Tampabay: Staff soldiers on amid tears for Coe

Staff soldiers on amid tears for Coe

Grief counselors offer comfort as State Attorney's Office employees ask "why?''

By SUE CARLTON

TAMPA -- On the Friday before the Fourth of July, Hillsborough State Attorney Harry Lee Coe told spokeswoman Pam Bondi to send out an officewide memo.

"Tell them," Coe said, "I see a storm cloud over Ruskin."

It was a joke his staff knew well. Whatever his quirks, whatever dubious headlines he had made that week, their boss was always generous about closing the office hours early before a holiday weekend.

Coe would always let them go on the guise that they needed to hurry home because of bad weather on the horizon -- storm clouds over Ruskin -- even though the skies were generally clear and blue.

That memory of their colorful, controversial boss brought many employees to tears Friday afternoon as interim State Attorney Wayne Chalu repeated Coe's familiar words. Then, he too, sent the staff home early after a brief memorial service that ended a wrenching workday.

Coe, a former judge known as Hangin' Harry, was found dead Thursday morning of a single gunshot wound to the head, apparently by his own hand.

"We're just so sad," Bondi said Friday.

Coe, 68, was an eccentric, intensely private man who had weathered years of controversy. He had always seemed to let the trouble roll off his back, winning one election, then another.

But at the State Attorney's Office Friday, people with reddened eyes wondered what it was about these latest allegations -- that he borrowed money from employees and was a frequent bettor at dog tracks -- that might have pushed him over the edge.

He had seemed so upbeat. He had talked about the election in November. Had there been something wrong with his health? Was it the recent death of his niece? Was there something else, some secret not yet disclosed?

"It's just heartbreaking that this tragedy had to happen to him," said Lorenzo Hayes, courthouse head custodian who knew Coe for three decades. "Because he wasn't a quitter."

On a day when it seemed miraculous that anyone had come to work at all, the Hillsborough State Attorney's Office was operating at full staff. They came streaming in early, some in dark suits, some with tears in their eyes.

"Everybody's at their desks," said Bondi. "They're crying, but they're working."

Grief counselors and clergy from the Tampa Police Department roamed the office corridors. People stopped to talk quietly and hold on to each other.

Beyond the shock and grief was the unknown. What would happen next? Who might the governor appoint to replace Coe?

"A lot of people's careers depended on Judge Coe being elected," said longtime assistant state attorney Jack Gutman. "And obviously that creates a lot of anxiety for a lot of people."

At the main courthouse across the street, Hillsborough Chief Judge F. Dennis Alvarez was fielding phone calls. He stopped only briefly around 2:30 p.m. for a Diet Pepsi and a warmed-over breakfast omelet. Everyone in town seemed to want to talk to Alvarez, rumored to be the leading contender to replace Coe.

If appointed, Alvarez, a Republican, said he will run for the seat in November.

Mark Ober, former prosecutor and Republican who was already in the race, has suspended campaign activities for a few days.

"I was totally devastated by the news," Ober said.

Both Ober and fellow Republican Bill Jennings plan to continue to run for the job.

Hillsborough Republican Party chairman Margie Kincaid was getting calls about Coe's position soon after the news broke.

"It seemed to me his body wasn't even cold before they were climbing over him to get to his office," she said. "People need to relax and wait a while."

Coe had been a lifelong Democrat. Hillsborough Democratic Party chairman Mike Scionti said the party will rally around one candidate.

"I am not looking for a primary battle," Scionti said. "Harry would not have wanted that."

Gov. Jeb Bush's spokesman Justin Sayfie said the governor does not plan to name Coe's replacement this weekend, even though Bush leaves for a trade mission in Brazil on Sunday. Bush will return to Florida late Thursday, a day before the deadline for candidates to qualify for the state attorney's race.

Bush can also ask a state attorney from a nearby county to act as a caretaker for Hillsborough County's state attorney's office until the November election.

At 3 p.m. Friday, the prosecutors, investigators, secretaries and staff who had worked for Coe gathered in an empty courtroom on the first floor, taping paper to cover the windows. Several staff members, unnerved by news cameras that met them at the courthouse doors when they arrived that morning, asked that the service be kept private.

There was a moment of silence, a few quiet words from Chalu, who had been Coe's chief assistant. People pinned black ribbons to their lapels.

In their midst, someone placed a vase bursting with red and white carnations. The vase was surrounded by cans of Diet Coke.

Coe's staff knew that joke, too. As he drifted down the hallways, Coe seemed to never be without a Diet Coke in his hand.

- Staff writer David Karp contributed to this report.