'Filthy Secrets': Florida's Voice CEO Brendon Leslie Accused of Workplace Sexual Harassment, Intimidation

'Filthy Secrets': Florida's Voice CEO Brendon Leslie Accused of Workplace Sexual Harassment, Intimidation

'He thinks he walks on water, but he will drown'

Liv Caputo
Liv Caputo
|
December 23, 2024

Brendon Leslie, CEO of the right-wing Florida’s Voice, has been accused of workplace sexual harassment, abuse, and intimidation by a former employee of the online publication, according to a 154-page police report filed last week.

Kaitlyn Castner, the publication’s former social media manager, is also seeking a restraining order against Leslie and Florida’s Voice reporters Michelle Vecerina and Amber Jo Cooper for allegedly harassing Castner after she left her post in November. In her sworn statement, Castner alleges that Leslie, who she says has a history of "violent and aggressive" behavior, showed up to her home "uninvited" and harassed her.

Brendon Leslie
Brendon Leslie

Castner included a slew of text messages, some dating back two years, involving her, Leslie, Vecerina, Cooper, and the organization’s former CEO Karoline Pennington in her complaint filed last Thursday with the Cape Coral Police Department. 

The publication's news director, Anita Padilla, who is also mentioned in the police report,  told The Floridian in a written statement that she would not tolerate, has not witnessed, and was not aware of "any kind of sexual harassment" at Florida's Voice.

"As somebody who’s worked in television media in New York City and in Chicago for nearly 3 decades, I can tell you I would never tolerate sexual harassment. If someone ever came to me and told me that they were being sexually harassed,..man or woman I would immediately address that," said Padilla.

But the messages and Castner’s claims portray a toxic workplace at Florida’s Voice, where the 31-year-old Leslie allegedly flirted with and preyed upon attractive female employees.

His behavior was allegedly so inappropriate that the website's former CEO, Karoline Pennington, went as far as to suggest to Leslie that they only hire men or “ugly girl” interns after a reported affair between Leslie and a 20-year-old intern. Castner said the intern was later driven to buy an emergency contraception pill.

In another message, Leslie told Castner she was on “brendon lotion duty.” 

In her complaint, Castner claims that Leslie subjected her to months of sexual harassment and “abused” reporter Vecerina during a four-day business trip to Key West in January, which Vecerina allegedly recorded, but has since denied.

“[Leslie] thinks he walks on water, but he’ll drown,” Vecerina texted Castner last month. “Truth always comes out, fucker.”

Leather Pants’, Castner’s ‘Fan Boy,’ and… 'Lotion Duty’?

Castner, 32, claims that Leslie’s inappropriate behavior began days before she was hired on Sep. 19, 2023, and has since left her with "fears and concerns" for her safety after she stopped working at Florida's Voice, the report says. After working for the website for just over a year, she left her post on Nov. 1 because Leslie claimed she quit—she says she didn’t.

Text messages show Leslie making sexually suggestive comments almost immediately, beginning with him dubbing himself a “kaitlyn fan boy” excited for her to “be mine,” to him eventually claiming that other workers believed he and Castner were “fucking.” CLICK IMAGE

Brendon Leslie
Brendon Leslie

 

“Gold star to my favorite princess surviving her first day,” Leslie texted. “Was just thinking of you..I’m your biggest fan whatever you need lol.”

The same day, he revealed, "I am the biggest kaitlyn fan boy. I don’t shut up about you. And I’m never like that. Point being, have all the confidence in the world, because I have it in you. The only person you need to impress is me.”

Other messages in the report include him telling Castner that she is on “brendon lotion duty” and asking if she can call him “special." Another notes that Castner’s “leather pants” improve his well-being, writing, “My life is better when i get to see you and your leather pants…It’s probably why my body is stressed.” Leslie also referred to Castner as "my girl."

Brendon Leslie
Brendon Leslie

Current Florida’s Voice reporter Amber Jo Cooper, identified as Amber Arandas in the report and whom Leslie agreed was becoming a "liability," coached Castner on how to handle Leslie weeks before Castner left her post, telling her that she needed to set a “boundary” with Leslie. Arandas also appeared to accuse Leslie of calling the police on her.

