Victim’s mother testifies in firefighter child sex case

FORT MYERS, Fla. — An underage girl started shaking, crying and getting emotional when her mother confronted her about a suspected sexual relationship she was having with a former Fort Myers Beach firefighter, the mother testified in court Wednesday.

The mother described what happened when she began to suspect the relationship between 28-year-old Stephen Reynaert, and her daughter, who was 13 when the year-long affair began.

“You better pray to God this isn’t what I think this is,” she said to Reynaert, according to her testimony.

WINK News does not identify victims of sexual assault or their immediate family members.

She then hit him in the face and kicked him out of the place they were staying while on vacation in Englewood, she said.

The mother and the girl went to stay with relatives once the girl spoke up about the relationship, and they reported it to police five days later, the mother testified.

Reynaert resigned from the Fort Myers Beach Fire Department shortly after his arrest. He pleaded not guilty to felony sexual activity with a child in September.

Reynaert interrupted the testimony several times Wednesday, coughing into his microphone while the woman was being questioned. He stared down the prosecuting attorney, and the judge briefly stopped the proceedings and instructed him to stop.

Wednesday’s proceedings were in advance of the formal trial, which is unlikely to begin until March.