By Michael Eng | Managing Editor
Dressed in a red prison jumpsuit with the word, “INMATE,” printed on his chest, Dr. James L. Pepe, the Bloomingdale High School teacher accused of attempting to hire a hit man to murder Strawberry Crest High School teacher Robert Meredith, stood handcuffed Sept. 29, as Hillsborough Circuit Judge Walter Heinrich and the rest of the courtroom listened to a recorded phone conversation.
Prosecutors say the recording, laced with expletives, depicts Pepe’s conversation with a friend, who alerted police of Pepe’s plans, prosecutors said.
“What do you want done with Bob Meredith?” the friend asks.
“I want him killed,” the man prosecutors say is Pepe responds.
The story grabbed national headlines last week after the Plant City Police Department, with the help of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, arrested Pepe Sept. 27, and charged him with solicitation of first-degree murder.
The arrest shocked those who knew Pepe as an inspiring educator with 28 years of experience in Hillsborough County. For others, it seemed like the logical end to more than a decade of problems.
BACKGROUND
Pepe’s employment history with Hillsborough County Public Schools reveals a teacher on the rise followed by several years of tumult. After completing his teaching internship at Bennett High School in May 1980, in Buffalo, N.Y., Pepe earned a history education degree from the University of Buffalo in January 1983. He also earned a master’s degree in educational leadership from the University of South Florida and a doctoral degree from the University of Southern Mississippi.
He moved to Florida and entered the Hillsborough district as a social studies teacher at Brandon High School in 1984-85. He then taught social studies, history and psychology from 1985 to 2001, at Tampa Bay Technical High School.
During those first 15 school years, Pepe received high marks on annual evaluations. However, on his January 2001 evaluation, he received “Needs Improvement” marks for adhering to state, district and school policies, working with school staff, and demonstrating logical thinking and making practical decisions.
Just seven months later, Pepe’s behavior at a district-wide training session forced him out of the classroom for an entire year.
PROBLEMS BEGIN
Pepe was placed on administrative leave from November 2001 to June 2002 following an incident at a training session in August 2001.
District General Director of Professional Standards Linda Kipley, in a letter to Pepe, characterized his behavior at the training session as “aggressive” and “uncomfortable.”
“Your comments during and following this most recent incident show a significant escalation of a similar 10-year history of alleging, without substantiation, that you have been mistreated or maligned by persons in authority,” Kipley wrote.
Although former Superintendent Earl Lennard recommended Pepe be fired for his behavior, the district elected to send him to anger-management classes.
The next school year, he was back teaching at Gaither High.
IN PLANT CITY
Pepe began teaching at Durant High in 2006 and received a perfect evaluation from Principal Pamela Bowden following his first two years. However, low remarks from Bowden following the 2008-09 school year sparked Pepe to file a six-page response, in which he accused Bowden of favoritism, placing difficult students in his classes and even deliberately cutting off the air-conditioning to his classroom. He also noted Dee Justice, a fellow teacher, was trying to take Pepe’s position, and after he alerted Bowden of the situation, she scheduled Pepe to co-teach two classes with the teacher.
“Naturally, I refused to teach with Ms. Justice,” Pepe wrote. “I think this, more than any other fact, indicates the overt hostility and sabotage displayed by Ms. Bowden in her evaluation …”
Following the 2008-09 school year, Pepe transferred to Strawberry Crest, where he met Meredith. Following that year, Strawberry Crest Principal David Brown gave Pepe a perfect evaluation.
However, in the 2009-10 school year, under new evaluation procedures — which considered both principal and peer feedback — Pepe scored 49 out of a possible 100. In particular, the evaluation from the peer was particularly harsh.
Pepe responded to the evaluation by stating: “I have been harassed and slandered by some of my colleagues in the (social studies) department.”
Meredith was not Pepe’s evaluator, Cobbe said.
For this school year, Pepe was transferred to Bloomingdale High.
STUDENT FEEDBACK
Anthony Hall, a 2011 graduate of Durant High School, characterized Pepe differently.
“Dr. Pepe was a great guy — albeit a tad unconventional,” he said. “I had him for Holocaust, and we always got along well. After I had finished his class, I would sometimes go to his room during lunch, and we’d chat about life and politics. This entire thing has been a tragedy, and while in no way do I approve of what he was allegedly doing, I still wish him the best.”
Since Pepe’s arrest, Bloomingdale High student Hailey Hernandez said she’s heard varying opinions on the teacher.
“I did hear good and bad things about him,” she said. “Some like, ‘Oh, he’s such a nice teacher,’ to, ‘He harasses his students and curses them out.”
Pepe has been placed on paid administrative leave. He made $58,378 last year. If convicted, Pepe faces up to 30 years in prison.
Contact Michael Eng at meng@plantcityobserver.com.
INVESTIGATION
Last week’s arrest was the culmination of nearly two months of investigative work.
According to police reports, Dr. James Pepe contacted a friend he had known for more than 40 years and asked him to kill Strawberry Crest teacher Robert Meredith.
The friend, who lives in Georgia, contacted police detectives Aug. 8. The friend told detectives Pepe said he was angry because Meredith was spreading rumors that he was a child molester.
The friend was afraid Pepe was serious about his plans.
Plant City detectives, with the assistance of the witness and the FBI, initiated several telephone calls with the suspect. During a call on Sept. 13, Pepe told an undercover officer that he “had an issue he might need taken care of,” and he was willing to pay $2,000. That call was followed by a second telephone conversation in which the undercover officer attempted to arrange a meeting with the suspect. The suspect declined to meet but stated he still wanted the victim murdered.
Detectives and FBI officials carried out Pepe’s arrest at Bloomingdale High without incident.
Aside from Pepe’s claim of the rumors, Plant City Police Public Information Officer Tray Towles said there hasn’t been any clear reasoning behind Pepe’s intentions.
“There is nothing at this time to indicate the reason behind Pepe’s fixation with Meredith,” he said. “They did work together at Strawberry Crest, but it was nothing more than a professional relationship. Right now, we really don’t know what happened to spark all of this. We hope, as the investigation continues, to uncover that information.”
Towles said the department took precautions to protect Meredith during the investigation.
“Our detectives alerted Meredith to the situation as soon as they were made aware of it,” he said.
Because Meredith has claimed an exemption under the Public Records Act, Hillsborough County Public Schools External Communications Manager Linda Cobbe could not confirm whether he still teaches at Strawberry Crest. However, the school’s website lists him as a member of the 2012-13 staff as a social studies teacher.