Carmine Marceno acknowledges FBI investigation while touting agency accomplishments

Carmine Marceno, Screenshot via Facebook.

Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno has acknowledged an FBI investigation of his work. But in a State of the Agency livestream on Facebook, he largely brushed off concerns as a media-generating distraction.

“People always look at the negative, right? They want the clicks, the clickbait,” Marceno said in the livestream. “The FBI requested documents. We supply the documents, and we move on.”

Through most of the livestream, Marceno primarily focused on agency accomplishments in 2024, including a 100% solve rate on homicides in 2024. He appeared on the livestream, accepting questions only from a public information employee, on the first day of his new four-year term.

But the speech came as significant controversy shadows the work of the agency. A federal grand jury reportedly has continued to investigate Marceno, months after Sheriff’s Office contractor Ken Romano went public about speaking to the FBI with allegations that implicated Marceno.

Romano has publicly claimed he was paid for a no-show job as a social media expert and provided kickbacks to Marceno and his family members.

Contracts provided by the Lee County Sheriff’s Office show Romano was paid $5,700 a month until August 2022, when his relationship with the Sheriff’s Office was terminated because he was the subject of an investigation by another law enforcement agency.

Romano publicly said he was accepting money and giving a share of it back to Marceno. The News-Press last year obtained security video of a jewelry store owned by Romano in which Marceno accepted a stack of cash. Supporters of Marceno at the time dismissed that as two individuals exchanging money in a place of business.

Marceno in his State of the Agency address defended the use of outside contractors with the agency, something he called a “hot topic.”

“Consultants actually save the taxpayer money,” Marceno said. “We don’t pay them benefits, huge retirement … we don’t pay any of that. And when their job is done, we can terminate the contract and move on.”

In December, Lee County Commissioner Cecil Pendergrass said at a public meeting that Marceno was under federal investigation and that a grand jury was issuing subpoenas.

Many of the accusations were publicized in the Fall by Mike Hollow, a former Major Crimes deputy at the Sheriff’s Office who ran against Marceno in 2024 as a write-in candidate. Marceno won re-election with almost 91% of the vote but more than 31,000 supported Hollow.

Marceno noted his re-election victory in the Facebook stream.

“Thank you, being an elected official to the amazing amount of people that supported me in my election,” he said, “because you know what? I’m going to give them 300% of me.”