Rodney Mark Shoap

795 Ewell Farm Drive

Spring Hill, Tennessee 37174
615-972-2909 / rshoap@gmail.com

October 7, 2019

Deputy William Weiss, Chairman

Florida Criminal Justice Standards & Training Commission
Martin County Sheriff’s Office
800 S.E. Monterey Road
Stuart, FL 34994-4507
Re: Police Officer Certification Fraud
SubJect: Carmine Marceno, appointed Lee County Sheriff

Dear Chairman Weiss,

Sheriff Mike Scott of Lee County, Florida retired prior to his elected term ending. Governor Rick Scott
appointed Carmine Marceno to complete Sheriff Scott’s term. After hearing complaints from many
people in Lee County I decided to look into the matter myself. This letter outlines what I found.

Carmine Marceno attended the Suffolk County, New York police academy about 20 years ago. He
was employed as a Suffolk County Park Ranger, but only the position of a part time seasonal ranger,
never full time employment.

Florida law clearly dictates the following prerequisites for out of state candidates applying to take the
Florida Police Officer’s exam. First, the candidate must have completed a regular police academy
meeting Florida standards; and second, the candidate must have worked as a full time law
enforcement officer for 12 full months. Otherwise, in lieu of meeting the two prerequisites, the
candidate must attend a regular Florida Police Academy prior to taking the Florida Police Officer
Certification Exam.

While this seems like a small thing, it is Florida’s rule of law. Mr. Marceno subsequently avoided
attending a Florida academy by use of a fraudulent and expired FDLE form 76 and was able to
attend the equivalency of training class and take the exam. Even after that additional training Mr.
Marceno failed the exam the first two times. And Mr. Chairman, other police officers in Florida; one in
particular comes to mind in Lee County, were terminated and lost their certifications over the exact
same issue.

Evidence of this issue is listed and enclosed with this letter:

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 1. FDLE Form 76: Exemption granted on 9-22-99 and employment is listed as Police Officer. The
agency is Suffolk County Park Police and the box checked for full time is ‘Yes’. Had the box
been checked ‘No’, Marceno would have been disqualified from taking the training and exam.
In addition, the date for the third exam was 10/03/2002, three years and one month after the
application was made and two years and one month past the expiration date;

2. Article 25 Membership Registration for New York Retirement. When Mr. Marceno completed
his retirement registration form for the State of New York stamped August 17, 2002, line – 7
and line – 10 both clearly completed as Part Time Seasonal Ranger;

3. Suffolk County Department of Parks Seasonal Standard Payroll form for Mr. Marceno. On the
line dated 09/01/99 the line item marked for payment of Mr. Marceno’s salary is Part Time;

4. Lee County Sheriff’s Office employment application employment history page lists six prior
employments for Mr. Marceno. In the boxes marked full time or part time, five of the six were
marked and Suffolk County Park Police was left blank. An error or omission on this application
constitutes untruthfulness and perjury.

5. Naples Police Department letter sent by the training officer to the Chief explaining dates on the
FDLE form 76 and informing the Chief that Marceno would not have time, after failing the first
two exams, to retake the 3rd test prior to the form date lapsing. The Chief ultimately terminated
Marceno’s employment; and,

6. Copy of Equivalency of Training laws rules and administrative code governing how out of state
candidates can become Florida certified by taking a full Florida Police Academy training class
or if they meet the requirements they can avoid the Academy training and go right to an
Equivalency of Training class and take the Florida State Exam.

The Florida Ethics Commission is currently investigating Mr. Marceno based on my complaint of his
pursuing a sexual relationship with a currernt reporting victim of a crime; dating the said victim in his
Lee County, taxpayer funded law enforcement vehicle and having sexual intercourse with the victim
while inside that same taxpayer funded vehicle. In Addition, in a text message sent by Mr. Marceno to
the victim, he promised to keep her from being victimized any further by the thieves in her case. The
most discussing part of this relation came when the victim of the crime became pregnant with
Marceno’s baby and he begged her to abort a living child (See text messages sent from Marceno to
Williams).

Along with the victim mentioned in the above paragraph, I wonder how many more victims are out
there, afraid to come forward from fear of his uniform. This victim, Ms. Williams, says she has spoken
to several. I am told that some of his victims are employed at the Sheriff’s Office and are afraid to
report him for fear of losing their jobs. One of my biggest fears is to find out that Marceno is a
predator and we did nothing about it.

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Every day that Mr. Marceno gets up, puts his uniform on and goes to work he commits the Felony
crime of: Impersonating a Police Officer. In my opinion an investigation is certainly appropriate.
Even with the consideration that the fraudulent FDLE form 76 was a mistake, we can clearly prove
that Mr. Marceno knew the rules and chose to violate them. This constitutes a Felony(s) that has
been continued for over 18 years.

Please refer this complaint to the Criminal Justice Standards & Training Commission for their
certification investigation; and, to the Executive Investigations Division for their criminal investigation.

As a former Sheriff in Lee County, Florida; a former Police Chief; and, former Magistrate, now retired,
I thank you for your time and efforts in this matter. Most Lee County citizens have seen the news
about this issue as FOX 4 in Cape Coral ran several news stories about him. Everyone wonders why
someone isn’t looking into this issue and resolving it. That, Mr. Chairman, is what I am asking FCJST
to do.

Respectfully,

___________________
Rodney Shoap

Copies to: Statewide Prosecutor Nick Cox, FDLE Counsel Ray Shackelford, CJPM Bureau Chief
Glen Hopkins.