Tallahassee releases new details in trespassing probe as Matlow comes to O'Keefe's defense

The city of Tallahassee released new details about an alleged trespassing incident involving Leon County Commissioner David O’Keefe — and posted edited video of his visit to the future police headquarters site to witness the removal of oak trees that residents wanted to save.

It marked the latest development in an extraordinary political drama that began playing out Jan. 25 after O’Keefe, City Commissioners Jeremy Matlow and Jack Porter and several concerned citizens showed up at the construction site as the trees were coming down.

Both O’Keefe and Matlow live-streamed video from the site, with Matlow offering scathing remarks about the city’s decision to remove the trees and O’Keefe filming himself as he jumped over a fence to leave the area after he’d been told to do so.

The incident has mushroomed into more than just the talk of Tallahassee political circles, underscoring deep divisions in local government in which all 12 city and county commissioners are Democrats, including a long-standing and acrimonious 3-2 split on the City Commission.

It touched off an investigation by the Tallahassee Police Department, which is still ongoing, and landed on the desk of State Attorney Jack Campbell, who is weighing whether to file charges against O’Keefe. It also prompted dueling narratives and edited YouTube videos from the city and Matlow of what happened that day.

Last week, City Commissioner Dianne Williams-Cox asked staff to bring back information about the incident, saying an ordinary citizen “would be in a lot of trouble” for trespassing and adding that “we need to send a message.”

Mayor John Dailey, who said he was “totally disturbed” by the incident, and City Commissioner Curtis Richardson voted in favor of her motion. Matlow, who urged the majority to “tread carefully” on a police matter, and Porter voted no.

In a 12-minute YouTube video uploaded Monday, Matlow came to O’Keefe’s defense. He said commissioners went to an area near a neighborhood storm water pond that was not in the construction zone, with a fence that wasn’t marked “no trespassing.”

He also said that he got a voice mail from "a homicide detective" who was looking into the matter and “seemed embarrassed that he was being directed to do this.” Matlow, whose own livestreams from the visit are still on his Facebook page, accused city officials of using police to carry out a “personal vendetta.”

“It’s a little bit frightening,” he said. “Where do we go from here? (Are) there going to be 3-2 votes that direct police to ... investigate anybody without any type of evidence or source.”

Williams-Cox on Thursday declined to respond to Matlow's remarks.

"I'm not going to comment until I get what I've asked for at the commission meeting — which was for information," she said.

O’Keefe issued a statement last week denying that he ever jumped over a fence marked “no trespassing.” He said he couldn’t discuss it further until the legal process concludes.

'It's posted on that fence': City says O'Keefe went into fenced and marked construction site

The city, in recently released agenda materials, said that “investigative details remain confidential” from the TPD probe but that staff gathered “publicly available” information at the request of commissioners. The City Commission is scheduled to discuss the matter during its regularly scheduled Wednesday meeting.

"Within the first minute of the video, Commissioner O’Keefe states: 'I don’t know how long I can be out here before I get bounced or have to go somewhere else,' " the agenda materials state.

The item says O’Keefe live-streamed to his Instagram account a nearly 17-minute video, which shows him inside a “fenced and secured construction site” before exiting “by climbing a fence immediately adjacent to the road and posted ‘no trespassing’ sign.”

The item includes a link to a minute-long YouTube clip of O’Keefe at the construction site. The city posted the video on its TLHMeetings channel, which historically has been reserved almost exclusively for actual city meeting footage. The video was housed but not publicly listed on the city channel.

Though not shown in the video, the agenda item says that while O’Keefe was walking around the site, he was approached by an Ajax construction manager who asked whether he was with Leon County. O’Keefe, wearing a shirt with a Leon County logo, replied, “I’m out here in my capacity as a commissioner.”

The contractor asked him to leave and said, “It’s posted on that fence right there,” the item says. The city’s video clip appears to pick up after that, with O’Keefe narrating on his self-shot live stream.

“We’re going to move up and honor that man’s request,” O’Keefe says. “As much as I don’t like to be told what to do, I don’t believe that dude is in charge of this whole project. And judging by the fact he’s got a hard hat and clipboard and a yellow and orange vest, he is probably just doing his job here.”

O'Keefe: 'I have to jump this fence again'

O’Keefe tells viewers he’s going to put his cellphone in his pocket “because I have to jump this fence again and it does not look as cool as when I was younger and I could hop a fence.” He said he hoped he wouldn’t fall and didn’t want viewers to see “my butt fall on my face.”

The agenda item, again describing footage not seen in the YouTube clip, says Matlow and his aide, Ryan Ray, chairman of the Leon County Democratic Party, were sitting in a nearby pickup truck at the time.

“At this point, the video shows a “No trespassing” sign posted on the fence and Commissioner Matlow out of the back of the black pickup truck walking toward Commissioner O’Keefe with Ryan Ray still in the back of the truck next to a tripod,” the item says. The full video ends with Kristellys Estanga, a former Porter aide, joining O’Keefe virtually on the live stream, according to the agenda item.

The item concludes with the state statute on trespassing at a construction site, a third-degree felony if the property is larger than an acre and has posted "no trespassing" signs with specific warnings. Included in the agenda item is a still image from O'Keefe's video showing a sign at the site with the obligatory wording. The item recommends that commissioners take no action on the matter.

The video that O’Keefe uploaded to his Instagram account has since been taken down. And while the city and Matlow both used clips of O’Keefe’s video for their YouTube posts, neither has posted the full version. The Tallahassee Democrat has also requested a copy of the full video from the city, county, O'Keefe and Matlow.

O'Keefe told the Democrat that in response to the newspaper's request, he gave a copy to the County Attorney's Office, which released the video Thursday afternoon. Matlow, meanwhile, posted a copy to his YouTube channel under the title "FENCEGATE and the destruction of Northwood oaks."

Also Thursday, Matlow met with reporters at Boone Boulevard and Universal Drive, the area where he and the others gathered to document and criticize removal of the trees.

He said no one crossed a large fence surrounding the construction zone but that O'Keefe jumped over a smaller chain link fence with a locked gate that stretches along part of a city stormwater pond. He said the smaller fence didn't have a "no trespassing" sign at the time, though additional signs have since gone up.

The city noted in the agenda item that "to ensure the safety of the workers on site and the public, additional measures are being taken to enhance the security of the site."

Contact Jeff Burlew at jburlew@tallahassee.com or 850-599-2180.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Tallahassee officials release details in commissioner trespassing probe