Article Courtesy of Florida
Politics
By Jacob Ogles
Published August 11, 2020
|
State House candidate Adam Botana was reported for trespassing in a Fort Myers
gated community while door knocking.
Surveillance cameras
on July 13 caught the Bonita Springs Republican rolling
through the back gate of the Forest Country Club on an
electric scooter. A week later, Botana was served with a
warning from the homeowners association stating he had been
permanently banned from the premises.
Botana, whose family has long run the Bay Water Exclusive
Boat Club, filed last year for an open seat in House
District 76.
“You are not a resident or a welcomed guest of the
Community, nor a member of the Forest Country Club,” reads a
letter from attorney James Robert Caves III. “Accordingly,
pursuant to the authority granted to the Association under
Florida law, you are permanently banned from the community,
effective immediately.”
Caves wrote Botana illegally entered Forest Country Club by
bypassing security and entering through the exit lane of the
Island Park gate. Footage shows no security guard station at
that gate.
Botana was served with the notice, and on July 22, the
Forest Property Owners’ Association informed the Lee County
Sheriff’s Office.
Botana was informed that if he gets caught stepping foot on
property again, it will be considered a criminal offense,
and the Association will request “prosecution to the fullest
extent of the law.” |
|
Footage shows him rolling through the back gate on an
electric scooter alone.
|
“I trust that you will govern yourself accordingly,” the letter to Botana
closes.
Botana faces Sanibel City Councilman Jason Maughan in the Aug. 18 GOP
primary. The race has become increasingly negative in the final weeks, with
the candidates running television ads highlighting each one’s past problems
with the law.
For Maughan, that includes a 1995 incident where he fired a weapon from a
moving vehicle into another car. For Botana, his record includes a DUI and
several other traffic citations.
The coastal district includes a number of gated communities, and Botana has
posted footage on his Facebook page of himself with voters at doors and
video of himself walking through such neighborhoods. Typically, individuals
who do not live in gated communities must be accompanied by a resident in
order to go door-to-door.
A recent poll commissioned by Florida Politics shows Botana leading Maughan
in the upcoming Republican primary.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE
"WARNING LETTER"
(Guess who sent the warning letter?) |