Bay Mar Drive resident, and Key Estero parking lot owner, Carmen Naccarato has filed a not guilty plea in his felony assault case. He’s being represented by Fort Myers attorney Jonathan Spellman and is scheduled for his first court appearance December 22nd at 8:30AM.
Naccarato is accused of battery on a man over the age of 65 which is a 3rd dfegree felony. In addition to filing a not guilty plea, Naccarato is requesting a jury trial.
The incident took place Sunday, November 23rd, on Carolina street next to Naccarato’s strip mall where he’s been illegally charging for parking, according to the town.
An LCSO report states that David Lorenz was walking down Carolina Street on his way to the Sandsculpting event at DiamondHead Resort. He started videotaping Naccarato and his wife. Apparently there was a heated discussion the day before over parking in the United States Post Office parking lot. It’s well known in the community that Naccarato charges people to park in the Post Office lot. It’s unclear if he has permission to charge for parking in that lot from the property owner. And visitors to the beach have no idea that he may be taking their money when he may have no right to.
Shortly into Lorenz rolling tape Naccarato comes over to him and knocks his phone out of his hand. You can watch the video of Naccarato smashing Lorenz’ phone HERE. Lorenz also said Naccarato pushed him to the ground and injured his back.
The Lee County Sheriff’s Department was called to the scene where Naccarato was eventually cuffed and taken to county lockup. He bonded out for $10,000 the next day. Naccarato was charged with battery on a person 65 years of age or older which is a 3rd degree felony punishable by up to 5 years in prison. LCSO has made several visits to the Naccarato lot. He’s been known to get into heated yelling matches with people.
Back in March of 2024 Naccarato cut a check for $188,000 to the town for operating an illegal parking lot at Key Estero. Spaces in that plaza are supposed to be for shoppers who come to the businesses. In 2020 the town issued Naccarato a notice of violation and ordered he correct the violation by getting a special use permit. If Naccarato would have corrected the violation back then he would have paid a $75.00 administrative fee.
Naccarato did not correct the violation, fines began to accumulate and the town put a lien on his property. By the time the violation went before the town’s Special Magistrate in September 2020, Naccarato was facing $34,000 in fines. Naccarato continued to rent parking spaces, and according to the town, racked up nearly $220,000 in fines.
Then in March of 2024, Naccarato went to town hall and cut the town a check for $188,000. That was good enough to stop the foreclosure case the town was pursuing against Naccarato for ignoring the code violations. We’re not sure why the town accepted a $188,000 check and not the $220,000 the town reported he owed earlier this month.
However, just because he wrote the check didn’t mean everything was fine. Naccarato still needed to apply for a special exception to operate the parking lot. He was still out of compliance. And, ever since then he’s been renting spots in his lot. However now the fines he’s accumulating are $500 per day, the maximum allowed by state law, and are now well over $300,000, according to Vice Mayor Scott Safford.
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