which dismissed her lawsuit to stop the recall election of her seat. The motion filed by Woodson seeks a stay in the Nov. 4 recall election from the trial court pending her appeal to an appellate court or an order allowing the recall election to proceed but for the results of the recall to be tallied but sealed and only released to her, former Fort Myers Beach Ray Murphy (who heads the committee to recall Woodson) and the Lee County Supervisor of Elections pending her appeal of Judge Kyle Cohen\u2019s decision to an appellate court. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe judge totally missed the fact that there was no violation of the Sunshine Law,\u201d Woodson said. \u201cWe don\u2019t vote on the Pier. The (Fort Myers Beach) Pier is owned by Lee County.\u201d<\/p>\n

Woodson is facing three allegations in her recall, including two alleged Sunshine Law violations for discussing the Fort Myers Beach Pier with Fort Myers Beach Vice Mayor Jim Atterholt and for allegedly working with Fort Myers Beach Councilmember John King to court another law firm to replace former Town Attorney John Herin Jr.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had an in-person meeting (with the law firm that was approached,\u201d Woodson said. \u201cJohn called (the firm) by telephone,\u201d she said. Woodson said they were referred to the law firm by two different individuals.<\/p>\n

Woodson is also accused of accepting unreported gifts from developers seeking land-use approvals from the Town of Fort Myers Beach.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have never taken bribes and I never would,\u201d Woodson said. \u201cIt\u2019s all trumped up charges.\u201d<\/p>\n

Woodson said the recall allegations against her were motivated by her vote to support the Seagate development project, a controversial project which would place 141 luxury condo units in several high-rise buildings which would reach 17 stories.<\/p>\n

Woodson said she legally can\u2019t be recalled based on a vote she took. \u201cYou can\u2019t base it on a vote,\u201d Woodson said. Woodson said she has spoken with people who have been approached to sign recall petitions who cited her vote on Seagate as a reason to recall her.<\/p>\n

The Seagate approvals by the Town of Fort Myers Beach Council is the subject of a separate lawsuit by a group of citizens in the town who allege, among other issues, that the project violates the town\u2019s own zoning and Comprehensive Plan by being 14 stories above what is legally allowed without deviations.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, former Fort Myers Beach Councilman Bill Veach filed a motion through attorney Michael Pizzi to reconsider to the Lee County Circuit Court over Judge Cohen\u2019s ruling against the request to dismiss a lawsuit from Fort Myers Beach Councilman John King to stop the recall election against his seat.<\/p>\n

Veach heads the committee to recall King.<\/p>\n

Cohen denied the motion by Pizzi and Veach on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

Veach said the \u201ctaxpayer-funded lawsuits\u201d and court challenges filed by King and Woodson to stop the recall are signs of \u201ctheir fear of the voters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Veach said he disagreed with the judge\u2019s decision over the vagueness of the allegation, saying that the Town Charter was clear in specifying that the Town Council has the authority to vote to remove the Town Manager and Town Attorney but couldn\u2019t act to remove other employees. Cohen\u2019s decision stated that voters might think the allegations involved the termination of former town managers or the town attorney.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a very nuanced rejection with huge consequences,\u201d Veach said. <\/p>\n

King has denied all of the allegations including whether he sought to terminate town employees (aside from former Town of Fort Myers Beach Manager Roger Hernstadt and former Town Attorney John Herin Jr.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am appreciative of Judge Cohen\u2019s ruling,\u201d King said in regards to his own case. \u201cI believe the recall petitions against Karen and myself should both have been thrown out. I hope it ends here. Enough time, taxpayer money and rancor have been spent on this.\u201d<\/p>\n

King said he expects Thursday\u2019s hearing to to include discussion on whether an injunction will be issued to stop the recall vote against him.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they really are confident that they are popular and they are doing the work of the constituents, they should drop these lawsuits and let the voters decide,\u201d Veach said.<\/p>\n


\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \/Fort Myers Beach News …\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23692,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210],"class_list":["post-23691","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\/23691","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=23691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23691\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}