Emails obtained by The Apopka Chief show the city’s former police chief and current finance director said Commissioner Nick Nesta intimidated and harassed them over separate matters in 2024 and 2025 — accusations Nesta strongly denies and says are politically motivated.  

“I’m a direct person,” Nesta, who is running for mayor, said in a sit-down interview with the Chief on Monday. “I’m firm with what I believe in, and I’m going to ask you and speak with you very firmly and directly. Sometimes that is taken as a negative or an act of intimidation, but it’s direct.” 

The accusation from former Apopka Police Department Chief Michael McKinley, who retired at the end of October, stems from a July 2024 encounter between Nesta and Debbie Nelson, the wife of Mayor Bryan Nelson, at a ribbon-cutting ceremony for Hicks Seafood House.  

Debbie Nelson said some weeks before the ribbon cutting, Nesta had shared her personal email and home address at a City Council meeting, which was why she asked to speak with him privately outside the restaurant. Nelson said though she was “respectful” when speaking with Nesta, his tone bothered her, implying he wasn’t listening to her. She said she touched his left shoulder with her right hand to get his attention.  

“He said, ‘Don’t you touch me,’ and turned around and walked off. His tone was disrespectful,” she said in a Monday interview. 

Nelson said she “was shaken up” but thought that the incident didn’t bother Nesta as much as it did her. The next day, Nelson was shopping with two of her grandchildren when the police called. 

“They said, ‘We need to come see you,’” she said. “And I said, ‘Please, not here.’ I’m thinking that if they [her grandchildren] saw the police come up and talk to me, that would be scary. And so I said, ‘Please, let me get home.’” 

Nelson’s daughter picked up her children before the police arrived, while Nelson’s son sat with his mother during the interview. She discovered that Nesta had charged her with battery-touch or strike for touching his shoulder with her finger.  

“I was told that I was not to discuss it with him, because if I did, it would accelerate my charges from a misdemeanor to a felony,” Nelson said. 

Nelson said she was relieved when the charges were later dropped, but she was prescribed anti-anxiety medication after the incident and continues to stay away from Nesta.  

In his interview with the Chief, Nesta said Debbie Nelson confronted him about his council meeting comments and “pushed me twice” on the shoulder while doing so.  

“She pushed me on my shoulder to get my attention,” Nesta said, adding that he never wanted the incident to be a part of the campaign. “I stepped back, told her not to touch me and walked away.” 

Nesta reported the incident to the Apopka Police Department, describing himself as a victim of battery while acting in his official capacity as a city commissioner. In a lengthy, Aug. 1, 2024, email to then-Chief McKinley, Nesta took issue with the police report that said he “suffered no harm of any kind.”  

“Emotional damage/harm is a very real thing and the report is inaccurate,” Nesta wrote to McKinley. “I expect if the roles were reversed and Deborah Herndon Nelson was the victim and not the admitted assailant that she is, this would be handled by the Apopka Police Department very differently.”   

McKinley took exception to Nesta’s email. 

“I have significant concerns because Commissioner Nesta repeatedly emphasizes his position as ‘City of Apopka Commissioner Nicholas L. Nesta’ in his email, which carries a tone that I perceived as attempting to intimidate and influence both myself and the police,” McKinley wrote in an email to APD attorney Erin DeYoung.  

In his Monday interview, Nesta said he used his full name and title to emphasize that he was acting in his official capacity when the incident happened. Nesta said McKinley never raised concerns with him directly and that their only in-person discussion was a brief exchange at a subsequent council meeting, where the chief asked if they were “good.” 

The State Attorney’s Office ultimately dropped the case, something Nesta said he was notified about months later, following multiple follow-up inquiries. 

Nesta pointed to a potential conflict of interest, citing Debbie Nelson’s campaign contribution to then-State Attorney Andrew Bain while the case was under review. Public campaign finance records show Nelson donated $100 to Bain’s re-election campaign in September 2024. 

