City may write apology letter to Nate Allen; waiting on investigation

FORT MYERS, Fla.- The City of Fort Myers may now be doing damage control in the scandal involving NFL star Nate Allen.

Earlier this year, an underage girl accused Allen of exposing himself to her on US 41, but the State Attorney’s Office later cleared him.

Monday night, council members agreed to write an apology letter to Allen, hoping to mitigate any possible lawsuits.

City Councilman Tom Leonardo brought up the question about a possible apology letter saying “do we think that such an apology would mitigate a lawsuit or would not mitigate a lawsuit?”

Some council members say it has also taken the Fort Myers Police Department way too long to finish up an internal investigation to see if there was any wrongdoing.

Ryan Doyle, an attorney for Allen, tells WINK News the council just hid behind threats of possible lawsuits.

“What we saw tonight was the city leaders failed to act as leaders. They had an opportunity to address the situation and they failed to do so. The citizens and Nate Allen are let down by their actions tonight,” said Doyle.

Police Chief Doug Baker tells WINK News this is the normal amount of time an internal investigation should take and says the state gives the department 180 days to wrap it up.

There is still no set date on when the internal investigation will be completed.