Prominent GOP donor, now dead, accused of using Taylor Swift tickets to coerce young woman

A Northeast Florida powerbroker who nurtured friendships with a slew of local and state officials, including Gov. Ron DeSantis, was under investigation at the time he killed himself this past December for a "bizarre and fraudulent scheme" in which he tried to trick a significantly younger woman into sending him topless pictures in exchange for VIP access to a Taylor Swift concert in Tampa, state prosecutors disclosed Friday in a report detailing their 10-month investigation.

State Attorney Melissa Nelson's office said it would have charged the "cunning and deceptive" Kent Stermon with multiple crimes — including solicitation for prostitution, false imprisonment and different categories of fraud — for allegedly using a fake email account to pose as a security staffer on Swift's "Eras Tour" in an effort to get the woman to unwittingly email him topless photos of herself.

When that ploy didn't work, prosecutors said, Stermon beckoned the woman to his office on Jacksonville's Southside ostensibly to pay her back for purchasing the Swift tickets. But then he began a "weird and sexually explicit conversation" and offered to give the woman thousands of dollars in exchange for a lap dance or "Facetime sex," offers she rejected. Ultimately, Nelson's office said, Stermon ordered the woman to set his phone to a 30-second timer and show him her breasts until the time had run out — a command the woman, who felt trapped in his office and intimated by the larger-framed Stermon, complied with.

The woman was younger than Stermon, who was 50, but not a minor, officials said. Prosecutors did not identify the woman, list her exact age at the time of the alleged crimes or detail how she and Stermon knew one another, though some evidence indicated she understood him to be a man of influence.

Stermon, then a member of the powerful state Board of Governors, had previously offered to put in a good word on her behalf with the president of a Florida university and told presidential candidates vying for a post with another school to "be good to my buddy," according to private Facebook messages they had exchanged. "From previous experience with Stermon, she was aware Stermon had offered other individuals assistance in obtaining access to special events such as concerts, and sporting events," the report said.

By late November the woman had told her father about the encounter in Stermon's office. That led to a fiery meeting between the two men at a local Panera, and eventually, on Nov. 29, the father and daughter approached the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office about the allegations; police opened an investigation that day.

About a week later, on Dec. 8, Stermon killed himself.

Stermon's death and the revelation he was under a criminal investigation of unknown scope prompted a wave of unfounded speculation about the nature of what he was accused of doing — turbocharged by the knowledge he had friends in high places, including within the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, which handled the investigation along with Nelson's prosecutors.

Nelson's office said it continued investigating Stermon months after his death to figure out if he'd victimized other women; investigators did not find any.

“This has been a traumatic event, but I am grateful for the support of my family, friends, and those who have helped me over the past ten months," the unidentified woman said in a statement released by Nelson's office.

"I am thankful the investigation confirmed my experience, and I am relieved no one else has or will have to go through what I did. My hope is that my experience provides reassurance to victims in other similar crimes that they will be heard and seen."

Stermon, the former president of a logistics firm, was not Jacksonville's most prolific or wealthiest political donor, but he prized nonetheless having formed deep relationships with a host of important people and elected officials, including Jacksonville's former sheriff, Mike Williams, and DeSantis, who appointed Stermon to the Board of Governors, which oversees Florida's higher education system.

Particularly in local law enforcement, Stermon loomed large, having gained an access badge to the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office during Williams' tenure — an unusual privilege for a civilian. Within the department, Stermon's presence was not universally celebrated: He had formed some friendships but gained a reputation with others on the force as an interloper.

Stermon, who relished his reputation as an insider, was also an occasional source for reporters, with whom he liked to gossip about Florida's political world and could be braggadocious about his connections. Other donors and operatives suspected Stermon sometimes overstated the depths of his influence and friendships, particularly with DeSantis, who keeps a notoriously tight circle. But the two had an undeniable relationship dating back at least to DeSantis' days as a member of Congress representing a district on the outskirts of Jacksonville. DeSantis' office said last year the "Governor and First Lady were shocked and saddened" by Stermon's death and had no knowledge of the investigation.

By mid-November, however, a key connection of Stermon's had frayed. He had begun telling people he wouldn't enjoy the same access with the then-new sheriff, T.K. Waters, chalking it up to a dispute he'd had over Waters' campaign tactics.

