A lawsuit filed by a Fort Myers man over the removal of weapons and ammunition, much of it antique, from his home by the Lee County Sheriff's Office in March 2020 claims there were violations of the state constitution as well as damage done to materials taken.
The suit was filed by W. Alecs Dean March 29 in Lee County Court and seeks damages up to $100,000.
The Sheriff's Office declined comment.
Dean is president of Firearm Forensics Consulting, LLC, and is a verified firearms expert and consultant who has worked for many local, state and national law enforcement agencies on training and gun law matters.
The suit stems from a Temporary Injunction for Protection Against Stalking filed March 30, 2020, against Dean by a then local television reporter.
The reporter, Jaclyn Bevis, also filed a case in Lee County Family Court in November 2019 against Dean, claiming stalking/cyberstalking. Court records show that the stalking case was dismissed in January 2021 when Bevis, who is no longer working in local media, failed to appear for a hearing.
The injunction said Bevis knew Dean for three years and alleged he provided tips during her tenure as a TV reporter. She also alleged that Dean eventually became obsessed with her and “lost connection with reality" when he learned she was seeing someone else.
The next day, March 31, 2020, a number of Sheriff's Office officers and deputies and other LCSO employees, appeared at Dean's home to serve the order.
The order required Dean to “surrender any firearms and ammunition" in his possession to the Sheriff’s Office.
The Sheriff's Office personnel then removed dozens of firearms, thousands of rounds of ammunition, modern and antique versions of both, and other items from the home.
According to Dean, he had an extensive collective of rare and exotic ammunition that was sorted and categorized by him, some in original boxes, unopened.
In the suit, Dean claims the removal was illegal:
- Nowhere in the aforementioned court order was the LCSD either directed by the court order, or authorized by the court order, to enter Dean’s residence, nor to seize any firearms, or ammunition, or any other property belonging to Dean or in his possession.
- No Florida statute authorizes a Florida judge to deprive any person of their rights to keep and to bear arms in a temporary injunction for protection against stalking which is issued ex parte.
- No Florida statute authorizes a Florida judge to order the surrender of firearms to a specifically named third party, whether a governmental agency or otherwise, in a temporary injunction order for protection against stalking
- No Florida statute authorizes a Florida judge to order the surrender of firearms to a specifically named third party, whether a governmental agency or otherwise, in a final injunction order for protection against stalking.
- Nothing in the TIPAS authorized LCSD to conduct a search of Dean’s home.
- Nothing in the TIPAS authorized LCSD to seize anything from Dean’s residence.
- At no time did any deputy possess a warrant authorizing entry into Dean’s home.
Dean claims in the suit that the Sheriff's Office personnel doing the removing damaged multiple items and prevented him from re-entering the home to get his cell phone and medication.
"Deputies stepped on, kicked, banged against, and generally exercised little care where they walked or what they moved, or removed from Dean’s home," the suit claims.
The suit also claims damage caused by deputies included opening sealed packages of ammunition, disposing of sealed packages of ammunition after opening and removing the ammunition, and opening sealed packages containing firearm components.
Dean said, in the suit, that he was never given the opportunity to transfer the firearms and ammunition to a person competent in the storage and care of the unique firearms and ammunition in his possession.
In an article in the publication The Truth About Guns, Dean's attorney, Eric Friday described the seizure: “They all got dumped in a box. They took ammunition components that weren’t even covered by the order. They sure didn’t have the authority to seize them.”
Although the court had ordered Dean to surrender his weapons, it did not authorize the Lee County Sheriff’s Office to seize anything. “They seized them on their own,” Friday told The Truth About Guns. “They just went in and grabbed them without a court order or a search warrant.”
The lawsuit Dean filed said he told the deputies he had a third party on the way to take possession of his collection, but the Sheriff's Office would not allow him to do that.
The suit said that a second inventory of the items taken was made and mishandling during the inventory caused further damage
The Sheriff's Office returned the property in December 2020 and January 21.
No court date has been set.
WGCU is your trusted source for news and information in Southwest Florida. We are a nonprofit public service, and your support is more critical than ever. Keep public media strong and donate now. Thank you.