Back to Blog Home
Private Investigators in the News:
Posted February 15
Florida City Council Stops Negotiating with Ex-Manager After Reading PI's Report
HOMESTEAD, Florida - Settlement talks broke off last week in the escalating fight between the Homestead City Council and former City Manager Mike Shehadeh, whom the council fired on Feb. 3, citing ``conduct unbecoming a public official.''
The Miami Herald reported that Homestead City Attorney Richard Weiss said Friday that his firm, Weiss Serota Helfman, received a letter Thursday afternoon from Shehadeh's attorney Alfonso Perez.
``This will act as a formal notice that we are withdrawing all former settlement offers regarding the foregoing matter,'' the letter said.
On Friday, Perez confirmed the impasse. He would not say why he withdrew his client's $265,000 settlement offer.
On Thursday morning, the Homestead City Council voted 5-1 to reject the $265,000 deal, after council members received a private investigator's report alleging that Shehadeh used his city computer to visit a dominatrix site and used his city BlackBerry to text romantic messages to a female subordinate. A week earlier, the council had offered him $100,000 to settle.
``I think it is still an outrageous amount of money,'' Mayor Steven Bateman said.
Said Perez: ``They have destroyed a hard-working man's career.''
- more -
