At today’s Fort Myers City Council meeting, Kagan Vann addressed the man he said victimized him nearly two years ago. The mayor.
By Bob Norman
Roughly a dozen speakers provided often powerful testimony at tonight’s city council meeting calling for Fort Myers’ Mayor Kevin Anderson to resign following reporting in the Lighthouse regarding allegations of sexual misconduct by two young men. Two of those speakers were his accusers, 23-year-old Kagan Vann and 18-year-old Dominic Hendricks, who confronted the mayor directly during public comments as he looked on, at times, as in the photo above, frowning.
Here is the entirety of Vann’s statement, spoken directly to Anderson with emotion-laced conviction. Following the statement, you can read Anderson’s hurried denial, followed by an abrupt adjournment and moments of shouting and chaos as police escorted the mayor from the room.
Vann’s statement
For the record, my name is Kagan Vann.
Kevin, we both know what went down November 21st, 2024. You know that we were friends. We met at the Luminary Hotel at Silver King [restaurant] on New Year’s Eve. You said after our conversation about me being a food runner that if you ever had a son, you’d want him to be exactly like me.
I took that to heart. I trusted you as a friend, as someone who helped me not only with acting, but kind of motivated me to keep moving forward.
On November 21st, 2024, you betrayed my trust. You propositioned me for sex. You, on top of that, when I kept saying no, were being pushy and forceful. And then I happened to go away from the table to go to the bathroom. I came back and had a drink. While talking with you, you said, ‘Here’s what we’re going to do. You’re going to come with me over to the ATM, and I’m going to pull out $200, and you’re going to let me suck you off.’ I just wanted to see if you deny that.
Or one of my favorite ones was, “I watched you go from a young boy into the stud you are today.” Imagine how fucking— excuse my language — imagine how awful it made me feel hearing this.
And when I went to get up, when the server came out and said, “Do you want any more drinks?” I said no multiple times, as my body was shutting down and you turned red in the face, and you’re like, “No, he wants another one. No, he wants another one.” Clearly I did not, if I went and walked away, and then I made it to Kava (bar) and collapsed. And that’s when the EMS came to me. That’s when the police got involved.
I had someone come up to the table. I knew him from Kava bar beforehand because my friends saw those texts that you’re sending me. And they’re like, “The mayor’s trying to F you, trying to have sex with you.” And I’m like, “No, no, no. He’s a good guy. He’s a good guy. I’ve known him for years. He wouldn’t do that.”
They were there in the courtyard sitting down because they were keeping an eye on me. They saw me before. They saw me when I took the drink. And they saw me after. And most of those people I’ve been drinking with me, two tequila Red Bulls aren’t going to knock me out, not going to shut my body down and cause me to sweat, eyes rolled to the back of my head, slobber and foam coming out of my mouth. That doesn’t come from two tequila Red Bulls, Kevin.
And when you said you did a blood test on me, or you did a test to test what drugs were in my system, you did a normal one. You didn’t do a blood test. I have the receipts right on my chart. No blood test was ever done. And those drugs like Rohypnol, GHB, or any other date-rape drug weren’t tested for either. So I am calling for you to resign as mayor. And also …
At this point, a voice interrupted. It was the mayor, who’d been listening silently.
The mayor’s denial and adjournment
“Your time is up,” Anderson said to Vann.
Vann went to his seat to the sound of applause.
After the last speaker spoke, the mayor provided this quickly spoken response:
“I declare these allegations being made are completely false,” he said. “These exchanges have been taken out of content [sic] and used to create a false narrative. I have always made myself available to the public even when they were critical of me, and I will continue to do so. With that said, I remain focused on carrying out the work of our city as I have for the last six years.”
Then the meeting was adjourned at lightning with no further discussion.
