A secret grand jury continues to meet in Tampa for a second day now, hearing evidence the FBI has gathered in its investigation against Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno.
The grand jury began meeting on Tuesday. Because it is a secret grand jury, it's impossible to know exactly what is taking place.
For most of 2018, Lee County Undersheriff Carmine Marceno was the face of the department after family responsibilities pulled then-Sheriff Mike Scott away from the job.
Scott revealed to reporter Dave Elias exclusively back then that he was recommending then-Governor Rick Scott to appoint Marceno to fill his term.
Gov. Rick Scott did exactly that. Marceno, in an interview in 2018, recalled receiving the word.
“My phone rang, and it was Gov. Rick Scott,” Marceno said.
On October 1, 2018, hundreds of people, including deputies, watched Marceno's swearing-in.
Afterward, Elias asked him if he planned to run for the job, and Marceno responded absolutely.
He ran in 2020 and won with 67% of the vote despite allegations of discrepancies in his work history.
After his win, Marceno began to become a much more visible sheriff taking to social media and posting videos for various arrests and warning lawbreakers they risked ending up in the Marceno Motel, a name he coined to replace the Lee County jail.
He would be seen in promotional videos produced by the sheriff’s office nailing down signs in the yards of those arrested on drug charges.
His TikTok posts began garnering attention, with more than a million followers.
“That deadly force behavior gets you a job with the medical examiner or six feet under in a casket,” Marceno said in one post.
In 2022, days after the Uvalde school shooting, Marceno posted the arrest of a 10-year-old Cape Coral boy over an alleged school threat. The perp walk got global attention.
Another video posted on TikTok showed the sheriff warning, “We're going to meet you with deadly force, and we're going to kill you,” he said.
Despite the negative attention, the sheriff wasn't backing down. Reporter Dave Elias during an exclusive interview with the sheriff told Marceno there were some parents saying that he was being too tough of juveniles.
“As your sheriff, I want to be firm with zero tolerance,” Marceno responded.
As the sheriff approached the 2024 election, controversy again blew up.
His opponent, Mike Hollow, told Dave Elias exclusively that Marceno was the target of an FBI investigation.
“Eventually, Mr. Romano and I sat down with May of this year. May 21st of 2024,” Hollow revealed.
Contract employee Ken Romano claimed in an audio recording that he was hired by Marceno in an alleged money laundering scheme.
“I said, 'Can that be considered money laundering or misappropriation of funds?' Bob said 'Yeah,' and I said 'That's crazy, now the kid just involved me in a [expletive] crime,'” Romano could be heard saying.
The former sheriff, Mike Scott, told NBC-2 the claims were serious allegations and urged Marceno to address them.
However, Carmine Marceno has never answered any question about the claims.
Neither has his attorney Donald Day. NBC-2 reached out to Day on Wednesday for a comment on the grand jury convening. Calls were not returned.