Arthur E. "Art" Teele Jr. (May 14,1946 –July 27,2005) was an American lawyer and politician from the Republican Party. In the early 1980s,he served as the head of the Urban Mass Transportation Administration (now known as the Federal Transit Administration) from 1981 to 1983. Born into a wealthy black family in Florida,Teele received an excellent education and became an officer in the US Army,and later had a successful career in private practice and politics. The Miami Herald published claims of legal wrongdoing against Teele during his fight to have a conviction against him overturned,after which he killed himself. Posthumously,his case was appealed and his conviction was overturned,exonerating him of all charges.
Art Teele married Celestra Patton Teele,of whom he had one son Arthur Patton Teele. (Trey) Teele,later married Stephanie K. Teele of whom he was married upon his death.
Teele was a law student who went into the military after his graduation. Teele served the US Army as a Judge Advocate General on the personal staff of General Henry Emerson,Commander of the XVIII Airborne Corps at Fort Bragg from July 1975 to June 1977. Teele earned his law degree from Florida State University College of Law. [1]
After his honorable discharge from the US Army,Teele provided pro bono services to the defendants in the Wilmington Ten which was the most prominent civil rights case in America during the 1970s. Teele met with the attorneys for the Wilmington Ten as well as attorneys and administrative staff of North Carolina Attorney General Rufus Edmisten. In 1980,the federal courts ordered a new trial for the Wilmington Ten,and Attorney General Edmisten dropped all charges after hearing appeals from Teele and others permitting the Wilmington Ten to go free.
Returning to the private practice of law in his home state of Florida,Teele became the attorney for Bill France,the founder of NASCAR,before entering politics in Miami. In Europe,Teele consulted with Interpol on investigations into organized crime and international homicide cases.
In March 1981,President Ronald Reagan appointed Teele to lead the Urban Mass Transportation Administration (UMTA),a position officially known as Administrator of UMTA (now FTA). He served as UMTA Administrator from April 1981 to June 1983. [2] [3]
In March 1993,Teele was elected Miami-Dade County Commissioner in Miami,Florida,serving as the Commission's chairman. [4] He resigned from the county commission in 1996,to run for mayor of Miami-Dade County. [5] Teele was one of the top two candidates to emerge from the general election,but he was narrowly defeated in a runoff by Alex Penelas. [6] In November 1997,he was elected to a four-year term as a city commissioner for the city of Miami.
Following a controversial investigation and trial,Teele was removed from office by Governor Jeb Bush on March 2,2005. Although Teele was convicted of corruption by threat against a public servant,the verdict was overturned on appeal after his death by suicide.
On July 27,2005,Teele walked into the Miami Herald building and shot himself fatally in the head.
At the time of his death,Teele was a popular politician with a loyal following in Miami-Dade. Teele's conviction stemmed from an incident with a Miami-Dade County detective who had been conducting surveillance as part of a corruption probe. That probe was triggered in part by investigative articles published in the Miami Herald by journalist Oscar J. Corral. That probe had resulted in Teele being charged with ten felony counts of unlawful compensation,with trial set for October 2005. Teele was also under federal indictment for money laundering,mail fraud and wire fraud for allegedly helping a minority company win more than $20 million worth of electrical contracts at Miami International Airport for work that was actually undertaken by a larger non-minority company. Teele faced a possible 20 years in prison if convicted of the federal charges,but an examination of his personal financial records after his death revealed that Teele was not a rich man and was actually in debt for half a million dollars.
On the day of his suicide,the Miami New Times published a cover story on Teele which was based on the report of the corruption probe and detailed alleged dealings with illegal drugs and a transvestite prostitute with a criminal record. Shortly before he shot himself,Teele called Miami Herald columnist Jim DeFede,who taped their conversation. This taping led to the dismissal of DeFede. [7] [3] According to the tape,Teele professed his love for his wife,Stephanie,in a rambling conversation that revealed a spike in his personal anxiety.
On April 18,2007,almost two years after his death,Teele's conviction for corruption by threat against a public servant was overturned by the Florida Third District Court of Appeal. The court allowed the appeal by a deceased individual on the basis that Teele's conviction precluded his wife from making a valid claim for death benefits under the City of Miami's pension plan and other merits of his case. [8]
A documentary about Teele's final days that concentrated on his suicide was produced by two University of Miami film students,Josh Miller and Sam Rega. Miller and Rega's student documentary,Miami Noir, was screened at the 2008 Miami International Film Festival. Their documentary re-examined the scandal in the context of political pressures from the Florida State Attorney's Office during Jeb Bush's administration that raised concerns about the motives for the persecution of Art Teele.
Janet Wood Reno was an American lawyer and public official who served as the first female and 78th United States attorney general. Reno,a member of the Democratic Party,held the position from 1993 to 2001,making her the second-longest serving attorney general,behind only William Wirt.
