This Alycia Lane email story is just getting weirder. The FBI has seized the home computer of Lane’s former co-anchor at KYW Philadelphia, Larry Mendte, reports Philly.com, after Mendte allegedly used Lane’s ill-gotten password to access her Yahoo email account hundreds of times.
Lane of course was let go from the CBS O&O in January after a violent run-in with a New York City police officer, the latest in a string of odd incidents involving the anchor.
Mendte may have been tipping off the media about Lane’s travails–she’s suing the station for wrongful termination–with info he gleaned from her emails. That’s the peril of working alongside dozens of reporters, I guess.
Philly.com says Mendte has been on the bench as KYW looks into the incident.
With Mendte off the air, coanchor Susan Barnett was to anchor yesterday’s newscasts solo. CBS3 has appointed other staffers to make Mendte’s public appearances, including tomorrow’s UBS Motor Cars Under the Stars to benefit United Cerebral Palsy and Thursday’s all-day station telethon to benefit Alex’s Lemonade Stand, a cause that Mendte long championed. Mendte resigned from the chapter’s board last week.
The work relationship between Mendte and Lane was initially chummy, say co-workers, but then soured as both emerged as rising stars in Philly television.
