Jacob Ogles
State House candidate Adam Botana was reported for trespassing in a Fort Myers gated community while door knocking.
Surveillance cameras on July 13 caught the Bonita Springs Republican rolling through the back gate of the Forest Country Club on an electric scooter. A week later, Botana was served with a warning from the homeowners association stating he had been permanently banned from the premises.
Botana, whose family has long run the Bay Water Exclusive Boat Club, filed last year for an open seat in House District 76.
“You are not a resident or a welcomed guest of the Community, nor a member of the Forest Country Club,” reads a letter from attorney James Robert Caves III. “Accordingly, pursuant to the authority granted to the Association under Florida law, you are permanently banned from the community, effective immediately.”
Caves wrote Botana illegally entered Forest Country Club by bypassing security and entering through the exit lane of the Island Park gate. Footage shows no security guard station at that gate.
Botana was served with the notice, and on July 22, the Forest Property Owners’ Association informed the Lee County Sheriff’s Office.
Botana was informed that if he gets caught stepping foot on property again, it will be considered a criminal offense, and the Association will request “prosecution to the fullest extent of the law.”
“I trust that you will govern yourself accordingly,” the letter to Botana closes.
Botana faces Sanibel City Councilman Jason Maughan in the Aug. 18 GOP primary. The race has become increasingly negative in the final weeks, with the candidates running television ads highlighting each one’s past problems with the law.
For Maughan, that includes a 1995 incident where he fired a weapon from a moving vehicle into another car. For Botana, his record includes a DUI and several other traffic citations.
The coastal district includes a number of gated communities, and Botana has posted footage on his Facebook page of himself with voters at doors and video of himself walking through such neighborhoods. Typically, individuals who do not live in gated communities must be accompanied by a resident in order to go door-to-door.
A recent poll commissioned by Florida Politics shows Botana leading Maughan in the upcoming Republican primary.
CFC Re Notice of Trespass (Adam Botana) — The Forest POA[3820] by Jacob Ogles on Scribd
5 comments
DisplacedCTYankee
August 9, 2020 at 11:58 pm
I have my own “gated community!” My GO AWAY door mat says it all. If you knock I will defend my castle by shooting you with my squirt gun. I worked for 40 years to retire and own my little apartment and be insulated from MAGA-hat-wearing white people.
Former Canvasser
August 10, 2020 at 9:42 am
The article doesn’t say whether the streets in the Forest are privately owned. That makes all the difference. They are allowed to have gates even if they don’t own and maintain the streets. It’s expensive to own streets, so many if not most gated communities have the city or county take care of streets. That makes them public. And of all the people in there, one or more no doubt would be pleased to speak with Mr. Botana.
Just sayin'
August 10, 2020 at 9:43 am
His opponent fired a gun into a car. Sweet jesus.
And I’m shocked, I tell you, SHOCKED, that Mr. Gated Community also supports defunding the police. Keep it progressive, DCTY.
Fred in Gainesville
August 10, 2020 at 3:49 pm
Sure, Yankee – you bought a home in a gated community to keep away from white people. Sounds totally legitimate. Like the people who buy homes in Alaska to keep away from the cold.
Kay
August 14, 2020 at 7:37 pm
What about a homeowner who may be friends with this person? How can he permanently be banned from entering if a guest of a resident. What a BS letter. All smoke no bite. Most sheriff’s would just ask the guy to leave that was trespassing. Why did they feel the need to make a bigger deal than it is… oh wait because they want the other party to win… so over the political BS.
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