- Tallahassee city leaders watched a clip of a video posted by Leon County Commissioner David O’Keefe that some say shows him trespassing.
- This comes after some leaders asked for more information on the incident.
- Watch the video to see the post in question.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
It’s a video that some say shows a Leon County commissioner trespassing and one that brought heated conversation to Tallahassee City Hall.
Wednesday, the commission discussed Leon County Commissioner David O’Keefe’s actions at the Northwood mall.
While some city leaders said the video is concerning, others said looking into it is unnecessary.
“I am gonna turn this off because I have to hop this fence again,” O’Keefe said in a video posted in January.
That’s the line that turned the heads of some city commissioners.
The video was originally posted in January on O’Keefe’s social media shows him over a short fence near the site of the old Northwood mall.
O’Keefe, along with City Commissioners Matlow and Porter, visited the site as the city was removing 20 live oak trees.
In the sixteen minute video, a construction manager with Ajax asked O’Keefe to go back over the fence.
“We can’t have anybody in here,” the worker said.
O’Keefe agreed to his request.
“This is a very serious issue that does need to be investigated and is being investigated,” Mayor John Dailey said in the meeting Wednesday.
This after the video was shown to city leaders and onlookers.
It’s a video he, commissioner Dianne Williams-Cox and Mayor Pro Tempore Curtis Richardson voted to bring before leaders in January.
They said they had concerns over the potential trespassing.
Commissioner Jeremy Matlow said he was there with O’Keefe and thinks the investigation is targeted.
“It’s intended to inform the public that a felony took place but there’s no defense in the public record on it even though as clear as day there are relevant information like a fence that didn’t have a sign on it,” Matlow said.
Some public speakers also agreed.
“What are we doing here?” neighbor Will Crowley asked. “It seems more and more that the city of Tallahassee has friends and it has enemies.”
Commissioner O’Keefe told me in a statement hours after the last commission meeting that he quote “…would never and did not jump over a construction site fence with a no trespassing sign on it.”
TPD is currently investigating the incident.
I spoke with Commissioner O’Keefe Wednesday afternoon.
He is making no further comment out of respect for the legal process.
