Union president wants FMPD chief investigated

Published: Updated:

FORT MYERS, Fla.- The police union president is asking city leaders to investigate Fort Myers Police Chief Doug Baker following calls for his resignation.

The union claims Baker lied during the investigation into NFL star Nate Allen earlier this year, which Baker says is untrue.

“We are not going to convict our police chief nor anybody else of wrongdoing. Not in my presence,” said Council Member Tom Leonardo.

The Fort Myers city manager will now look into a discrepancy in the FMPD internal investigation, which looked at what went wrong during Allen’s botched investigation.

Union president Matt Sellers says Baker lied about a phone call ordering Allen’s release and now wants the chief to resign.

“We would like the city manager to file a complaint with the Criminal Justice Standards and Training Commission to get to the bottom of this,” said Sellers.

“I have no worries of any other investigations,” said Baker.

The police chief says he didn’t lie about the phone call he made to Captain Melvin Perry telling him to release Allen and says the report is very truthful.

“He gave his statement of what he remembers, I gave my statement of what I remember,” said Baker.

FDLE also reviewed FMPD’s internal investigation and found no reason to look into it.

“I think there is a number of agendas in play, I do. I think there has been a number of agendas for quite some time,” said Baker.

“We are talking about transparency, we are talking about truth, we are talking about integrity,” said Council Member Johnny Streets who led the discussion.

However, Allen’s attorney, Sawyer Smith, says what really needs to happen is a third party investigation.

“What needs to happen is what we have been saying for six months. Bring in an outside group. Ask a government agency to do it or retain a private corporation to do it,” said Smith.

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