Weren't the texts and emails themselves a form of sexual harassment as she was his subordinate? What took her so long to realize that? Loyalty? Curiously, the two are still friends. Faddis was suing the City for violating her privacy by releasing the text messages and emails but there was recently a report of a ruling for the city in favor of summary judgment that ended Faddis’ case without the jury trial. I don't quite understand the legal stuff. I always thought the texts and emails were public records and thought she was suing for the wrong reason and the wrong entity. To me the emails and texts appeared to clearly support a sexual harassment claim.
To try to save her suit (saying that the texts were private) she had to throw Shehadeh under the bus because she has to say she is a victim of sexual harassment in order to get the privacy status to kick in for her suit:
"Faddis’ attorneys have also argued that she was a victim of sexual harassment by Shehadeh, and that therefore the texts were not public record. Attorney Kelsay Patterson points to an exemption in Florida’s public-records law stating that when an alleged victim “chooses not to file a complaint and requests that records of the complaint remain confidential, all records relating to an allegation of employment discrimination are confidential and exempt.”
Lynda Bell is a good friend of Mike Shehadeh, lunching with him often (photo from around June 4th) and I was told Lynda might even be promoting him as a consultant.
Johanna Faddis works directly for Lynda Bell as Senior Legislative Analyst. What is Bell going to do - torn between her two buds? And, Lynda when are you going to get around to asking Eddie about his "statements" about Faddis? Looks like Peyton Place has moved from Homestead to County Hall.
HERE IS NEWS REPORT WRITTEN 7/31 AFTER THIS BLOG WAS PUBLISHED (to further complicate things):
A lawsuit involving Homestead’s former Deputy City Manager Johanna Faddis will move forward.
By Christina Veiga
A judge on Wednesday denied an attempt by Homestead’s lawyers to throw out a lawsuit brought by former Deputy City Manager Johanna Faddis.
A day after mediation failed to bring consensus, Judge Lester Langer of Miami-Dade Circuit Court said the case should move forward, in part to give lawyers more time to gather evidence for a possible trial.
Faddis sued Homestead in September 2011, claiming that city officials acted negligently, invaded her privacy, intentionally inflicted emotional distress and defamed her by releasing romantic text messages sent to her by her then-boss, City Manager Mike Shehadeh, on city-issued cellphones.
Faddis and Shehadeh have both denied ever being in a romantic relationship.
Since the suit was filed, Faddis’ attorneys have also argued that she was a victim of sexual harassment by Shehadeh, and that therefore the texts were not public record. Attorney Kelsay Patterson points to an exemption in Florida’s public-records law stating that when an alleged victim “chooses not to file a complaint and requests that records of the complaint remain confidential, all records relating to an allegation of employment discrimination are confidential and exempt.”
Patterson claims that his client told the city she would not file a sexual-harassment complaint and keep it a secret in exchange for a severance agreement when she was fired from Homestead in December 2009.
The city asked for the case to be dismissed, arguing that the text messages were public record because they had to do with city business.
The text messages were released after an investigator, hired by the city to look into suspected wrongdoing by Shehadeh, dug up them up as part of his work for the city.
“The disclosure of the investigation and the report were matters of public concern,” attorney Joseph Serota told the judge.
Serota pointed to messages that were both romantic but also dealt with city business, including one in which Shehadeh tells Faddis to take the rest of the day off because he can sense that she is in a “pissy” mood.
“This is not completely personal,” Serota said.
Referring to Shehadeh’s role as Faddis’ superior, Serota later added: “He supervises her. He gives her raises. He evaluates her. How could this kind of relationship not be public business?”
Serota also argued that the case shouldn’t move forward because Faddis has changed her testimony regarding whether she was a victim of sexual harassment. Serota argued that her conflicting testimony should be stricken.
The conflicting statements stem from testimony Faddis gave in a lawsuit that Shehadeh brought against the city for wrongful termination after he was fired. In that case, Faddis said she “didn’t take any offense” to Shehadeh’s texts, according to a transcript Serota read aloud during Wednesday’s hearing.
