FORT MYERS, Fla. (WINK) \u2014 Protesters called on Fort Myers Mayor Kevin Anderson to resign after two young men accused the mayor of making unwanted sexual advances.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Lee County NAACP marched around City Hall ahead of Monday\u2019s council meeting. Some people held signs that called the mayor a \u2018predator’ as marchers chanted \u2018Hell no, Kevin must go.\u2019 Anderson the allegations.<\/p>\n
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Signs weren\u2019t allowed in the meeting. But the calls for change continued. Neighbors asked the council to conduct an independent investigation and remove Anderson from office.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSilence from this body indicates permission to the public,\u201d said Denise Nystrom. \u201cThe oath you took was to protect the citizens of Fort Myers, not to shield any individual from scrutiny.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The mayor was silent as he quickly walked into Monday\u2019s meeting, ignoring questions from WINK Investigates Chief Reporter Chorus Nylander, who asked about Anderson\u2019s recent resignations from local boards.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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The mayor from the Foundation for Lee County Public Schools board on Monday, marking the fourth position he has stepped down from since the allegations surfaced.\u00a0<\/p>\n
City council members did not answer repeated questions from reporters before and after the meeting. Some, like Councilwoman Teresa Watkins Brown, silently got in her car and drove away.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Councilman Fred Burson angrily swatted away a WINK News reporter\u2019s microphone. Councilwoman Darla Bonk yelled \u201cleave us alone\u201d after another reporter tried asking her questions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Public speakers said elected leaders owed voters an explanation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSay something. Acknowledge something. There is things going on in this community,\u201d said Jacqueline Perez. \u201cOne of you has to say something, for the love of God.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Both of the young men who leveled accusations against the mayor showed up to City Hall on Monday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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that 18-year-old Florida Gulf Coast University student Dominic Hendricks previously alleged that Anderson sexually harassed him and solicited sex during a Fourth of July event at the downtown Centennial Amphitheater, with the interaction continuing at a local establishment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hendricks said he chose not to file a police report, opting instead to lodge a complaint with FGCU’s ethics office. He says FGCU did not move forward with an investigation because he\u2019s not an FGCU employee.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kagan Vann recounted an incident from Nov. 21, 2024, alleging that Anderson propositioned him for sex, offered money for sexual acts, and spiked his drink. Police body camera footage obtained by WINK Investigates from that evening shows Vann visibly intoxicated before being transported by emergency medical services.<\/p>\n
Vann reported the alleged incident to the Fort Myers Police Department which referred the matter to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) to avoid potential conflicts of interest. The FDLE subsequently closed the case without filing criminal charges.<\/p>\n
The council did not take action or discuss the allegations. Hendricks said he was disappointed, but not surprised by Monday\u2019s meeting.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy message for the council is that they know what\u2019s right,\u201d Hendricks said. “They know that Anderson should be held accountable, and that further investigations to happen in the future.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT MYERS, Fla. (WINK) \u2014 Protesters called on Fort Myers Mayor Kevin Anderson to resign after two young…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":420872,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210,22183,162314,28,9149,897,11736,16399,24131,1375,38979],"class_list":["post-420871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-councilwoman","tag-dominic-hendricks","tag-florida","tag-florida-gulf-coast-university","tag-fort-myers","tag-fort-myers-city-council","tag-fort-myers-police-department","tag-kevin-anderson","tag-mayor","tag-wink"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420871","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=420871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/420872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}