Secret Fort Myers police documents could be released after 4 years

Redacted portions of an audit of the Fort Myers Police Department are under review for release, according to the agency’s inspector general.

FMPD Inspector General Donald Oswald told Fort Myers City Council members Monday they are consulting with attorneys about how to handle requests for unredacted copies of the Freeh eport. The city paid the Freeh Investigations Group to conduct a needs assessment of the department back in 2016.

Shortly after its release in 2017, four officers were placed on paid administrative leave amid a a federal investigation. In 2019, WINK News revealed the officers were the target of a criminal investigation involving murder, drug trafficking and public corruption.

In March, the federal government closed its case without prosecuting any of the officers. Oswald told council, so far, they have not been able to get any additional information on the government’s investigation.

“Rule 6 E of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure mandates that all federal grand jury proceedings are secret; therefore, we haven’t actually ever been given any documentation from the grand jury proceedings,” Oswald said.

However, Oswald said he was hoping to get an opinion on the release of the redacted Freeh report documents within a day or two.

“I’m very hopeful that the documents will be released in their entirety, and we can get this behind us and start continuing improvement and moving forward,” Mayor Kevin Anderson said.

Three of the officers who were under investigation retired amid the scandal. The fourth officer, Jason Jackson, returned to work April 7. Oswald said Jackson is in pre-deployment training after a lengthy four-year absence.