 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Mendte, an advocate for Irish causes, "wanted to tell me that something bad was going to come out," Bradley said. "He wanted to apologize 'if my name is going to bring shame to you and the organization.' "
Mendte made similar calls that Thursday to the Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation and other charities he has worked with.
That was the day FBI agents showed up at the Chestnut Hill home that Mendte, 51, shares with his wife, Fox29 anchor Dawn Stensland, to seize his computer. The FBI was investigating allegations that, for about two years, Mendte had snooped on the e-mails of his onetime coanchor, Alycia Lane, and fed gossip about her to the media.
"I told him I didn't accept the apology because it wasn't necessary," Bradley said, recalling "what tremendous character that showed."
Mendte was fired June 23 after CBS3 found a keystroke-capture program - which records typed information, including passwords - on a computer at the station. The FBI has been analyzing both computers. Under federal law, it is illegal to read another person's e-mail without permission, though people are rarely sent to prison for the crime.
Many have tried to reconcile the allegations with Mendte's persona as an aggressive journalist, a champion of charitable causes, and a workaholic who was arguably the most visible news anchor in Philadelphia.
To others, particularly those who worked with him, Mendte was territorial and obsessed with Emmy awards and "face time," routinely "big-footing" colleagues from high-profile stories. In a defamation lawsuit against CBS, Lane alleges that Mendte was "obsessively jealous" of her success.
When Lane was offered a contract with a salary greater than his, Mendte considered her popularity a "threat to his position," contends the suit, which does not name Mendte as a defendant. (Lane and Mendte were thought to have made $700,000 to $900,000 a year.)
Lane was fired Jan. 1 after landing in the gossip pages for several incidents, capped by her December arrest on charges of hitting a New York City police officer. The charges were reduced and are to be dropped next month if she has no further involvement with authorities.
Mendte's attorney, Michael A. Schwartz, said Mendte would not be interviewed for this article. Schwartz has said he and Mendte "continue to work with the federal authorities and hope to reach a prompt resolution of this matter. I fully expect Larry to be able to continue with his broadcasting career."
Giselle Fernandez, who was paired with Mendte in 1996 as the first hosts of the Burbank, Calif.-based syndicated show Access Hollywood, said in an interview that she was "not surprised he is in this situation." While calling Mendte "a good reporter," she found him "very difficult and disingenuous to work with."
"There's some competitive way about him that gets the best of him," she said, adding that "to me, there was always a frightening duality about him. He was great to my face and manipulative and destructive behind my back. I found him very hurtful. He did send me a letter when he left, apologizing to me. That was the Jekyll side of him apologizing for Mr. Hyde."
Schwartz said Mendte had worked with Fernandez "for only a short period of time, almost 12 years ago. Larry respects Giselle's work and is disappointed and surprised by her comments, which have nothing to do with the pending federal investigation."
As a youngster, Mendte has told interviewers, he had little confidence and was picked on at St. Philomena School. He later helped raise money for St. Phil's, said Suzanne Hall, who heads the alumni association.
Mendte has said that as a boy he enjoyed getting lost and having his name mentioned over the loudspeaker. The best place, he told the Philadelphia Daily News, was the boardwalk in Ocean City, N.J., because you also got ice cream.
After attending West Chester State College, Mendte worked in radio and broke into TV in 1980 at a small station in Eureka, Calif.
After a string of reporting jobs, he won a weekend anchoring job in 1984 at New York's WABC. He quit two years later to become a weathercaster in San Diego. He also did stand-up comedy in Los Angeles.
In 1991, he landed in Chicago as a reporter/anchor at WBBM, where he met Stensland when she joined the station as a reporter. She followed him to Philadelphia in 1997. They married in 2000 and have two sons, 4 years old and 22 months old. Mendte also has a son and daughter from his first marriage.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Fr
Dec 5
|
Sa
Dec 6 |
Su
Dec 7 |
Mo
Dec 8 |
Tu
Dec 9 |
SPORTS
OBITUARIES
Green
today's poll
email this
print this
reprint or license this
