![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/91e9d17e-9c70-47d9-ab3c-21fd19a8398e_2926x1356.webp?fit=1024%2C474&ssl=1\")
It wasn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLet me know if you want to get together for a cup of coffee or a drink,\u201d Anderson wrote Vann just after noon on that Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n
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<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nThey 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\u2019s Eve. Both Vann and Anderson told the Lighthouse they hit it off, exchanged numbers, and became friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe never did anything inappropriate until that night,\u201d said Vann. \u201cNow I think he was grooming me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n
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<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nVann 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThese were some pretty heinous allegations and we took a neutral stance which was the right thing to do,\u201d Fort Myers Police Chief Jason Fields told the Lighthouse. \u201cSomebody 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After an investigation, during which Anderson was never questioned, FDLE determined there wasn\u2019t enough evidence for criminal charges, said Fields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere was nothing found [in Vann\u2019s blood] I believe so there wasn’t enough to go on,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI have photos, I have messages from the mayor, I had witnesses fill out statements,\u201d Vann told me. \u201cThey still hid it under the counter.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\u2019s recent Fourth Of July celebration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The allegations \u2014 including the police evidence, photos, the statements of both Vann and Hendricks, and text messages \u2014 paint a troubling picture, but Anderson is adamant that he\u2019s innocent. He admitted to engaging in sexual discussions and said he may have used the \u201cwrong humor,\u201d but didn\u2019t cross the line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n
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\u201cI think the public will stand with me,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cI think people know me and they know I wouldn\u2019t do this.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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