Lisa Marie Cohen was arrested Thursday morning after reportedly attempting to bring a loaded .32 caliber handgun into the Lee County Justice Center in downtown Fort Myers.

Cohen is charged with carrying a concealed firearm with a suspended permit, according to LCSO spokesperson John Sheehan.

She has come under the public eye in recent weeks after she released a tape of an ex-fiance, Michael Detar of the Lee County Sheriff’s Office, using a Taser on people at a party. Detar received a two-week suspension on March 10 for the video.

Cohen was at the Lee County Justice Center to attend an 8:30 a.m. hearing before Judge Edward Volz Jr. regarding a motion in a felony case where she was initially charged with computer crimes, according to the Lee County Clerk of Courts Web site.

She placed a bag on the entryway conveyor belt to be scanned and ran through the metal detectors and up the escalators due to being late. According to an arrest report, Cohen asked her mother, Marian Scirrotto, to grab her bag. That is when deputies discovered the loaded .32 caliber handgun in Cohen’s bag and detained her.

Sheehan orginially reported Cohen’s bag contained a loaded .44 caliber magnum.

Scirrotto is quoted Thursday as saying that Cohen bringing the gun to the Lee County Justice Center was a mistake.

“She’s not hiding from them. She knows what she did was stupid,” Cohen’s mother said. “It was purely accidental.”

Scirrotto also said Cohen had forgotten the weapon was in her bag due to running late to the hearing and did not know her permit had expired. She said Cohen carried the gun for protection purposes.

Cohen spent time in the Lee County Jail on Dec. 17 for eavesdropping and computer property crimes and was released the same day on bond, according to jail booking records.

Officials reported that between May 1 and Oct. 10, Cohen committed computer crimes against Detar and “did intentionally intercept, endeavor to intercept any wire, oral or electronic communication.”



Kathleen Cullinan contributed to this story. Cullinan is a staff writer for the Bonita Daily News.