Miami Paper Fires Columnist (after politician shoots self)

[Dover]

Miami Paper Fires Columnist, Adding Own Twist to Tale of Sex, Politics and Suicide

By ABBY GOODNOUGH

MIAMI, July 28 - It seemed like a throwback to "Miami Vice": an eccentric politician, recently accused of money laundering and soliciting male prostitutes, fatally shoots himself in the lobby of The Miami Herald after an anguished phone conversation with a star columnist.

But the storyline grew even stranger on Thursday as employees of the newspaper reacted with outrage after learning that the columnist, Jim DeFede, had been fired for secretly taping his conversation with the distraught man - a possible violation of state law.

Mr. DeFede, who chronicles the surreal politics of South Florida, said his conversation with the man, Arthur Teele Jr., a former city commissioner recently indicted on federal charges of mail fraud, wire fraud and money laundering, was so disturbing that he quietly began recording it "out of concern" for Mr. Teele.

"The idea that he might be thinking suicide was in my mind," Mr. DeFede, 42, said Thursday. "I wanted to get what he was saying down - to preserve what he was saying - so I pushed the record button."

Mr. Teele's suicide followed a police investigation into corruption that, together with his death on the polished terrazzo floor of The Herald building's lobby on Wednesday, provided yet another strange chapter in Miami's storied political history....cont'd

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/29/national/29miami.html?ei=5065&en=8de3e0c49cf9f0ae&ex=1123300800&partner=MYWAY&pagewanted=print

[jobycom]

1. Hey Florida,

You win.

Signed,
Texas.

[geomon666]

2. LOL

Oh heaven help us down here. Get me out of this limp state.

[Moderator]

3. Duplicate

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1662786