By Bob Norman SW Florida Lighthouse
It wasn’t so far out of the ordinary when 21-year-old Kagan Vann received a text message from Fort Myers Mayor Kevin Anderson, a married politician more than 40 years his senior, asking to get together.
“Let me know if you want to get together for a cup of coffee or a drink,” Anderson wrote Vann just after noon on that Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024.
They first met during New Year’s several years ago at the Luminary Hotel in downtown Fort Myers, where Vann was working a high school job as a food runner, and Anderson stayed with his wife on New Year’s Eve. Both Vann and Anderson told the Lighthouse they hit it off, exchanged numbers, and became friends.
“He never did anything inappropriate until that night,” said Vann. “Now I think he was grooming me.”
Vann and the mayor met that night at the 10 Twenty Five bar in downtown Fort Myers, where the latter alleged in a police report that Anderson offered him money in exchange for sexual acts before he suddenly began to feel physically ill and out of it. He left the mayor and rushed to a nearby bar, where a friend called 911, and he was taken by ambulance to Lee Memorial Hospital.
Fort Myers police questioned Vann at the hospital and other witnesses that night, according to a report obtained by the Lighthouse, which also obtained body cam footage of the questioning at the scene. The Fort Myers Police Department, where Anderson worked for 24 years prior to embarking on his political career, referred the case to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
“These were some pretty heinous allegations and we took a neutral stance which was the right thing to do,” Fort Myers Police Chief Jason Fields told the Lighthouse. “Somebody could say we were biased and I wasn’t gonna risk the reputation of the police department or the city, so we had FDLE investigate.”
After an investigation, during which Anderson was never questioned, FDLE determined there wasn’t enough evidence for criminal charges, said Fields.
“There was nothing found [in Vann’s blood] I believe so there wasn’t enough to go on,” he said.
Vann said there were no blood tests done for common date rape drugs like Rohypnol while he was at the hospital (and he supplied the Lighthouse with screenshots of the hospital test results).
“I have photos, I have messages from the mayor, I had witnesses fill out statements,” Vann told me. “They still hid it under the counter.”
In a phone interview following yesterday city council meeting, Anderson denied he drugged Vann or propositioned him for sex. But since that occasion, another young man independent of Vann, 18-year-old FGCU student Dominic Hendricks, has come forward to the Lighthouse alleging Anderson sexually harassed him during the city’s recent Fourth Of July celebration.
The allegations — including the police evidence, photos, the statements of both Vann and Hendricks, and text messages — paint a troubling picture, but Anderson is adamant that he’s innocent. He admitted to engaging in sexual discussions and said he may have used the “wrong humor,” but didn’t cross the line.
What the people of his city decide about these cases may determine the political survival of Anderson, who was elected mayor in 2020 and is now in a race for reelection.
“I think the public will stand with me,” Anderson said. “I think people know me and they know I wouldn’t do this.”