Mayor's Disappearance Tied to Scoop About False Claim?

By: Joe Strupp Did The Press of Atlantic City, N.J., help drive Mayor Bob Levy into hiding? The mayor, whose falsified claim that he was a Green Beret in Vietnam was exposed by the paper last year, has been essentially missing since Friday. Some wonder if that story, which has not been disputed, sent him on the road to troubled times.

Levy's office reported Friday that he had taken a medical leave, his third this year, but did not disclose why or where he went. Many in the casino capital of the east point to his odd behavior ever since the Press revealed that he had lied on campaign literature about being in the special forces unit during his Army career.

Now in this city known for its share of political corruption, including a recent city council bribery scandal, a politician lying on his resume might not be considered the spark for a political meltdown.

But ever since the paper revealed Levy's lie, reporters say he has slowly withdrawn from political life and remained unreachable by journalists.

"The mayor has been unable to get a hold of for most of the last year," said Press Editor Paul Merkoski. "He would show up at some public functions and dash out."

Since the paper disclosed his falsified military claim, a recall campaign has started and an investigation launched by the Department of Veterans Affairs to see if Levy improperly used the claim to gain benefits.

"Since he was elected, the city has essentially been run by the business administrator and that hasn't changed," said reporter Derek Harper, a six-year Press veteran who broke the original story. "He's a nice guy who just got in over his head."

Harper's part in Levy's downfall began two years ago when Levy, a former emergency management coordinator for the city, ran for mayor and won. Harper covered his campaign in which Levy claimed in literature that he had served as a Green Beret in Vietnam.

In 2006, months after his election, a veterans group in nearby Egg Harbor contacted Levy in an attempt to have him speak to the group that included other special forces veterans, Harper said. When Levy repeatedly declined, the group's leader said he became suspicious and approached Harper, whom he knew from earlier stories.

"He asked around in this group for people who were in special forces and they had no member who knew," Harper recalled, noting he tried to set up a meeting with Levy to discuss it for weeks.

"From there, it was a kind of a weird situation," Harper said. "He would not call me back." Finally, during a September 2006 meeting, Harper asked Levy directly about his Green Beret service and he said the mayor declined to answer. "He said 'let all of the detectives waste their time'," Harper recalls.

That sent Harper on a document search through online resources and, eventually, a request to the Department of Veterans Affairs that resulted in no record of Levy having been in the special forces unit. When Harper called the mayor for comment, he says his office faxed a letter threatening a lawsuit if such a story were published.

Finally, in November, Levy met with the paper and admitted that he had lied about his Green Beret service. The paper, most appropriately, published a lengthy story on Veteran's Day, Nov. 11, 2006.

"We held off until we talked to him, maybe two weeks," Editor Merkoski recalls. "He would not talk about it. We finally got him and he admitted it."

Both Merkoski and Harper said the initial reaction was tepid, given Atlantic City's corrupt history and the mild severity of the lie. But, as time went on, both said Levy's behavior became more withdrawn.

"He took a medical leave in December, then in June, but his office gave reasons for both," Harper said. "Then in January, the federal investigation started and they called asking me for records. I didn?t have anything to give."

Several months later, a recall petition was approved and began circulating, but has yet to be submitted.

But the final twist came last Friday when the mayor's office reported he was on another medical leave, but did not disclose his whereabouts or the reasons. Council members are trying to find a way to have Levy removed or replaced, Merkoski said.

Numerous news outlets, such as the Philadelphia Inquirer and The Star-Ledger of Newark, have cited the Press revelation in stories this week on Levy's disappearance.

For the newspaper, coverage has been walking a tightrope, Merkoski said. The paper is aggressively reporting, but realizing the impact its coverage has had.

"There might be a point now where you have to be a little sensitive," Merkoski said. "We have cartoons we have held back, like him on a milk carton missing, because we don't know where he is or what his condition is."

The editor adds that the paper realized early on it would affect the mayor's future with the revelation, but deemed it important. "We wrestled with it, but we kept going after it because there was a possible story," he said. "It is an unsettling feeling having a reporter pursue something in which [the mayor] lied about his military career."

As for Harper, he approaches it like a reporter needing to reveal the truth: "I felt that I've done my job and this is something that was going to get exposed one way or another."