Near end, Coe wrote to fire aide

The longtime employee says she did not know of the letter to Tallahassee; a copy was left on his desk. It does not give any cause.

By DAVID KARP, SUE CARLTON and GRAHAM BRINK

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 19, 2000

RELATED: Thousands turn out in remembrance of Coe WEEKLY POLL: Does the local media deserve blame for the suicide of Hillsborough State Attorney Harry Lee Coe? Vote

TAMPA -- As hundreds of people gather today to mourn the death of Hillsborough State Attorney Harry Lee Coe III, details have emerged about what may have been his final, official act before his suicide.

On the desk of his fifth-floor office, Coe left a sheet of paper before walking out the door one last time. It was a copy of a letter Coe had prepared days earlier. Formally, in a single line, it said he was firing his human resources director, Deanna Easterling, one of two employees who had loaned him money last year. It was signed in his distinctive scrawl and dated, in his handwriting, July 12, 2000.

Hours later, he killed himself.

Easterling had been a friend and employee for more than 30 years, once as close to him as family. But they hadn't spoken in months, not since Coe refused to support Easterling's daughter in her campaign for a Hillsborough County Commission seat.

The final week of Coe's life had exploded with news reports about the $5,000 he borrowed from Easterling and $7,000 borrowed from another employee. News of the loans had renewed talk of a gambling addiction and prompted Gov. Jeb Bush to order an inquiry.

The original letter to make Easterling's termination official was mailed to Tallahassee last week, in the last days of Coe's life. It was winding its way through the mail even as Coe walked across a grassy lot with a gun and sat down to die.

Easterling

The letter arrived in the state capital a day after his body was discovered.

Easterling seemed baffled by the letter, which she learned about Tuesday.

"What am I being fired for?" she said. "I don't have the slightest idea. You fire a person face to face. You don't tell Tallahassee."

She said Coe may have decided to fire her in a moment when he wasn't thinking clearly.

"It goes back to state of mind," she said. "He probably wasn't feeling good that day."

As a judge and later state attorney, Coe had been through investigations and allegations before, and always emerged unscathed. That left his colleagues wondering why Coe would take his life after a story about loans that appear to have been legal, unless there was something more to the story.

"I know nothing. I swear I know nothing," Easterling said Tuesday. "If Harry had any skeletons in his closet, you have to ask Harry."

Easterling said she had not leaked news about her $5,000 loan to WFLA-Ch. 8 reporter Steve Andrews, who broke the story last week.

"No matter what, I would never go to anyone and ask them to investigate Harry Lee Coe," Easterling said.

Coe, a 68-year-old former judge known as Hangin' Harry, will be remembered today as hundreds of mourners gather for a memorial service at Living Water Church in Tampa beginning at 10 a.m. A full honor guard with officers from the county's law enforcement agencies will accompany a procession to St. John's Episcopal Church, where Coe was a parishioner.

Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney Bernie McCabe has been appointed by Gov. Jeb Bush to look into the circumstances of Coe's death, including the $12,000 Coe borrowed from Easterling and the other employee.

Easterling said she gave the loan without question more than a year ago because of their long-standing relationship. But in recent months, trouble between Coe and Easterling was becoming well-known in the office.

It began when Easterling's daughter, Stacey, 30, a prosecutor in Coe's office, decided to run against county Commissioner Ben Wacksman, Coe's political ally and a fellow Democrat.

At first, Coe supported Stacey's bid for public office -- until he learned she would run as a Republican. Coe told Deanna Easterling that wasn't a good idea, she said.

"I got a little upset about it," she said.

Coe wanted Easterling, his longtime judicial secretary, to run his campaign. But she declined, wanting instead to work on her daughter's race.

Coe and Easterling's relationship soured further after Coe praised Wacksman at a political fundraiser in April. Easterling considered the speech an endorsement.

Last week, Coe walked into Easterling's office to speak to her for the first time in months. It was just after the first stories about the loans had appeared in newspapers.

"He just shook my hand and said, 'Thank you,' " Easterling remembered. "It was a nice thank you. Like everything was okay."

Easterling told him, "You're welcome." Then Coe left. Easterling said later that she considered the conversation a sign they had patched their differences.

But sometime in those days preceding his death, Coe also had the termination letter typed by an administrator who worked for Easterling. He apparently asked that the letter be kept confidential.

"This is something, evidently, he was playing very close to the vest," said Jim Strickland, the office's executive director.

There was nothing in Easterling's personnel file to suggest Coe was unhappy with her work.

On the day his body was discovered, Tampa police officers who went through Coe's office found the Easterling letter on his desk.

The letter was addressed to Frank Farrell, executive director of the Justice Administrative Commission in Tallahassee and reads "I hereby authorize the termination of Deanna Easterling effective immediately." The original was received there in the mail Friday.

That office handles administrative services for state attorneys, public defenders and lawyers who represent death row inmates.

Wayne Chalu, Coe's chief assistant who is now the interim state attorney, said the question of whether Easterling has been fired should be handled by the person Bush appoints. He declined to elaborate on the relationship between Coe and Easterling or say whether anything else was found in Coe's office.

"This is hard for us," Chalu said. "It's just a tough time for all of us."

Easterling questioned whether Coe could properly fire her without giving a reason for her dismissal. Easterling, 58, said she will attend today's memorial service, take a few days off, and then return to work until her planned retirement in October.

"I am not fired as far as I am concerned," she said.

Meanwhile, Bush is expected to name a replacement for Coe this week.

A Bush spokesman said the governor is looking at a range of possibilities. No decision will be made before Bush returns from Brazil on Thursday.

The governor had received several suggestions that Hillsborough Chief Judge F. Dennis Alvarez be appointed, and would have considered him, but got a letter from Alvarez on Tuesday removing himself from consideration.

Alvarez's announcement leaves a field of three -- Republicans Mark Ober and Bill Jennings and Democrat Jonathan Alpert -- and a lot of speculation.

On the Democratic side several names keep coming up, including Assistant State Attorney Paul Duval Johnson, former prosecutor Leland Baldwin and Tampa lawyer Robert Shimberg, who have said they will wait until after the funeral to make a final decision.

And Hillsborough Democratic Party Chairman Mike Scionti has heard that at least one more Republican will jump into the race, perhaps past candidates Mike Kavouklis or John Moser, who both said Tuesday that they had not made a decision.

"The race has gone from quiet to crazy," Scionti said.

- Times staff writer Lucy Morgan contributed to this report.

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