“He is using you as his girlfriend,” wrote Arandas, 32, in a text message. “Don’t say yes anymore…Don’t quit…Just set [a] boundary Like i did :(.”

“It’s not fun but u need to i love u u can’t be used as his [girlfriend] anymore lol,” she added.

In a text message to The Floridian, Arandas says she has "nothing but good things to say" about Leslie and Florida's Voice, and is "not open to discussing the lies swirling around."

Brendon Leslie
Brendon Leslie

In October 2023, Leslie ventured a text to Castner at 10:32 p.m., writing, “Everyone thinks you and i are fucking by the way. Just found that out.” Castner, who is engaged, told Leslie that this made her “uncomfortable” and reported his comments to then-Chief News Editor, Lydia Nusbaum.

Nusbaum, Leslie’s then-assistant Leah Leonard, and Leslie all apologized, but Castner would later learn that she was not the first employee Leslie had tried to come on to, the report says. 

An Internal Affair, an NDA, and the Morning After Pill

In the summer of 2022, Leslie allegedly had an inappropriate relationship with 20-year-old intern Jaden Zeller prompting a confidentiality agreement to be drafted and Zeller’s termination from her post, the police report says.

Former CEO Pennington, the publication’s first intern in January 2021 who rapidly rose to the chieftain position at just 19 years old before she says she was pushed out in February 2023, confirmed the relationship to The Floridian in a telephone interview.

She noted that while Leslie never made any “weird or creepy” moves toward her, she drafted the non-disclosure agreement between Zeller and Leslie as soon as she found out about the affair on July 19.

“When there was a relationship with an intern that I found out about a month after the fact, I think that was the start of the end of me working for Florida’s Voice,” Pennington, 22, said.

 

Brendon Leslie
Brendon Leslie

In text messages between Pennington and Leslie documented in the report, Pennington promised to “not breathe a word” of the relationship but “anything beyond speaking to one another that has transpired during her internship can’t be hidden from me.” 

Leslie later responded, “Welp. Prepare to murd[e]r me,” before indicating he would have Zeller send the “contract” to Pennington—who confirmed that the NDA was signed and that she still has it. CLICK IMAGE

The agreement was drafted and the intern was fired. A week later, Pennington told Leslie via text that the company should exclusively hire male or “ugly girl” interns from that point on.

“Don’t not hire pretty girls LOL,” Leslie said, prompting Pennington to remind him that interns should be kept “very arms length.”

When discussing the affair with The Floridian, Pennington called it “appalling,” alleging that Leslie couldn’t “look me in the eye for like two to three weeks after that because he knew what he was doing was wrong.”

She then confirmed another allegation made by Castner in the police report: Leslie’s former assistant, 23-year-old Leah Leonard, took Zeller to buy the morning after” emergency contraceptive.

“Jaden and Leah went to go get Plan B...It was disgusting,” Pennington said, touching on Zeller's age and position versus Leslie's. She turned to the NDA, delving into Leslie’s alleged practice of having his employees sign confidentiality agreements.

“Brendon loves to intimidate people into thinking NDAs cover things you’re not supposed to be doing, criminal activity—he loves to think just slapping an NDA on there covers everything, and it doesn’t,” she said, alleging that Leslie repeatedly told her that one of his "worst fears" is getting wrongfully accused of sexual misconduct because "that would ruin his career."

Leslie also appears to be accused of making another intern or staffer, Mackenzi, "uncomfortable" as well as a potential hire named Sienna.

Brendon Leslie
Brendon Leslie

‘Filthy Secrets’: ‘This Man Needs to Pay for What He Has Done’

According to the report, Castner did not learn of Leslie's alleged advances and "abuse" toward Vecerina until after Castner left the company last month—which is exactly when Vecerina, 27, said she was planning to quit.

The issue?

Vecerina was so “nervous” to tell Leslie of her planned departure that she was “shaking," she told Castner, and even asked if it was legal to secretly record Leslie for any future “legal scenario.”