Nesta said he was concerned about the relationship between the Nelsons and Bain, though he declined to directly say whether he believed the case was unfairly adjudicated. 

Bryan Nelson said neither he nor his wife knew that Nesta had discussed the case with the state attorney when Debbie Nelson donated the money.  

“There was no reason for him to go to Andrew Bain to have the charges raised,” Nelson said in a Monday interview with the Chief. “That’s not the way you let the process work.” 

Debbie Nelson said she hosted a fundraiser for Bain at her house on the same day she wrote the check, citing his support of law enforcement. She said she didn’t meet Bain until that fundraising event, although Bryan Nelson said he met Bain three or four times and considers him a friend.  

Both McKinley, who has endorsed Nelson’s re-election bid, and Bain declined interview requests for this story. 

Finance director alleges ‘harassment’ over city budget, ‘typos’ 

In a separate matter, City Finance Director Blanche Sherman alleged in a November email to Mayor Bryan Nelson that she “has experienced ongoing harassment and constant disrespectful treatment from Commissioner Nesta” over the previous year since the council rejected the contract award for a forensic audit.  

“I feel that I am being directly targeted by Commissioner Nesta to fulfill his agenda with discrediting this administration, in particular the financial transparency of the City,” Sherman wrote. 

Sherman wrote that Nesta had questioned and undermined her work and that of her staff “with no merit,” including during discussions tied to the fiscal year 2026 budget workshop. Sherman’s email referenced a July 2025 email from interim City Administrator Radley Williams to city commissioners in which he defended city staff against criticism raised during recent budget workshops and expressed “full confidence” in department leadership. 

Sherman’s email also referenced what she described as repeated direct questioning and criticism, including comments about typographical errors in agenda documents. 

“He treated me like he was scolding a child,” Sherman wrote about an incident on Nov. 3. “Under no circumstances do I desire this type of treatment and humiliation and definitely not in the public, nor in the presence of my peers.”  

Reached by phone, Sherman confirmed she sent the email and that she hoped it would produce a better working relationship.  

“No one on staff wants to go up to that podium and deal with him,” she said. “I think he asks decent questions, but I think he takes it too far so that he’s nitpicking and harassing staff.” 

Sherman emailed Nelson on Nov. 17 – the same day Nesta publicly announced his candidacy for mayor, timing Nesta called “very suspect.”  

“Is it to protect her current employer, and then also protect her job moving forward just in case that she feels that her job isn’t protected?” Nesta asked. “Her motives are questionable of the timing.” 

Sherman said she “had no idea” that Nesta announced his mayoral campaign when she wrote the email. When asked if she would serve under a Nesta administration, Sherman said it would be “a struggle” but that she’s “trying to get two more years.”  

Nesta said he was unaware that Sherman felt the way she did.  

“It should have been escalated to HR,” he said. “There’s processes and policies that make a functional organization work properly, and clearly that didn’t happen.”  

Nesta said he routinely points out typos and documentation issues because “words matter” in city business, particularly when votes involve taxpayer funds. 

“If a part-time commissioner is catching errors, who else is catching them?” he said, adding that his approach is focused on accountability. 

Nesta declined to comment on Sherman’s job performance, citing the city charter’s limits on commissioners directing staff. However, he said that if elected mayor, he would meet with all department heads to discuss goals and expectations rather than engage in what he described as a “house cleaning.” 

“My job is to work with anybody and everybody,” Nesta said. “At the end of the day when you become mayor, regardless of who people elect, I need to be able to work with them.” 

Nesta said the fact that these emails are coming to light now is an attempt to distract from the real issues of the campaign, includingutility rates, infrastructure and public comment.  

“The fact that we have public comment being on a charter amendment is crazy to me when it’s statutorily required, but residents feel so unheard that they have to do that,” he said. “I’m happy to continue to discuss it and give [further] detail, but it’s just a distraction from what we’re really dealing with.” 

—With reporting from J.C. Derrick