Please join Friends of Daniel in demanding justice for Daniel Marquez, and standing up for the constitutional rights of free speech and due process for all Americans.

On May 28, 2022 Daniel, 10 years old at the time, was arrested at his Florida home by the Lee County Sheriff’s Office, led by Carmine Marceno. Within three hours of the arrest Marceno, who has a history of falsely and publicly accusing children in this way, posted Daniel’s name, mugshot, and a “perp walk” video publicly vilifying this young boy on the department’s Facebook page.

After his arrest, Daniel was incarcerated for nearly two weeks in juvenile detention, then placed under house arrest without any charges having been filed. Why did this happen? Daniel is an honor roll student; he was a Boy Scout; he has no history of behavioral problems. In short, he is a normal kid.

The Sheriff justified his actions based on private text messages Daniel had sent the previous day to a 10-year-old friend, which were inappropriate but clearly intended as a joke. In the first text, Daniel wrote that he had “scammed” $1,000,000,000,000 from another child (Daniel described this as “a bazillion” dollars). In the recording of Daniel’s arrest, before he was put in handcuffs and taken from his family, you can hear the deputy laugh while reading Daniel’s text messages—because the arresting officer understood that 10-year-old Daniel was sharing a private joke with his 10-year-old friend.

On July 15, 2022, the head of legal for a civil liberties organization asked the DOJ to investigate Sheriff Marceno for "violations of the Constitutional and civil rights of a ten-year-old child" citing among other things the creation and distribution by Marceno's office of this TikTok video after Daniel’s arrest and edited to the AC/DC song “Shoot to Thrill” in what she described as "a cynical attempt to frame a ten-year-old child in the eyes of the public as having made a threat, when that is not true." She explained that Marceno's office deceptively edited Daniel's text messages in the TikTok to falsely connect a separate text about "water day"—a school event that Daniel was excited to attend with his friend—to an image of rifles. “Daniel never did that, and it’s shocking, frankly, that law enforcement would manufacture evidence against a 10-year-old child and circulate it,” she said. Marceno admitted in an interview in June 2022 that his office edited Daniel's text messages for the TikTok video, saying: "So, it might be double in this image. Because it was edited."

Why Daniel's Case is Important

This case is important because what happened to Daniel could happen to any of our kids. By standing up for Daniel’s First and Fourteenth Amendment rights to free speech and due process, we are standing up for the civil rights and liberties of all Americans.

As parents, many of us worry about our children saying something inappropriate or offensive, even if they don't fully understand what they are saying. Kids make mistakes and it is our job to teach and discipline them—not to let elected officials demonize them, or destroy their future if they say something inappropriate or offensive in a private conversation. At age 10 children are, by definition, immature and lacking in judgment and understanding of how their words will be interpreted. This can be dangerous in the age of the internet and smart phones—where one mistake can follow a child for the rest of their lives.

Until the time of his arrest and public vilification by Sheriff Marceno, Daniel enjoyed the anonymity and privacy that our justice system typically protects in the interest of children. Now, his name, mug shot, and other images depicting him as the worst type of criminal have been circulated throughout the internet, along with patently false accusations against him. Those printed words and viral images will follow him forever.

Carmine Marceno's public doxxing and demonization of Daniel as a 10-year-old child is all the more disturbing given his own history of ethical lapses.

In 2018, Marceno was accused of taking advantage of his position in the Lee County Sheriff's Office to enter into a relationship with a crime victim, and then pressuring her to have an abortion when she became pregnant with his child. In a formal complaint filed with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), the woman alleged that Marceno threatened her during her pregnancy, and that she and her family started receiving terrifying calls during the dispute, including one in which an unknown female caller told her she needed to "have her throat slit and face slashed."

In 2019, there were calls for Marceno to resign after it was discovered that he had engaged in intentional distortions of two job-related polygraph tests, and that he had secured a job with the Collier County Sheriff's Office despite an interview report that found his use of illegal steroids automatically disqualified him from further job consideration pursuant to the department's strict drug policy. In addition, a job interview report found that Marceno engaged in multiple juvenile acts of theft: stealing food from a grocery store where he worked around age 16, and shoplifting candy as a 10-year-old boy.

Please take a few minutes to watch this short video documentary if you want to learn more about Daniel's case:

Why Daniel Urgently Needs Our Help

This case has been a difficult ongoing struggle for Daniel and his family, and right now is a pivotal moment. Since he is a child Daniel was not eligible for a jury trial. On August 3, 2023, now 11-year-old Daniel Marquez appeared in the Lee County courthouse in Ft. Myers, Florida and was placed on probation for an undisclosed period of time.

The conditions imposed by the elected judge, who is reported to be a political ally of Marceno, are harsh and indefinite—meaning they could last until he is 18 years old. Daniel is confined to his home from 6pm until 6am every day, and subject to other measures that are typically imposed on convicted felons including monthly drug tests. The net effect of the judge’s actions will be to turn Daniel into a pariah. They are not corrective; they are punitive.

Immediately, the clock started ticking on a narrow 30-day window for Daniel to file an appeal or the judge’s decision will stand. The experienced attorney Daniel’s father wants to use has an excellent track record, and believes the path to vindicating Daniel is straightforward. He expressed confidence that justice will prevail.

Time is short, and the new leader of an organization that had promised last year to fund Daniel’s legal expenses informed his father that they can't afford to provide any additional support. In the coming weeks, Daniel's attorney needs to file an appeal and take action to restore his constitutional rights.

Winning this case will establish an important legal precedent to help protect our own civil rights and liberties. What happened to Daniel could happen to any family. That is why a group of us who care about Daniel—and about protecting the civil rights and liberties of all Americans—organized this petition.

Please also click here to donate to a *Spotfund campaign to help fund Daniel’s legal expenses.

Learn more about this case and how you can get involved at FriendsofDaniel.org. Thank you for your support and interest in Daniel's story.

With gratitude,

A friend of Daniel