Malek Khalil isn’t a cop, far from it in fact, but that didn’t stop him from flashing a Lee County sheriff’s badge during a disturbance at a Fort Myers hotel and then getting a veritable escort away from the trouble by an actual uniformed deputy. Khalil, a former pain clinic owner, is one of more than 300 civilians Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno has bestowed with honorary deputy status, complete with authentic agency badges. Among the recipients are notable citizens, campaign donors, political figures, and MAGA celebrities like Ted Nugent and former UFC light heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz. The inclusion of Khalil on the list might seem surprising. By the time he struck up a friendship with Marceno in 2022, Khalil had already been sued at least twice for financial improprieties and was the subject of a third lawsuit alleging he and his wife, Sara Hippeli, defrauded a finance company out of more than $1.7 million in order to “fund their extravagant lifestyle of ostentatious automobiles, luxury homes, and high-roller gaming,” according to the judge in the case. Hippeli is currently at large on a felony fraud warrant in Hillsborough County for alleged criminal activity that occurred while working with Khalil, who is from Jordan. The Trident extended multiple opportunities for the sheriff to explain his relationship with Khalil, but he didn’t respond, echoing his silence on another former honorary sheriff’s deputy, Ken Romano, who has alleged to the FBI and others that Marceno gave him a $5,700-a-month “no work” LCSO consulting contract involving cash kickbacks paid to the sheriff’s father, Carmine Marceno Sr. The status of the FBI’s investigation isn’t known at this time. Khalil was more than a friend to Marceno; he was a benefactor as well. In 2022, the fraudster raised at least $22,500 for the sheriff’s political PAC, Friends of Carmine Marceno, including $7,500 from corporations operated by Khalil and another $15,000 from a company owned by his former business associate Samer Merhi, who said Khalil introduced him to Marceno and encouraged him to make the contribution. Merhi said he was with Khalil at the Luminary Hotel’s rooftop bar overlooking the Caloosahatchee River in 2022 when a run-in with hotel management put the real-world power of Khalil’s honorary deputy status to the test. ‘Off the books’ police call The trouble at the Luminary began when hotel staff informed Khalil that a private party was taking over the bar and the pair had to leave, said Merhi. “Why are you leaving? I’m calling the sheriff – they don’t know who they’re messing with,” Merhi recalled Khalil telling him. Fort Myers police officers arrived at the hotel, which is in the direct jurisdiction of the FMPD, but Khalil still refused to leave, said Merhi and a second witness who spoke to the Trident on condition of anonymity. Then a uniformed Lee County Sheriff’s deputy arrived in his patrol car, strode into the lobby and approached Khalil, who, according to the second witness, promptly flashed his honorary sheriff’s badge for the deputy to see. An unidentified woman who identified herself as an attorney also arrived to assist Khalil, said the witness, and she made it clear the deputy was there to assist Khalil, telling staff, “You think he’s here for you? He’s here for us.” Marceno did not respond to requests for comment about the incident at the Luminary Hotel. Ultimately, the deputy was able to extricate Khalil from the hotel without arrest or any further trouble, said the witness. Despite scouring police records, the Trident was unable to locate any public documentation of the incident. A former sheriff’s office employee aware of the incident said the call to the Luminary occurred “off the books” due to the fact it was done solely as a favor to “take care” of a friend of the sheriff. Khalil, who has since had a falling out with Merhi, admitted he was at the hotel at the time of the incident but denied he was in a dispute with staff or that he enlisted the sheriff’s help. He said he never abused the badge, which he said Marceno gave him as part of a “friends and family thing.” “It’s a friends and family thing – it doesn’t mean you get to act like a police officer,” said Khalil, adding that he hasn’t spoken to the sheriff in many months. “I didn’t want to have that badge in the first place. It expired more than a year ago.” Marceno did not respond to an email with detailed questions about the Luminary incident. The alleged special treatment Marceno received at the Luminary raises ethical issues, said Caroline Klancke, a former deputy director of the Florida Ethics Commission who now runs the nonprofit Florida Ethics Institute. “These are the kinds of acts that have engendered scrutiny in the form of ethics investigations,” said Klancke, adding that the central question is whether or not Marceno “misused his authority.” The Photo The relationship between Marceno and Kahlil comes into focus, literally, in a photograph obtained by the Trident of the two of them sitting together at one of the sheriff’s favorite haunts – the Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood. The photo shows the two men smiling at a table with some form of paperwork in front of them. Khalil texted the photo to an unidentified recipient on March 7, 2022, with the words: “Ur missing great meeting here.” Khalil, who acknowledged he snapped the selfie, told the Trident it wasn’t really a meeting, just a chance encounter. “I just happened to see [Marceno] there and we said hello,” said Khalil, adding that he didn’t know anything about the paperwork in the photo (“I thought it was a menu at first”). Three weeks after the photo was taken, Khalil and his former associate Merhi began contributing to the sheriff’s PAC, ultimately totaling $22,500 between them, $15,000 of it from Merhi, who said he donated at Khalil’s request. There was nothing untoward about his relationship with Marceno, said Khalil. “I had business in Lee County and like every other businessman in Lee County I supported the sheriff of Lee County,” he said. “Is it wrong to donate to a campaign for someone trying to take drugs off the streets?” Marceno is an avid gambler, which makes the meeting location of a casino unsurprising. In 2022 and 2023, Marceno disclosed he earned a staggering $458,843 in gambling income from the Hard Rock casinos. That sum, contained in the sheriff’s financial disclosure papers filed with the Florida Ethics Commission, eclipses his public salary during the same time period. Romano, the sheriff’s former close associate who went to the FBI, was another of Marceno’s gambling buddies – and he claimed that among some $250,000 in unreported gifts he’s given to the sheriff was thousands of dollars to cover Marceno’s gambling debts. The Trident obtained a receipt showing Romano gave Marceno a $9,000 grand piano in 2020. While state ethics laws require elected officials to report gifts valued at over $100, the sheriff never disclosed his receipt of a piano. Marceno didn’t respond to requests for comment about the piano either. The ethics commission has spent “hundreds of hours” on Marceno. The practice of handing out honorary sheriff’s badges – often to campaign donors, celebrities, and law enforcement insiders – is rampant in Florida, and Marceno hands them out at a rapid clip. According to LCSO, Marceno has doled out a total of 324 honorary badges since he was appointed to his post by then-Gov. Rick Scott in 2018. The practice came under brief scrutiny from the media shortly after Marceno’s appointment when it was discovered Marceno’s friend, Fox News commentator Sean Hannity, had received an honorary badge from previous Lee County sheriff Mike Scott. At the same time Sheriff Marceno was coming under fire for other alleged ethical shortcomings that resulted in numerous state investigations, the most significant involving a revelation that Marceno had dated a crime victim, impregnated her, and then pressured her to have an abortion. A Florida Commission on Ethics’ investigation cleared Marceno in the abortion case after it was determined the woman’s criminal case was closed before their relationship began. He was also cleared in a case involving a taxpayer-paid trip on a private plane to attend a Florida Highway Patrol chief’s retirement party. “The Commission on Ethics has spent many hundreds of hours investigating [Marceno],” ethics expert Klancke said, adding the new revelations involving the Luminary Hotel may warrant more investigation. “The [state ethics code] prohibits any public officer from using or attempting to use their official position to procure a special private benefit for themselves – or anyone else.” Read more.
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