“There has never been a time when he has harassed me, sexually harassed me,” Faddis said, according to the testimony read by Serota.
But when Faddis gave testimony for her own case, she said she was indeed a victim of sexual harassment.
“I provided a watered-down version of the truth,” she said, according to the transcript read by Serota.
Faddis’ attorney said that she “refused to be used as a pawn” in Shehadeh’s lawsuit because the city had burned her by releasing the damaging text messages, and also that she didn’t want to be used to help the city in their defense against Shehadeh’s case.
12 comments:
There was some type of hearing regarding Faddis on 7/25 with the City of Homestead. I don't have an update, read it on the HiH blog.
While I'm glad Bell is out of Homestead, who knew she'd be promoted to destroy South Dade and the rest of the County.
As they say - S*** rises and this is the case for Bell & Faddis. I believe Shehadeh was a good City Manager with a severe case of puppy love or whatever!
In Homestead technology has gone wild. The city employees using sextexting, seedie messages and character assasinations have really gotten dangerous. I have read local blogging regarding the new developments in Homestead such as Key Gate, Oasis, Villages of Homestead and its all negative.
Genius you are NOT doing the the destruction by giving us this information. You are just writing about what a few bad apples are doing. The bad apples are doing this to themselves and the City of Homestead. Thank you Genius for keeping us informed. I would never move to Homestead knowing what I know now. Its seems this woman Lynda Bell is everywhere in Homestead news even owns a hotel, restaurant and bar in Homestead.
My advice to the citizens of Homestead give Genius something nice to say about you.
Johanna Faddis is just employing her get-rich-quick-scheme Plan B. Once that fails, she will be implementing get-rich-quick-scheme Plan C.
Faddis plans to get rich through a lawsuit and she won't stop until she does. If Bell was smart, she would cut Faddis loose now before Faddis sues her.
Lynda Bell has destroyed Palmetto Bay with her politics.... all behind the scenes, but she has been quick to share her tea party republican consultants with the tea partiers who could not get into office the last go around. She has helped split the city.
Church Lady Bell owns a bar in Homestead?
Must be all-inclusive to the Redland Hotel Resort and Spa.
I just read the neighbors section of the Herald online regarding this Faddis lawsuit. If nothing else, she is a bona fide liar. One minute she claims one thing the next, another, so which story is true? I mean liar by the dictionary definition and I'm not sugar coating it. As a taxpayer in Homestead, I'm really tired of my hard earned dollars being used to settle suits, this one especially since Faddis is now being paid by my County tax dollars, working for Dist. 8 commissioner Bell. She needs to go to another County and sue them for something because I'm quite frankly really angry about all of this.
I'm interested of knowing what plan "C" is. I know she is involved with a "C" at county hall. is is a coincident?
Read Faddis's latest deposition and know about her morality and the extramarital affairs she admitted to "None with Shehadeh" and Judge for your self.
I agree with most of the people above she is desperate for cash and willing to do anything to get it.
one can write novels about Faddis's scandals and dark secretes.
Shehadeh is the man she referred to as her brother. I hate to be her friend.
Poor Lynda, she is going to pay for giving Faddis a chance know what she is doing now.
To the last anon, how do I find Faddis's deposition? I'd love to read it and write the City of Homestead not to settle and sue her for the legal fees if they didn't already claim them in their response to begin with! I'm an eternally tired taxpayer here and to Bell - shame on you. How dare you claim fiscal responsibility and hire someone suing a municipality with Dist. 8 constituents - this will not be forgotten!
It is public record. Homestead has it
Dear Genious,
I read your blog very frequently but I missed this one.
Do you really know Johanna's past and present when it comes to men? read her deposition in the court records.
I advise you to verify before you eat your words.
Based of my personal knowledge of both Faddis and Shehadeh, she is DOING IT FOR THE MONEY.
Eat what words? I don't know what you are talking about. Send me the depo since you have it.
Geniusofdespair@yahoo.com
Do you have a mailing address to send you materials sometimes.
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