Former FMPD detective exposes video of prostitution

A former detective in the Fort Myers Police Department said he found a video showing a captain engaging in sex acts during an undercover prostitution sting in 2013. Now, he is revealing more insight about the department.

Former FMPD Detective O’Neil Kerr said he brought complaints about Captain Jay Rodriguez to the department, but nothing was done.

“They have selected people who they take care of, and they do no wrong,” Kerr said.

In his decade with the police force from 2008 to 2018, Kerr said he was the type of person to speak up, even if it cost him.

“Once you speak out it’s retaliation, you’re avoided,” Kerr said. “You’re blacklisted.”

Kerr claimed Rodriguez, who became his supervisor in 2017, had been harassing him in connection to an injury he got on the job.

“He believed I was faking an injury,” Kerr said. “I believe it’s one of the reasons he gave me such a hard time.”

A department review of the complaints called them unfounded. But after Kerr spoke up, he says other officers started telling him about Rodriguez allegedly engaging in a sex act during a 2013 prostitution sting. They claimed it was all caught on camera.

“Honestly, the fact that he’s a police officer… it’s beyond me,” Kerr said.

Kerr was medically terminated in November 2018. Not long after, he received a delivery of the video.

“I got a physical copy of it that was left in my physical mailbox,” said Kerr, who is unaware of the sender.

Kerr had already filed a complaint about the allegations with the FMPD in December. FMPD’s human resources director claimed the video didn’t exist and asked Kerr to send it to them. He found it in his mailbox after inquiring among the officers who first told him about it. In February, he sent the video to FMPD.

FMPD Chief Derrick Diggs, Jay Rodriguez, and the department have commented on these claims or the investigation as the Florida Department of Law Enforcement has taken it over.

Kerr doesn’t consider himself a disgruntled employee.

“I loved my job,” Kerr said. “The longer this goes on, it’s going toreflect poorly on the City of Fort Myers and the police department.”