Opa-locka is a city in Miami-Dade County,Florida,United States. The city is part of the Miami metropolitan area of South Florida. As of the 2020 census,the population was 16,463,up from 15,219 in 2010.
Alexander Penelas is an American attorney who is the former mayor of Miami-Dade County,Florida.
The Miami Herald is an American daily newspaper owned by The McClatchy Company and headquartered in Miami-Dade County,Florida. Founded in 1903,it is the fifth largest newspaper in Florida,serving Miami-Dade,Broward,and Monroe counties.
Maurice Antonio Ferré was an American politician who served six terms as the Mayor of Miami. Ferréwas the first Puerto Rican-born United States mayor and the first Latino Mayor of Miami. He was an unsuccessful candidate in the 2010 elections for the U.S. Senate seat for Florida vacated by Mel Martínez for the Democratic primary.
Carlos Álvarez is a Cuban American politician,and the former mayor of Miami-Dade County. He was first elected mayor in 2004,and re-elected in 2008. His mayoralty ended in March 2011 after a recall election. In both mayoral elections,he listed his party as "No Party Preference",but an article in The Christian Science Monitor described him as a member of the Republican Party.
Joe Carollo is a Cuban-American politician who served as mayor of Miami from 1996 to 1997 and again from 1998 to 2001. Following his loss in the 2001 mayoral election,he served as Doral,Florida city manager from January 2013 until his firing in April 2014;he was reinstated in June 2017,then immediately resigned. He successfully ran for election to the Miami city commission in 2017.
John Joseph Connolly Jr. is an American former FBI agent who was convicted of racketeering,obstruction of justice,and murder charges stemming from his relationship with James "Whitey" Bulger,Steve Flemmi,and the Winter Hill Gang.
Alejandro EnriqueFerrer,known professionally as Judge Alex,is an American television personality,lawyer,and retired judge who presided as the arbitrator on the eponymous Judge Alex.
Same-sex marriage has been legal in Florida since January 6,2015,as a result of a ruling in Brenner v. Scott from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida. The court ruled the state's same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional on August 21,2014. The order was stayed temporarily. State attempts at extending the stay failed,with the U.S. Supreme Court denying further extension on December 19,2014. In addition,a state court ruling in Pareto v. Ruvin allowed same-sex couples to obtain marriage licenses in Miami-Dade County on the afternoon of January 5,2015. In another state case challenging the state's denial of marriage rights to same-sex couples,a Monroe County court in Huntsman v. Heavilin stayed enforcement of its decision pending appeal and the stay expired on January 6,2015.
Humberto Hernandez Jr. was a City of Miami Commissioner and attorney.
Alan Stephen Gold is an inactive Senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
Scott J. Silverman is an American lawyer and judge on Florida's 11th Judicial Circuit.
Daniel Perkins Smith Paul was an American attorney best known for arguing the landmark case Miami Herald Publishing Co. v. Tornillo before the Supreme Court of the United States. The decision established the principle that government could not force a newspaper to publish content.
Darren Rainey died at the Dade Correctional Institution in unincorporated Miami-Dade County,Florida,on June 23,2012. The prison is in proximity to Florida City,and is south of Homestead.
Martin Zilber is an American retired judge based in Miami-Dade County,Florida. He was elected to the court in 2014 for a term beginning on January 6,2015,and departed the bench in May 2021. After years of community service he is now a candidate for the city of Miami city commission.
On July 18,2016,Charles Kinsey,a behavior therapist,was shot in the leg by a police officer in North Miami,Florida. Kinsey had been retrieving his 27-year-old autistic patient,Arnaldo Rios Soto,who had run away from his group home. Police encountered the pair while they were searching for an armed suicidal man. Kinsey was lying on the ground with his hands in the air,and trying to negotiate between officers and his patient,when he was shot. The officer who shot Kinsey said he had been aiming at the patient,who the officer believed was threatening Kinsey with a gun. Both Kinsey and his patient were unarmed.
The 2020 Miami-Dade County mayoral election was held on November 3,2020,to determine the mayor of Miami-Dade County,Florida. County Commissioner Daniella Levine Cava defeated fellow commissioner Esteban Bovo. Incumbent Mayor Carlos A. Giménez,first elected in 2011,was term-limited;instead running for the U.S. House of Representatives to represent Florida's 26th congressional district.
Daniella Levine Cava is an American lawyer,social worker,and politician who has served as the mayor of Miami-Dade County,Florida since 2020. Previously,she was a Miami-Dade County Commissioner from 2014 until her election as mayor. She is the first woman and the first person of Jewish descent to serve as mayor of Miami-Dade County.
Albert Tresvant was an American politician who served as the first African-American commissioner and mayor of Opa-Locka,Florida and first African-American mayor in Dade County.