Mendte says he had 'flirtatious' relationship with Alycia Lane

DURING HIS 30-year television career, Larry Mendte proved time and again that he knew how to tell a good story.

A few hours after he pleaded guilty in federal court yesterday to illegally accessing the computer of his former co-anchor, Alycia Lane, Mendte told another gem.

"This whole episode started five years ago when Alycia Lane came to Philadelphia," Mendte said as he stood before a room full of reporters and photographers at his lawyer's Center City office.

Almost immediately after Lane started at CBS3, Mendte said rumors spread that he and Lane "were a little too close."

"The rumors were true," he continued. "Alycia and I had a flirtatious, unprofessional and improper relationship."

In just two sentences, Mendte, 51, added an unthinkable angle to a story that already had more twists and turns that a Hollywood pot-boiler.

Mendte said his wife, Fox 29 anchor Dawn Stensland, found out about the relationship when she found e-mails between him and Lane in his office on New Year's Day 2005.

"I told her the truth. I told her I loved her, and I apologized. I then immediately stopped having long dinners with Alycia, staying out late with Alycia, and I stopped allowing her to come into my office to do her makeup everyday."

Lane's attorney, Paul Rosen, flatly denied that she and Mendte had any sort of improper relationship.

"There has never been an affair," Rosen said. "I can tell you point blank that if he in any way goes forward with this, that in addition to being sued for the invasion of privacy, I will go after him for defamation."

But according to Mendte, the end of his flirtatious relationship with Lane marked the start of a nasty feud.

Mendte claimed he found proof that Lane was undermining him with CBS3's general manager when he spotted an e-mail on her computer screen.

That stolen glance was the first of many.

In court, Mendte admitted he illegally hacked into two of Lane's personal e-mail accounts more than 500 times between Jan. 1 and May 28, although prosecutors said in a court filing yesterday the hacking began as far back as March 2006, a month before Lane was awarded a new contract at CBS3.

Sentencing was set for Nov. 24. Mendte could face from zero to six months behind bars under sentencing guidelines.

During his news conference, Mendte said he believed "my career, my future, my family's future was in trouble" - which is why he admitted to using a computer program called "keykatcher" to help him gain access to Lane's e-mail accounts.

Mendte apologized to his family and Lane during his remarks. "I ask that this long, mutually self-destructive feud now end. We have both paid a high cost."

In a moment of perhaps unintended irony, Mendte offered to speak to colleges and corporations about the Internet.

Rosen said Mendte's news conference was "his attempt to manipulate the press, once more, to hurt Alycia Lane."

In addition to leaking details of her e-mails, the government's plea memorandum also revealed that Mendte tried to sabotage Lane's negotiations with the Manhattan DA's office over Lane's December confrontation with a New York cop.

Lane was involved in a widely reported late-night incident with an undercover New York policewoman whom Lane allegedly cursed.

The plea memorandum said Mendte tried to interfere with Lane's negotiations to legally dispose of the matter through a procedure that wouldn't include an admission of guilt.

The procedure required Lane to do community service. Lane expressed concern in e-mails to her lawyers that if she accepted community service, it would be an implicit admission of guilt, and offered to voluntarily do community service.

A few days later, on Feb. 1, the Manhattan DA's office received an anonymous letter about Lane, which Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Levy said yesterday was written by Mendte.

The letter read, in part: "Do not fall for the claim she does community service work all the time. She only goes when the station forces her, or when she knows that she is going to be on TV."

"We were appalled to learn that, but it only points out the extent to which [Mendte] would go to destroy her life," Rosen said.

Rosen noted the New York matter will be dismissed on Monday.

Prosecutors said Mendte also was the source of numerous stories that appeared about Lane and her lawsuits in the Daily News and in Phillygossip.com, a blog written by Dan Gross.

Asked if Mendte was his source, Gross said: "I have my sources and don't discuss who they are."

Mendte contended during his news conference that he was not the only source of information for news stories that appeared about Lane.

Mendte was accompanied to court by his wife and other family members.

Stensland said after the hearing: "I love my husband, he's a good man."

Lane has filed a defamation lawsuit against CBS3, and Rosen said no decision had been made about whether to sue any other news organizations or Mendte himself.

Many of the e-mails that Mendte leaked concerned confidential attorney-client communications.

"The criminal felony invasion of her privacy and publishing her attorney-client privilege is a very serious matter," Rosen said.

Lane also plans to file a $5 million lawsuit against the New York police department for wrongful arrest.

Rosen said he believed Mendte hacked into Lane's e-mail accounts and leaked information to reporters because he was jealous [Lane] was receiving more public attention and higher ratings than Mendte.

Mendte was fired from CBS3 on June 23, a little more than five months after he announced on the air on Jan. 7 that Lane had been relieved of her duties.

Mendte and Lane had co-anchored the 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. news on CBS3 from September 2003 until Lane was dismissed. *