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Investigation: Officer 'sexted' teen and talked about drugs, booze

Officer was allowed to resign and keep badge
Posted at 10:18 PM, Jul 20, 2016
and last updated 2016-07-21 07:00:45-04

FORT MYERS, Fla. – Officials at the Fort Myers Police Department are accused of covering up a sexually inappropriate relationship between one of their officers and a teenage girl.

That girl's mother says when she spoke with a police official, he downplayed the seriousness of what that officer did.

We showed her the final report for the first time.

Michelle Daniels says when she filed a complaint against Fort Myers police officer Matthew Vagi, no one ever told her how far he had gone with her teenage daughter.  "He did not inform me it was over 880 texts and that there was drugs involved, sex involved, alcohol involved.”

The investigation comes as a shock to Daniels, who says a police Lieutenant told her Vagi had only sent a few text messages to her daughter.

According to Daniels, "They made me think there may have been less than ten messages between them two, and I was told the worst thing that was said was he was asking her, ‘why doesn't she drink a glass of wine?’"

The report shows this past February, Vagi met the 17 year old while working security at her school, Coronado High on Cleveland Avenue in Fort Myers.

Investigators found officer Vagi gave the girl rides in his patrol car against department policy and "admitted to turning off his car's mobile video and audio equipment while transporting her" and she sat in the front seat, which seemed strange.

“When he showed up at my house, if he was a real man and an officer of the law, he would have gotten out of his car and said your daughter needed a ride," says Daniles.

The investigation found Vagi and the girl also texted nearly 900 times within a couple of months.  In one text they talk about smoking weed.  He even offered to let her stay the night at his place, use his swimming pool and give her a key.

In another text, Vagi asked the girl about having sex with her boyfriend.  He writes: "So you guys have sex with the lights off then? What about when he gives you (oral sex)?"

Daniels tells us, "Now that I'm seeing everything my next step is I need to go and talk to a lawyer and show him this."

Vagi officially resigned from the department on June 15th.

Since he was allowed to keep his badge, the teen's mother is concerned he'll get a job with another department.