“I’m just so nervous about what I even say to him,” Vecerina typed. “Just kinda like FYI I have all of your texts, a recording by the pool in key west, and I am contemplating using them as evidence to protect other women from dealing with the same thing.”  CLICK IMAGE

“I’m shaking,” she added, before slamming his “filthy secrets.” CLICK IMAGE

“Truth always comes out, fucker," Vecerina said later. CLICK IMAGE

"He’s losing control and he is panicking. It’s extremely obvious. Truth always comes out, fucker."—Michelle Vecerina

The two women repeatedly assured each other that they weren’t sharing each others’ messages because Castner was building a case and Vecerina feared Leslie’s retribution.

Why?

Because Leslie, who later filed an incident report on Nov. 26 alleging Castner was harassing his friends and family after her departure from the company, was searching for which employees were speaking to her and listening to her “lies.”

“Everyone, lawyers are involved now. Please cut communications with [Castner]. She’s reaching out to all of you and saying lies,” Leslie texted in the Florida’s Voice group chat. “PS: I’m very serious about this. I know someone spoke to her. Do not be insubordinate.”

Leslie also reached out to Vecerina personally, she told Castner, where he promised that he would “get to the bottom” of who was sending messages to Castner and “fire them.”

But Vecerina kept texting Castner, telling her, “This man needs to pay for what he has done and I want him to be embarrassed. He’s the type of guy though that would be out in jail and say he was falsely prosecuted.”

Brendon Leslie

“This [man] needs to be in prison if all of this is true, which [I] completely believe every word,” she said in another message. “I love you girl. I trust you and I believe you. And I do not think you’re crazy.” CLICK IMAGE

Her last message to Castner was on Nov. 16, where she called Leslie’s fling with his intern “so disgusting and creepy.” 

Then, Vecerina went silent.

Four days after ignoring Castner’s texts, the report shows, Vecerina posted to her social media how “blessed” she is to work for Leslie, a “hardworking, honest boss”. 

“@FLVoiceNews is the best,” she wrote on Nov. 20. 

Vecerina, who still works for the company, told The Floridian in a statement that Castner is "mentally unwell" and has created "outlandish lies" about Leslie because she was "mad she couldn't get her job back." She said Castner "manipulated" her to the point that "she literally had me under a spell."

Any claims that Leslie had abused her is a "complete and utter made up disgusting lie," Vecerina said.

"Brendon is a genuinely good person and an incredible boss," she said via text. "I have never once felt uncomfortable around him nor have I ever heard any of my coworkers having any issues with him. This entire situation created by Kaitlyn has been completely fabricated to make him look bad."

"She mind fucked me," Vecerina added. "Don't let her do it to you."

Police Findings

Weeks after Castner first spoke to police, Leslie filed his own police report alleging that Castner was harassing his employees and family members. Leslie wanted to press charges, claiming his employees didn't feel safe over alleged "malicious intent" and "self-proclaimed computer hacking abilities."

The Cape Coral Police concluded there was “no probable cause” that Castner committed a crime nor filed a false report, which is a chargeable crime. According to the federal government, sexual harassment "is illegal when it is so frequent or severe that it creates a hostile or offensive work environment or when it results in an adverse employment decision (such as the victim being fired or demoted)."

Brenda Leslie
Brenda Leslie

“Based on the information that Kaitlyn provided me it all appears to back up her statement,” wrote Det. Christy Perriam, who interviewed several of the website's current and former employees, some of whom anonymously claimed they were "worried about being targeted" and "in fear of retaliation."

Two other staffers, Eric Daugherty and Derek Raschke, also told The Floridian that they had not witnessed any sexual harassment by Leslie or anyone else at the outlet.

"I have observed no sexual or otherwise inappropriate behavior directed toward any employee, either in person or virtually," said Daugherty.

"She filed a fake police report against Brendon Leslie, which came to nothing because all the information provided was a fantasy of her’s. She’s threatened multiple past and current employees of Florida’s Voice, and continues to harass current employees to try to come to her side," stated Rashke, despite police noting that the information Castner provided "appears to back up her statement."

Castner declined to comment for this story, while Leslie and Leonard did not respond to requests for comment.

Publisher Javier Manjarres contributed to this article

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Liv Caputo

Liv Caputo

Livia Caputo is a senior at Florida State University, working on a major in Criminology, and a triple minor in Psychology, Communications, and German. She has been working on a journalism career for the past year, and hopes to become a successful reporter after graduation. Her work has been cited in Fox News, the New York Post, and the Daily Mail

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