Democrat Fund-Raiser, Partner Found Dead
DAVIE, Fla. (AP) - A prominent Democratic fund-raiser and his business partner found dead inside their banquet hall had been arguing over the firing of the partner's wife, police said.
Officers said Jerome Berlin, 60, was shot twice by Michael Pecora, 51, who then turned the gun on himself. The men were found Tuesday inside a locked office.
No motive for the shootings has been confirmed, but police said Berlin had fired Pecora's wife, Arlene, from her job as catering director at the Signature Grand banquet hall on Monday night. The men had been arguing since the firing, police said.
An employee reported overhearing an argument, then three gunshots in the office about 11:15 a.m. Tuesday. At the same time, about 800 eighth-graders from Broward schools were attending an African Heritage Forum on the banquet hall's first floor. The children were not told of the shootings.
``I can't believe Michael would do something like this,'' Alex Alba, a subcontractor with Signature Grand who knew the men for 14 years. ``He was so low-key, soft-spoken.''
Berlin, a Miami businessman, served as national finance chairman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in the late 1980s. He also helped raise millions of dollars for political candidates, including Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, and Tom Daschle of South Dakota, according to Federal Election Commission records.
In 1991, he was acquitted of federal charges that he and another lawyer conspired to defraud a securities investment firm in 1985.
Pecora and Berlin opened the Signature Grand in 1995. The 100,000-square-foot banquet hall is the largest in South Florida.
04/30/03 09:34
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