LCSO employee reinstated after being fired for controversial video

FORT MYERS, Fla.- A Lee County Sheriff’s Office (LCSO) employee who was fired after a controversial video circulated on social media will get her job back.

Shelly Bechtol was fired from her clerk’s position at LCSO in July for a video showing her husband, a former baseball coach at North Fort Myers High School, taking a sledge hammer to a drawing of Tavaris Gary, the man who replaced him as the coach.

In the drawing, Gary is depicted with exaggerated lips and a noose around his neck. Bechtol admitted to drawing the face, but not the noose, and said there was nothing racial about it.

“I had drawn a face about this big on the wall and I had labeled it with a name,” said Bechtol at a hearing on Tuesday. “This is the way I learned to draw photos when I was younger, I draw a circle, I draw a triangle for the nose and I draw a heart for the mouth and I put a line through it.”

Bechtol’s son’s friend explained that he added the noose and took the video.

“I didn’t think about it at the time, I was just trying to get a couple laughs,” said Wayne San Filippo.

An attorney representing LCSO argued that Bechtol was ultimately at fault for tarnishing the integrity of the sheriff’s office, but the board disagreed and found there was not enough evidence to discipline her.

Bechtol’s only comment after the decision was that she was happy to have her job back. It’s unclear when her first day back will be.