A cunning scheme

In early November, the woman had asked Stermon if he could help her get tickets to see Swift, who was scheduled to play in Tampa the following April. Stermon offered to "do [her] one even better," prosecutors said. He told the woman he could likely get her backstage passes and a meet-and-greet with Swift, but it would require her to coordinate directly with the backstage managers on the upcoming Tampa show, who'd ultimately decide whether to grant her that special access. They would, Stermon told her, likely have a few questions for her before making a final decision.

Prosecutors said Stermon's offer was merely a trick concocted by a man exploiting his reputation as a powerful and connected Florida player.

Stermon provided the woman with two email addresses — one a Yahoo account, the other Hotmail — that he said belonged to the backstage managers. As part of a purported "survey," she began getting questions from the Yahoo account about her sexual identity, her "degree of promiscuity" and whether she was "comfortable turning it up a notch" by sending more pictures of herself than she already had. This eventually turned into a request from the Yahoo account for her to send topless photos of herself, which she refused to do.

In truth, prosecutors said, Stermon secretly operated the Yahoo account while separately maintaining communication with the woman in text messages. When she told Stermon she had denied the request from the Yahoo account for topless photos, he told her, "Proud of you buddy."

The second account, the Hotmail address, belonged to a friend of Stermon's who was an officer with the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office. Prosecutors said there was "no evidence" the officer "was either a principal or accessory to Stermon’s conduct, or that he was aware of Stermon’s scheme." The sheriff's officer told investigators Stermon had said "he had a girl willing to send modeling photos" to the officer, who was going through a divorce at the time. The report implies, but does not explicitly say, that the officer himself did not solicit the photos from the woman but that she had sent them to his Hotmail account at the request of the disguised Stermon.

Prosecutors said the photos did not contain nudity or partial nudity. " ... [the officer] thought it was strange and asserted he did not do anything additional with them except to forward them to Stermon at Stermon’s request," the report said.

Prosecutors concluded the officer had not committed a crime.

Trapped in an office

His plan stymied, Stermon changed tactics, prosecutors said.

He told the woman to purchase the Swift tickets herself — which were worth about $1,400 — and he'd reimburse her. To collect, he asked her to swing by his office at the headquarters of his logistics firm, Total Military Management, on Jacksonville's Southside.

She was escorted into his office and left alone with him behind closed doors. Stermon was dressed, she told investigators, in a T-shirt and sweatpants and wasn't wearing shoes. He handed her $1,500 — an extra $100 to get her nails done — and then began what prosecutors called a "weird and sexually explicit" conversation about how to improve her odds of scoring backstage passes: by sending the Yahoo account the requested topless pictures. He then offered her $10,000 for a lap dance, which she refused, and $5,000 for "Facetime sex," which she also refused. He then demanded she had to "do something" that had to last 30 seconds.

"Stermon handed [the woman] his cellphone, instructed her to set a timer for 30 seconds, and ordered her to take off her overalls and top to expose her breasts for 30 seconds before leaving," the report said.

The woman complied.

"I just wanted to get out of there. I was very frightened because he’s a bigger guy, and I am a small woman," she told investigators. "I was unsure of what might happen."

Prosecutors said she began telling her family about the encounter about a week later. On Nov. 29, the woman's father scheduled a meeting with Stermon at a Panera to confront him about it, where the father told Stermon he'd "f----- with the wrong family," said he was going to "bury" Stermon and threw about $1,500 at him before leaving. The father and daughter called the Sheriff's Office later that day.

The most serious crime prosecutors alleged Stermon to have committed was false imprisonment, a third-degree felony with a maximum five-year sentence.

“Sextortion and fraudulent schemes like this have become more prevalent as people exploit technology and use manipulation, fear and power to coerce vulnerable individuals into terrible predicaments," Nelson said in a statement. "These crimes are often unreported because victims are afraid or embarrassed to come forward. The victim in this case told her story so no one else would potentially suffer in silence."

Nate Monroe is a metro columnist whose work regularly appears every Thursday and Sunday. Follow him on Twitter @NateMonroeTU.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Kent Stermon accused of using Taylor Swift tickets for topless pics