Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno actually won re-election Tuesday night against challenger and write-in candidate former Lee County Sheriff’s Office K-9 officer and Chief of Internal Affairs, Mike Hollow.

With only early votes and mail-in ballots tabulated, Marceno is the clear winner even before the final results are announced. He won 90% of the votes tabulated, or 245,630 total votes. Hollow took home just 25,000 votes, or 9%.

Marceno ran his re-election campaign on implementing the school threat enforcement team, doubling the size of the office’s narcotics unit, creating the animal cruelty task force and increasing the office’s use of technology to assist county police.

He said his priorities are:

• Keeping drugs and drug dealers off the streets

• Protecting animals and stopping animal abuse

• Keeping the Sheriff’s Office “Fully Funded”

• School safety

• Increasing road safety patrols

“Being Lee County Sheriff has been the honor of my life,” Marceno told The News-Press / Naples Daily News via email in an Oct. 30 candidate Q&A. “Since I was appointed Sheriff in 2018 and elected in 2020, I have worked hard to ensure that the great residents of Lee County receive the level of concierge from their law enforcement officers that they deserve.”

Money laundering allegations, contract concerns

But Marceno’s campaign was not without controversy.

In early September, Hollow released a recording in which a former sheriff’s office contractor accused Marceno of laundering taxpayers’ money through him. Ken Romano, a Bonita Springs jeweler, was paid more than $30,000 in 2022 as a social media expert, he confirms the records. However, he and his business have minimal social media footprints.

In the recording, Romano accused Marceno of using it to secretly pass taxpayer money, in cash, to one of Marceno’s family members. He added that he often paid off Marceno’s gambling debts. On Marceno’s annual financial disclosure forms, he reported more than $400,000 in gambling income over the past four years.

Marcelo called money laundering allegations “baseless” in the weeks following initial publication, but has since declined to comment to The News-Press / Naples Daily News despite repeated requests to his office, his campaign and his attorney, Naples criminal defense attorney Donald Day.

Marceno was also recorded accepting a stack of cash from Romano in June 2024 at Romano’s Bonita Springs jewelry store.

Day said Marceno was “conducting legitimate sales transactions” with Romano when he sent the video. Marceno did not personally respond to questions from The News-Press / Naples Daily News on the matter.

Hollow told a reporter that the FBI was investigating Marceno based on Romano’s claims of laundering taxpayer money and that Romano was cooperating with the investigation. However, the FBI has refused to confirm or deny the existence of an investigation. Marceno has not been charged with any crime.

After those stories broke, Marceno’s challenger for sheriff was endorsed by both the Fort Myers Police Association and the International Union of Police Associations.

The News-Press / Naples Daily News also found that Marceno paid tens, if not hundreds of thousands of contractors whose contracts did not have clear requirements, objectives or the amount of required work hours.

One of the contracts was also signed under a false or assumed name, netting an LLC operated by Bonita Springs resident Susan Edwards more than $150,000 in just over a year and a half, despite contracting the LLC for $60,000 per year. The contract is for consulting and writing books about animals and animal abuse.

Case law says that it is legal to sign a contract under a pseudonym, as long as both entities understand the identity of the person signing the contract.

Marcelo’s story

Marceno was appointed sheriff by the governor in 2018 after former Lee County Sheriff Mike Scott abruptly retired midway through his term. His personnel file and annual reviews show regular praise from Scott for his grooming and appearance above all else at the time.

The News-Press and Naples Daily News featured Marceno in 2020, before the election, following his police career from New York to Naples and back to New York after twice failing the test to obtain a law enforcement certificate in Florida. Marceno eventually ended up in community policing at the Collier County Sheriff’s Office and then moved on to the Lee County Sheriff’s Office under Scott.

In November 2020, Marceno won a Democratic challenger Robert Neeld and two non-party affiliated candidates. Marcelo received 67% of the votes for the position, which now pays $214,256.

Marceno has raised more than $512,000 since February 2021 in donations and in-kind contributions for his 2024 campaign for sheriff and has spent more than $480,000 in funds raised on campaign activities since April 2021, according to county records.

Breaking News reporter Tomas Rodriguez contributed to this story.

Kate Cimini is a Florida investigative reporter for USA TODAY-Network Florida based at the News-Press and The Naples Daily News. Contact her at 239-207-9369 or [email protected].

This article originally appeared on the Fort Myers News-Press: 2024 election results: Who won the Lee County Sheriff race?