Robert Landen and Johanna Faddis Separately Have Cases Against The City of Homestead
By Christina Veiga
cveiga@MiamiHerald.com
Homestead faces another lawsuit claiming the city invaded the privacy of its employees when officials released hundreds of unedited text messages sent using city cell phones.
Former parks director Robert Landen is the latest to file suit for invasion of privacy, claiming he was forced to resign after the city released a text Landen sent that portrayed him as racist.
Landen’s attorney, Richard Lee Ruben of Kendall, declined to comment.
Meanwhile, the attorney representing former Assistant City Manager Johanna Faddis in another case, also over the release of text messages, has asked a judge to disqualify the city’s law firm from the matter.
Kelsay Patterson, a Tampa lawyer who is representing Faddis, blames the city’s law firm for the release of the text messages. The lawsuit claims Richard Weiss — of the firm Weiss Serota Helfman Pastoriza Cole & Boniske, which represents the city — ordered copies of the leaked text messages be made without the approval of council, and authorized the release of the text messages without reviewing them.
Now, citing attorney-client confidentiality, the city’s lawyers have refused to answer and have instructed at least one council member not to answer how the CDs got into council members’ hands and who distributed them, the lawsuit claims.
Neither Weiss nor his firm are defendants in the suit, but the lawsuit claims Homestead’s lawyers are violating Florida Bar rules that state a lawyer shouldn’t represent someone if the lawyer’s judgment “may be materially limited ... by the lawyer’s own interest.”
Referring to Weiss, Patterson said: “He put the city in that situation because he didn’t do his job.”
Weiss, reached by phone Friday, said: “We have a policy of not commenting on pending litigation.”
The lawsuits are the fallout from Homestead’s tumultuous 2009 election, when a new council swept into office and ordered an investigation into then-city manager Mike Shehadeh. As part of the investigation, the city collected texts sent to and from city employees.
The text messages, which were passed on to several television and print media outlets, revealed that Landen forwarded a text that (edited here) read: “Ur not going to believe this sh*t!!! I got a tattoo of a [racial epithet] on my shoulder, and now my f--king arm quit workin!”
Messages from Shehadeh read like love letters to Faddis, who is married and was Shehadeh’s subordinate. Both Shehadeh and Faddis, through their attorneys, have denied having a romantic relationship.
Patterson contends the texts were not public record, but Weiss in a February 2010 email to city employees writes that any communications that became a part of the investigation into the former city manager are public records.
“They’re protecting themselves,” Patterson said of the city’s law firm
Former parks director Robert Landen is the latest to file suit for invasion of privacy, claiming he was forced to resign after the city released a text Landen sent that portrayed him as racist.
Landen’s attorney, Richard Lee Ruben of Kendall, declined to comment.
Meanwhile, the attorney representing former Assistant City Manager Johanna Faddis in another case, also over the release of text messages, has asked a judge to disqualify the city’s law firm from the matter.
Kelsay Patterson, a Tampa lawyer who is representing Faddis, blames the city’s law firm for the release of the text messages. The lawsuit claims Richard Weiss — of the firm Weiss Serota Helfman Pastoriza Cole & Boniske, which represents the city — ordered copies of the leaked text messages be made without the approval of council, and authorized the release of the text messages without reviewing them.
Now, citing attorney-client confidentiality, the city’s lawyers have refused to answer and have instructed at least one council member not to answer how the CDs got into council members’ hands and who distributed them, the lawsuit claims.
Neither Weiss nor his firm are defendants in the suit, but the lawsuit claims Homestead’s lawyers are violating Florida Bar rules that state a lawyer shouldn’t represent someone if the lawyer’s judgment “may be materially limited ... by the lawyer’s own interest.”
Referring to Weiss, Patterson said: “He put the city in that situation because he didn’t do his job.”
Weiss, reached by phone Friday, said: “We have a policy of not commenting on pending litigation.”
The lawsuits are the fallout from Homestead’s tumultuous 2009 election, when a new council swept into office and ordered an investigation into then-city manager Mike Shehadeh. As part of the investigation, the city collected texts sent to and from city employees.
The text messages, which were passed on to several television and print media outlets, revealed that Landen forwarded a text that (edited here) read: “Ur not going to believe this sh*t!!! I got a tattoo of a [racial epithet] on my shoulder, and now my f--king arm quit workin!”
Messages from Shehadeh read like love letters to Faddis, who is married and was Shehadeh’s subordinate. Both Shehadeh and Faddis, through their attorneys, have denied having a romantic relationship.
Patterson contends the texts were not public record, but Weiss in a February 2010 email to city employees writes that any communications that became a part of the investigation into the former city manager are public records.
“They’re protecting themselves,” Patterson said of the city’s law firm
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/25/2817338/homestead-faces-another-lawsuit.html#moreb#storylink=cpy
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