A high Republican donor and pal of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis who died in December 2022 was below investigation on the time over sexual-misconduct allegations involving a minor, in keeping with studies.
Kent Stermon, 50, of Jacksonville, Florida, was discovered useless from a self-inflicted gunshot wound on December 8 in a automotive on Atlanta Seashore.
Stermon was being investigated over allegations he tried to coerce an underage lady to indicate him a photograph of her breasts by providing her Taylor Swift tickets, in keeping with a report from the U.Okay. information web site DailyMail.com. There isn’t a indication or suggestion that DeSantis was conscious of the allegations involving Stermon.
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The lady then arrived at Stermon’s workplace to return the tickets. Stermon then allegedly demanded that confirmed him her breasts in individual and refused to permit her to depart till she did so.
The teenage lady was ultimately allowed to depart, and she or he informed her father in regards to the incident. Stermon then allegedly supplied to pay a five-figure fee to maintain the incident a secret, which the daddy refused. Stermon was discovered useless a couple of days later.
Stermon, an government at Complete Army Administration, was identified to be a detailed ally of DeSantis. He donated tens of hundreds of {dollars} to the Republican’s campaigns over time, together with when DeSantis was first working for congress in 2012.
In 2018, Politico reported that the then-congressman DeSantis stayed in a apartment co-owned by Stermon after the politician was compelled out of his congressional district in 2016 due to redistricting.
Stermon continued to assist DeSantis because the politician ran for governor in 2018, and later served on his transition staff.
In December 2022, following the donor’s demise, Florida Politics reporter A.G. Gancarski informed First Coast Information: “You would not have Ron DeSantis as governor with out Kent Stermon.”
In March 2019, DeSantis appointed Stermon to the Board of Governors, which is chargeable for Florida’s public college system. The 50-year-old additionally served on the Florida Freeway Patrol Advisory Council and was chair of the Governor’s Public Security Transition Advisory Committee.
It had already been reported earlier than his demise that Stermon was the topic of an “energetic investigation” by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Workplace, previous to his demise. The Florida Occasions-Union and First Coast Information reported that the probe concerned alleged sexual misconduct.
In a December 2022 assertion, DeSantis’ workplace mentioned the governor and first girl have been “shocked and saddened” to listen to of Stermon’s demise. A spokesperson for DeSantis added that the governor’s workplace had “no data” of the investigation.
Newsweek has emailed the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Workplace for remark.
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