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Indicted ex-Miami official kills self

Arthur Teele, accused in connection with fraudulent airport contracts, shoots himself in the lobby of the Miami Herald.

By TAMARA LUSH
Published July 28, 2005

MIAMI - Arthur Teele, a former city commissioner who was recently indicted on 26 corruption charges, walked into the lobby of the Miami Herald Wednesday night and asked a security guard to relay a message to one of the newspaper's columnists.

"He said to tell (Herald columnist Jim) DeFede to tell his wife he loves her," guard Felix Nazco told the paper.

Teele, 59, then removed a gun from the bag he was carrying, put it in his mouth and pulled the trigger. At least one Herald reporter saw Teele sprawled on the building's marble floor, his blue suit soaked with blood.

Teele was taken to a local hospital, where he died about two hours later.

The suicide capped Teele's long, public and, lately, scandalous, life.

Five days ago, Teele was arraigned on 26 counts of federal mail fraud, wire fraud and money laundering. Teele and an electrical contractor were indicted in connection with his efforts to help an unqualified firm obtain more than $20-million in contracts at Miami International Airport that were earmarked for minority-owned businesses.

The alleged fraud took place between December 2001 and this year.

Teele, who is black, is also a former Miami-Dade County commissioner. He was a popular local politician, at least until he was convicted in March in state court of threatening a police officer as part of an unrelated corruption investigation that has yet to go to trial.

Teele came to Miami after serving in the Reagan administration as head of the Urban Mass Transit Administration from April 1981 to June 1983. He was instrumental in helping get Miami-Dade funding for its elevated Metrorail system.

Richard Sharpstein, the lawyer for Teele's co-defendant, told local media that the pressure was getting to Teele.

"He didn't look very good in court the other day," Sharpstein said. "He looked very depressed and upset that he was facing another court date. He was without doubt frustrated, if not angry."

Those who knew Teele said he was angry with the way local media portrayed - and detailed - every aspect of the case.

"He was very upset by the anti-Art Teele editorial bent (at the Herald)," Sharpstein said. "He felt they were persecuting Art Teele."

One reporter from the local Fox affiliate said that during a recent court hearing he sat next to Teele, who turned to him and said, "Why does the media hate me so much?"

But one of the most damning - and graphic - reports on Teele came out Wednesday. The Miami New Times, a weekly paper, detailed Teele's life in a compilation of word-for-word police reports and surveillance transcripts.

"Tales of Teele: Sleaze Stories," read the headline. "Male prostitutes and multiple mistresses, drug money in Gucci shopping bags, bribery and extortion conspiracies. And you thought you'd heard it all about Art Teele. "

New Times reporter Francisco Alvarado spoke to the Herald Wednesday night.

"It's just a surreal coincidence that he did this on the day my article came out," said Alvarado, who wrote the story. "I really feel bad; I would never want anyone to harm themselves over something I wrote, but at the end of the day, I was just doing my job."

Teele lived near the Herald building in a high-rise condominium overlooking Biscayne Bay.

Miami police Chief John Timoney weighed in: "he was a friend of mine."

Teele has a wife and a grown son from a previous marriage. Recently, Teele's wife suffered another loss - her sister was killed in a murder-suicide.

"I feel total sadness for the family," said Carole Ann Taylor, a local businesswoman who knew the Teeles for several years. "What takes a person to that point? What anguish?"

Times staff writers David Adams and Graham Brink and researcher Carolyn Edds contributed to this report. Material from the Associated Press was used.

[Last modified July 28, 2005, 01:09:17]