Entire Homestead City Council Sued for Leaking Sexts

Johanna Faddis

​In 2009, the Homestead City Council wanted to fire City Manager Mike Shehadeh, but Shehadeh wouldn't leave without a good severance package. So the council, being as it is a Miami-Dade government body, decided to hire a private investigator. Shehedah, being as he is a Miami-Dade government official, of course had skeletons in his closet, including a habit of sending numerous sexts on his city-provided BlackBerry. Those sexts were leaked to the press, and now one of the objects of Shehedah's sexting binges is suing.

Johanna Faddis served as deputy city manager under Shehadah, but it seems Shehadah wanted Faddis actually under him. He sent her messages like this one:

"I have a problem! I cannot entertain another woman in my mind beside you. I am deeply in love with you girl. I am getting deeper and deeper into it."

And Shehadah was found to be visiting dominatrix sites during work. The head of the city's parks department, Robert Landen, was also found to be sending explicit sexts and sending racist jokes in the same scandal.

Those messages where then leaked to several members of the South Florida media.

Obviously, Shehadah got shown the door, but so did Faddis. The reasons given: "reduction in force." She's none too happy that the city council leaked the embarrassing messages to the press. Faddis is now suing and claims negligence, invasion of privacy, and defamation.

Named in the suit: the City of Homestead, the entire city council, Vice Mayor Judy Waldman, and the private investigation firm that turned up the messages.

"In the city's overzealous effort to bring down Mike Shehadeh, it failed to protect one of its own from collateral damage," Faddis's attorney, Kelsay Patterson, said in a statement. "Johanna Faddis never responded to Shehadeh's advances, but instead of viewing this as a potential case of sexual harassment against a married city employee, the city and council chose the sensational route and cast her as a participant in an adulterous relationship. Faddis has been irreparably harmed."

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